Technics SL-1200MK2 Upgrades (Pictoral)

Who could possibly Hate a 1200??? An incredible engineering feet and even though it got lobbed over to the 'DJ' segment, it's an audiophile table through and through. And I bet you not ONE got out with 'loose bearings'. Night and day.......Technics and Classic Pioneer Forever!!
the brave

 

AMEN AMEN AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the brave
Hello Bother R.....

 

Well I have to respectfully disagree, first of all the 'inners' photo shows the circuit board dirty, blow that out with a good air shower and then compare THIS to the inners of the New Pioneer.......Heaven....and Hell.......
Wire Wrapped connections??????? C'mon. For it's time this is extremely well manufactured.
the brave

 

Don't "fix" what ain't broke

The SL-1200 is one of the finest platforms there's ever been, hands down, record speaks for itself (every table ever made has something about it with which you can find "flaw" and subsequently manufacture (and sell) an upgrade for)............in the long game, an SL-1200 is pretty hard to beat, period

I'm all for enhancing performance on any deck with things like dampning, lower capacitance cable, simplifying, improving or otherwise cleaning up circuits etc............but turning it into some sort of Frankenstein's monster? Why?

Maybe and arm change but that's it and I'd need a good reason for it (like mass matching) Someone stated it was no Rolls-Royce? No it's not, more like a Tiger II (the drive train and bearing) tank; re-cap the old ones and they'll go another 40 years without worries, turning 33 1/3 all the way

When I was in the first grade we had a reader that contained a story about a little boy who wanted to fix up his bicycle in order to raise funds to buy a new one...............to the point, after he was done, he decided he didn't need the new bike as the "fixed up" one was now better than what he had started with

These no holds barred turntable "mods" remind me of that story but sort of side ways reversed................if one is willing to spend all of that money (and some of these "mods" are ridiculous in price for questionable degrees of improvement at best) then why not just buy a table like the one you want? Gets even more out of hand when you're paying someone else to do them................

If any given table has so many things that need to be improved upon, then go with another table............better yet, build your own, then you have 100% control

I wish every day that someone would come out with a table at a relatively competitive price point, that could even come close to the level of performance, precision, fit and finish and quailty offered up by the SL-1200 or any number of other, high in the line, Japanese tables...........back from the day when Analog was the only game in town

Keep 'em stock and stock up on parts while you can still get them at pre-gouge pricing (although that's already well under way)

I know, I just bought some MK.II footers, now "NLA" at the price I paid just last June. Lucked up and found them through a Panasonic appliance dealer and not through someone fronting as a turntable specialty shop (means the price is 4x what I paid)

Grab those old Technics while you still can (any from the family direct "1200" cousins; the composite base models) Only one I'd avoid is the SL-1900 (unless it's MINT) That one has a lot of plastic to it and the arm suffers the cue problem frequently It is a decent deck but difficult to repair if anything breaks and has no provision for azimuth adjustment if needed

Technics SL-1200 in good condition is a hard turntable to beat at any price

 

Well said! Mine is stock and in mint condition and will stay that way.☺

 

No external PSU. Just the normal internal one. The power was off resp on with the needle resting on the record. It is of course not possible to say how much better than the stock PSU an external one would be from this, it might not be better at all.

 

Thanks! That looks a lot like tests I've run. One thing I've noticed is, with the power on but not spinning, is that hum and noise from the power supply will be higher with the stylus resting in the lead-out vs the lead-in groove. Either way, the noise floor is extremely low.

 

I will test lead-in and lead-out and see if I get a difference. Anyhow I see not the noise as any problem really. One thing I did with the bearing, I filled the whole well under the bearing with oil, at the time I thought it was rather good as the oil will dampen the bearing assembly. Unfortunately I don´t have any before/after measurements.

 

I don't disagree; because, I don't consider "upgrading" equivalent to "fixing". I've mentioned before that, on the adjacent rack, I have a stock 1200 next to my modded one (barring a KAB fluid damper).

