I think a lot of potential buyers are missing the fact that the new Technics turntables are re-designed from the ground up. They also benefit from advanced production methods and better quality control. If you don't read the fine print, it is understandable you may think the new turntables are just re-hashes of the old ones (which were actually quite good at the time - I had one that I used with my Dynaco tube equipment and horn-loaded speakers back in the day). Panasonic made a marketing decision to keep the turntables looking the same. This works great in Japan (maybe a larger hi-fi market than the U.S.), who are naturally quite proud of their "Made in Japan" products, just as many U.S. audiophiles enjoy "Made in the U.S.A." provenance. I will admit some prejudice when I looked at the new SL1200 G turntables, but was quickly convinced when I compared them to other offerings in the same price range.
Note: my prejudice was more about the "DJ" looks than where it was made – I am a globalist with speakers made in England, U.S. made amps, German wires and a Japanese turntable and cartridges.
There is a German firm ( The Link can be found on; " Outer ring- who uses and what are your findings" post by melm on 07-15-2018. )
I am going to pass on using an outer ring; Too futzy for me.
As I just posted to bluewolf; I am going to focus on Flat and Relaxed records next.
As "Ralph" has pointed out, the Triplanar bearings are in the plain of the record.I have a few used records that have long warps or a sudden edge warp. The Triplanar has been handling these with ease. I do have (1) record that has a sharp edge warp that does get a jump in the first couple of grooves out of the Triplanar, but that is it. I have been fussy about my records from the beginning. But even average flat records do have small undulations. Every tonearm must deal with these. I think making the tone arm cartridge combo work even less, even at the micro scale, gets us better SQ.
Flat records will have the best contact with the mat from the start. A mat and weight should effectively deal with groove resonances and give firm contact with the mat. Just my opinion.
I heard the speed control of the Technics within minutes; at Axpona 2016. I knew that I wanted this TT. The stock arm is good, but the Triplanar just brings the rig to a new level. I agree, piano is fantastic, bass is deeply defined and textured, images and spatial information are solid and layered.
I always had very good results with Technics Tables. I have owned several. Even the low end SL-D2 $120.)worked well. I would be curious to see how one sounds with a Higher end Cartridge.
Do you still have your AFI Flat? Do you still use it and like the results of the Relax function?
Rather than an outer ring; which being futzy to deal with, I have been looking at the AFI Flat again. A new improved model is due out soon.
No doubt in my mind that Flat records play and sound better. It is the Relax Function that I am most interested in. If you still have it and use it regularly; you have a lot of time and experience with it .
Would be very interested in your review / commentary on it.
With the title and put-down framing of its question, this to me is a provocative post especially given that this Analog forum has plenty of recent posts on the very good SQ and value proposition of a number of Technics turntables old and new. The OP would just have to scroll down a little to find them let alone use the simple search function. So I can only guess at the motives of the OP and on the circumstantial evidence they do not look positive.
I have never owned a Technics table but I have recently started reading threads here on Audiogon and I find them really refreshing, enjoyable & informative. People are passionate and talking about SQ and the great value proposition of these tables. And thanks to @audiofun on the "Upcoming Technics SP-10R" thread I learnt about SMPS and their detrimental effects on my hi-fi sound.
I can think of nothing better than products like some of the Technics tables appear to be that outperform tables at multiple prices, and all this with a household name Technics. I am a confessed reverse snob. When I am asked about my rig I do enjoy answering to those snobs that are in this hobby that I have Pioneer speakers and seeing quite a few people look down their noses at me. I am yet to hear any speaker that I would prefer to my Pioneer Exclusive 2404's. I was in a meeting a number of years ago with a "high-powered" NY banker who kept on staring at my tourbillon watch throughout the whole meeting. I ran into him after and he asked me what brand it was. It was with great delight that I told him that it was a stainless Seagull made by a master watchmaker in China and that it cost me US$3k new. He looked away in disgust having expected it to be a US$40k Swiss brand.
And for someone like me who has been in this hobby for decades and seen the death and rebirth of vinyl, and who has never been able to approach the overall SQ of my vinyl rig with digital, it is great to see Technics come back into the market with some well designed and priced gear and to know that this means that there are kids coming into this wonderful hobby that are appreciating SQ over convenience.
Technics tables got me back into vinyl and audio. I imagine I am not the only one.
A friend gave me an SL-220 about 6 years ago. I used it for a couple of years, and with a new belt, some dollar store plasticine inside, and a decent Grado 8MZ stylus on it, it sounded quite decent into a thrift store NAD 3020.
I will always have nice feelings when I see the Technics name, because of this. I still have a relatively modest system (Thorens TD160 with a Benz Micro Wood SL and Benz PP1 preamp) but to me it is cherished and sounds exquisite.
I own a 1600MK2, and vastly prefer it to any of the more expensive "audiophile" turntables I have previously owned. For whatever reason, the Technics SL** decks have a reputation in the "serious" home audio community of being low quality DJ fodder, whereas the reality is that, especially when modded with better suspending feet and a silicone arm damper trough, they sound fabulous and very audiophile, if you will. Direct drive gives you a real leg up compared with belt drive in terms of accuracy, particularly when you have a quartz motor. I have zero ambition to change decks at any time. And trust me I am very fussy and have a far more costly amp and speakers.
Always remember that the 1200 was developed as a hifi deck. It so transpired that DJs seized on the feature set.
I am using a ring that I made myself, following the example of a discontinued model. It is a constrained layer damped ring consisting of two .080" thick stainless steel layers that sandwich a .125" acrylic layer, all bonded using a more ductile cyanoacrylate glue (Loctite 480). I had the ring CNC machined from large squares that I bonded together. It is "one of a kind", to be sure, but it seems to work very well. It would be fun to compare it directly to the same ring sizing made simply from stainless steel alone (I will probably try this at some point), just to see if the damping addition matters much, because it does increase the hassle and expense of making one to add such layers.