Here are my observations (and forgive my trying to find words for certain things):

Mike New Audio bearing vs. stock: tapping on the spindle of the Mike New bearing assembly compared to the stock assembly noticeably yields a lower freq/duller sounding "thud" rather than the slightly "tinkier" sound of the stock bearing. Bearings in a 1200II are coupled directly to the non-suspended plinth. So, noise from the bearing transmits to the plinth to which the arm is also directly coupled. The less vibration, or of lower freq, the bearing transmits to the plinth, the less may appear at the arm/plinth. There's less "sound", less resonance going on with this bearing. In practice, listening to records played on the 1200 with the Mike New bearing, using exceedingly revealing planar cans, the background does indeed sound "blacker", as if the noise floor dropped. I don't have any measurements, unfortunately, to back this up. However, I would be stunned if scientific measurement didn't back up what my ear isn't hearing, if you know what I mean. It's almost like I could "fall into" the quiet passages of some music. Now, I never really noticed bearing noise with the stock unit; but, there is most definitely something missing, in a good way, with the Mike New bearing. I have no experience with other upgrade bearings. The Mike New bearing is a definite win to my ears and I have no plans on ever removing it from the 1200 it's currently installed in.

Trans-Fi T3 Pro Terminator air-bearing linear tracking arm vs. stock arm: The difference here is massive and that is an understatement. There is a lot to be said for matching tonearm to cartridge. I agree on that entirely. However, I find the T3 has a much wider range of cartridges that can be paired with it. I won't repeat a whole knowledge base here about that subject. Suffice to say, my SoundSmith ruby retipped cart Stanton Trackmaster has a low compliance especially for a Stanton; but, unlike the 1200, it was actually designed for DJ use. It almost works on the stock arm provided the KAB fluid damper is in place. It works like a charm and sings in the T3. High compliance Stanton 881s and 681EEE, with very careful setup, work just as well on the stock arm as in the T3. Reservations would be using the high compliance carts on very warped records in the T3, not because they couldn't handle it, but because of the warps causing unusually high side to side stresses on the cantilever suspension. Nevertheless, in no small part due to the tracking geometry, better wiring and tonearm resonance all my carts sound better in the T3, from Stanton to Audio Technica to Grado, etc.

What I would not change about the 1200 are first and foremost, the motor and controller (other than recapping the board (for longevity) and maybe increasing the value of the psu capacitor and that if I wasn't going with an outboard PSU). But, this is from the standpoint of squeezing every ounce of performance from the 1200II. In stock form, again, I agree: bulletproof and hard to beat and reasonable price. The specs of the 1200 are very close to the SP-10MK2 even in stock form. However, the SL-M2 & M3 have better S/N (as spec'd by Technics), heavier balanced platters (as do the SL-150MK2, SL-1300MK2 thru SL-1500MK2) and the whole SP line was sans tonearm. Technics' titanium nitride EPA arms are better arms than what is on a stock 1200; so, putting a better arm on is not a stretch. Not necessary; but, not a stretch.

So why not just spend money on a different table? For one, I still think the Mike New bearing trumps the bearing in a SP-10MK2. Secondly, the lack of distortion with a linear air-bearing arm is hard to beat, period. If I bought a Technics SP-10MK3 with the EPA 100, maybe the boron version, or a Kodo The Beat with a TriPlanar arm or a VPI Classic Direct with 3D arm or a TechDAS with a Graham Phantom arm... my wife would shoot me... with my own gun. That might hurt. If one is shoot for the "audiophile stars", even an upgraded 1200, even reaching to a total "package" price of 5 to 6K is still a bargain, IMHO. I've chosen to upgrade mine over time; so, I'm spreading out the cost as opposed to dropped large dosh all at one time. I can also compare and contrast with a stock unit to see if the upgrades really do make a positive difference. Thus far, they certainly do.

 

I have a stock black 1200 mk2 (not 1210) and it is a beaut and works flawlessly. One my favorite purchases ever.

 

First 1200 I bought, back in the day, was a black one 1200mk2 (not 1210). Couldn't afford it and had to take it back. That hurt. But, I've made up for it since then.

 

I realize I only half answered that... probably the most important reason why I upgrade the 1200s rather than buy something else is because, I just like them. They "resonate" with me. I like their compactness and for something that's pretty elaborate, I find them simplistic in their functionality. They do what they are supposed to in a small footprint, rugged as all get and last for decades. That motor/controller is a worthy platform for all I can give it, in my opinion. Why not take it/them as far as I can? After an outboard PSU, footers and maybe a more inherently inert platter, I don't see why I shouldn't or someday wouldn't pair it with a Koetsu Platinum, SPU Royal N, Decca Jubilee or any such cart. There are those, as seen previously, who already are. Same reason I installed an 800+ cfm carb on one of me autos.

 

That Tri-Planar MKVII! I might be able to swing an SME M2-9R this year. Tri-Planar... um... no.