I am using a Stillpoints Ultra 5 LP Isolator as my center weight, and my mat is a 5.5mm acrylic mat that sits on top of a 1.5mm foam silicone rubber for damping and adhesion to the platter surface. I really like the total combined affect, with the ring making the final adjustment that brought it all home. It seems that the ring just ensures that the LP surface is in nice contact with the mat so the mat can do its job of draining the energy from the needle's vibrations.
Placing a ring is futsy, no question; and you need a spot to store it safely between plays. My ring is not perfectly balanced, as its overall thickness varies by a range of .005" around the circle; but the direct drive of the Technics does not care one wit - - power to spare, by far, and the servo correction makes it steady, regardless, it seems. I hear tonal purity and sustain on piano and organ notes that I have never before heard on vinyl.
I thought that someone had a 1200G modded with a 12" Triplanar. Happy for both of us. It is a SOTA rig. I settled on a Oracle hard acrylic mat and a HRS 315 gram record weight. I have been leery of using an outer ring. Would you share what you are using? Is it easy to use? I was diagnoised with an incurable disease in Sept 2017. Makes little tasks, seem almost insurmountable at times. Is it worth the extra effort? I could possibly use it on my "better" days.
I’ve been using a stock SL-1600 MK2 for over 30 years. I bought it while stationed in Germany back in the early 80's. I've considered upgrading the arm and cart, but lately, I've been doing more streaming than playing vinyl. While I love the sound of vinyl, streaming from Tidal and Jazz Radio.com is a lot easier.
Yes, Ralph modded mine, too, for a Triplanar U12. I have worked out the mat issues, center weight, and peripheral ring - - now it sings so neutrally that it is just music from the tape, it seems to my ears.
Technics, like all other manufacturers in it’s time, made some tables for mass market. Unless you’re new to this hobby (or this planet), you should remember the famous SP10 series of tables. The new 1200 line has been well-reviewed, and universally praised. Sure, the old 1200 was a favorite of DJs but how do you think it got such a strong following?
P.S. Let's drop the political references and avoid the risk of driving more members from this site.
The premium Technics product certainly holds its own against many of the best in the business. I’ve just finished restoring a SL-1700mk2, which was the basis for the more simple SL-1200mk2 that everyone knows and some misguidedly despise. That despicability I believe, comes from association of the SL-1200mk2 with fake “DJ”s, who really aren’t using the turntables or the medium for quality. Real deejays are pretty much an extinct breed of music curators for music lovers. Not that FM radio is anything close to true HiFi, but the spirit is in the presentation.
Cleeds, The problem with the post is that it threw Technics as a brand under the bus inferring that Craigslist and DJs were unworthy. Audiophiles = snobbery? Since when?
Yeah, I have a problem with that and the OP should know better, or at least ask an enlightened or focused question, such as, how do you all feel about Technics tables? Are they worth considering compared to the competition from an analog enjoyment perspective?
But no, instead the brand is sent to the garbage dump. Recall, many lathes upon which laquers are cut are powered by Technics’ direct drive technology.
Happy
Technics 1200 and other series table owners, of which I am one, have
nothing to defend. This thread was started by a someone who simply
wanted to throw an unqualifed and inexperienced hot potato in the middle
of the room and then run like hell. Let’s not be vulnerable to such
nonsense and unqualified provocation.
It seemed like a legitimate post to me. After all, Technics has made many junk turntables through the years and, as another contributor noted, so did many of the other major turntable and electronics manufacturers.
Happy Technics 1200 and other series table owners, of which I am one, have nothing to defend. This thread was started by a someone who simply wanted to throw an unqualifed and inexperienced hot potato in the middle of the room and then run like hell. Let’s not be vulnerable to such nonsense and unqualified provocation.
No amount of education and good will changes the minds of such provocateurs.
To expand on creeds' comment, there were lots of "junk" tables produced by many Japanese manufacturers, Technics was not unique in that. The reason? Large companies (relatively) produced a wide range of products to appeal to the full spectrum of the market. That meant lots of quality compromises at the lower price points. But Technics, Denon, Kenwood, Sony, JVC, etc. all produced quality tables for the upper portion of their price range, in addition to many cheap lightweight models.
Another point regards the reputation of the SL1200 series as "DJ" tables. Those were designed and sold initially as consumer products. As it happened, some years later the DJ crowd discovered the very good build quality and durability in the modestly priced 1200s and adopted them as their standard instrument. That demand is what kept the 1200s in production long after their competitors gave up. So while the DJ label suggests a negative reputation to audiophiles and music lovers, it really speaks well for the quality of the units.
In fact I believe the discovery of the musical qualities of the SL1200s led the way to renewed interest in direct drive tables at least 15 years ago. Used ones were inexpensive and they responded to a few modest upgrades, thus an underground reputation began building which lead to reconsideration of several quality used DD tables.
As @cleeds said, to be fair, Technics did make a lot of cheap junk and it should be avoided. The old SL1200's were good, solid DJ tables that could perform pretty well as an audiophile table, especially if mod'd a bit.
The new/current SL1200G is a high end audiophile table that happens to look like the old DJ table. It's also $4000. There is the "trickle down" SL1200GR version for $1700 which also gets you a solid starter audiophile table.
Summary: Yes, there are a lot of old crap Technics tables out there on Craigslist, etc. There are also 2 new Technics tables that have receive a lot of praise at their given price points.
To be fair to the OP, Technics has made a lot of cheap turntables that were just awful. I can imagine that they do show up on Craig's List as they do at yard sales. They are worthless, and can't be compared to tables like the SP-10 except for the name badge.
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