I was really hoping the PLX-1000 was going to be more than it actually turned out to be. It's an opportunity lost. I mean, I was looking at the Pioneer PL-L1 last night. There was just some great stuff made back then. What they are handing out now just does NOT cut it.

 

It's amazing to me now that as recently as 2007, one could purchase a brand new SL-1200MK2 for under $400. (I paid $375 for mine, and that included shipping!)

Over time, I got it pretty tricked out, including rewiring, 78 speed, fluid dampener, internal and external arm dampening, etc. It sounded pretty damn great too with the mods.

I sold it after acquiring my TD-124/SME 3009, but I do miss it from time to time. It's currently owned by @Wally Swift.

 

No measurements comparing the stock vs. Applied Fidelity bearing were performed but here are my findings...


With the many upgrades and mods that are available for the Technics Sl-1200 series table, I was very curious (yet remained skeptical) about the improved
bearing mod by Applied Fidelity.

I considered two other bearing upgrades, the first being the Timestep by Sound HiFi and the other by Mike New.
Price for the Timestep is roughly USD$280, Mike New USD$650 and Applied Fidelity USD$200 if using your existing stock bearing.
I decided to go with the AF bearing for a few reasons: USA is closer to where I live than the UK, final cost and the overall positive things I've read thus far.

The AF bearing was returned to me highly polished with a mirror-finish metal thrust pad and ceramic ball all encased with a hard epoxy shell with an inner
brass well bathed in an oil bath. I had my particular bearing installed with a taller spindle for use with thicker platters which made my final purchase decision
a no-brainer since I plan to change the platter. I gave it a test run and the very first thing I observed was the start-stop time. The stock bearing measured 22
seconds whereas the AF measured 34 seconds....a remarkable time difference which shows that friction was reduced a great deal.


LISTENING:
Swapping the old for the new bearing was a 10 minute deal. I reached for Dead Can Dance "Into The Labyrinth" (UK pressing on 4.A.D. label),
a wonderful album with beautiful vocals and instrumentation. Right from the start, the first note was different. Bass was deeper and tighter with more solidity.
Male/female vocals sparkled with a "live recording" like overall improvement.

Instruments and vocals became more focused with a greater depth of field and imagery. The overall sound stage widened with minute instrument sounds fleshed out.
The highs were more extended with complete clarity and less distorted than previous which was a huge surprise.


CONCLUSION:
My findings with the Applied Fidelity bearing mod upgrade removed my skepticism and now believe that not all "balls" are created equal.
Kudos to Jim Howard and for his pursuit of analogue fidelity.

 

Would love to also have a TD-124; nice table. Classic. Lots of available upgrades for a stock TD-124, too.

 

When the time comes, I'm hoping Jim Howard can give my SL-150MK2, 1400MK2 & 1500MK2 bearings the same treatment. The bearing shrouds in those are different enough that using a Mike New bearing isn't an option.

 

Jim Howard @ Applied Fidelity knows what he's doing. Timestep (Dave Cawley)/Mike New 1200 bearing design ideas I don't agree with.

 

Not of fan of DC at all or "his" products. Mike New and DC should not be lumped into the same category as neither has anything to do with the other's designs. Mike's bearing is a bespoke item from the ground up (the only full custom manufactured aftermarket bearing for the 1200 in existence, matter-of-factly). All others are rebuilds of an existing 1200 bearing. Of those, I would definitely choose Jim Howard's over DC. There was a very brief partnership for DC to distribute the MN bearing but that didn't last (thank goodness). And, if anyone knows anything about DC, the reasons should be self-evident.

 

Just to be clear, no lumping of DC/MN intended. 2 very different design ideas in fact. I just do not favor either one.

 

What do you like about Jim's bearing? As I'm hoping he can give my other MK2 variants the treatment, I'd be interested to know what you like about them.

 

Probably better to contact Jim, he's much better at explaining than I am, plus you can discuss your other tables as well.

 

Make no mistake, I have no regrets for moving to a TD-124, but a Technics SL-1200MK2 has a heckuva lot to offer! Damn shame that they went out of production, and then the prices on used models doubled.

I would have expected the market value to have receded by now. I think Panasonic made a bad tactical error in pulling the plug when they did.

 

Maybe it wasn't an error, tactical or otherwise?

 

I'm not sure what you're getting at...

Are you suggesting that they might reintroduce it, but at a higher price?

Hmmm... Could be!