The Technics SL-1200 GAE/G/GR general questions thread

I just saw a G for sale yesterday. That plinth surface is beautiful too. And the magnesium arm is nice to touch. Want to see it playing.

 

thanks

 

I've been using mine all day today. It really has a nice finish/feel and gives me the feeling of handling a precision piece of instrumentation.

 

I agree, I feel that the ART9 is an awesome cartridge, and punches way above its weight.

On my SL-1200G I am using an Air Tight PC-7 right now, but I also bought an Audio-Technics ART9 to use when the Air Tight was out for repair and the ART9 sounded superb. I’d be happy with that if I didn’t have the Air Tight, and the ART9 is kept nearby on a headshell as I sometimes switch them out anyway.

On the SL1200G I actually preferred the ART9 to a Koetsu Black I was originally using on the Technics, and the Koetsu is a great cartridge. I am now using the Koetsu on a Vinyl Nirvana Thorens 160 Super, and it’s exceptional.

The Koetsu also sounded great on a Rega, but I just wasn’t feeling it on the Technics, so I went for the other cartridges to use with the Technics.

Note that the Koetsu didn’t sound bad on the Technics, but I just felt more magic with the ART9.

 

I don't know if I'm suffering from some placebo effect. I guess I'm not and it's actually happening.

I bought myself a Nagaoka MP-500 and installed it with the stock headshell in the GR. Sounded very good just out of the box. I've been playing it for four days, probably something near 10-15 hours. Even sounding very good, I felt that the bass was a bit too much in bass heavier records and the higher frequencies were recessed. Maybe an effect of my untreated room with no bass traps, just two sofas, a curtain and a carpet. Also, it has lower output comparing to my other cartridges, so I think it's expected that I need to crank it a little for the higher frequencies to appear (less gain in the line stage). Moreover, I was using a VM540ML which accentuates the higher frequencies. So it could be just that I was used to a different presentation, but either way the MP-500 seemed not to be playing with its full potential.

Yesterday I decided to try a heavier headshell just in case. I first installed the cartridge in a Ortofon SH-4, 1.8g heavier than the Technics headshell. The bass almost disappeared and the higher frequencies came alive. I concluded this was due to the height: the Ortofon headshell is 3mm higher than the Technics and it made the SRA change too much. The Nagaoka is 18mm high and it's impossible to have a horizontal tonearm with this headshell/cartridge combination. The tonearm was pointing down which is supposed to reduce bass and increase treble with a line contact stylus.

So today I installed the cartridge in a Jelco HS-25, which is about 4g heavier than the Technics stock headshell. Much heavier, and I even had to use the auxiliary weight on the counterweight. Tonearm is much heavier now. Since this headshell is about 1mm higher than the Technics, it was easy to correct VTF.

The bass seems now to be tighter, more controlled, but still present and impactful, and the higher frequencies are more pronounced. I think it sounds more balanced now.

I wonder what's happening. The more obvious reason is that with a higher mass the resonance is different and the arm became a better match to the cartridge. It's weird because if I do my math according to that famous Ortofon resonance frequency and compliance website, the stock headshell should be a better match. So I wonder if I'm not hearing things. Other reasons could be better damping with this headshell that could be more rigid an less ressonant, or it has better connections and wiring, or the cartridge is still not fully broken in and its boron cantilever is taking advantage of more mass in the tonearm, or the compliance of my Nagaoka is actually lower than the tests I found online say it should be.

Anyway, I think it's common knowledge that even the Technics one being a good headshell, it may be not the best fit to every cartridge due to compliance-mass-resonance.

 

What an interesting observation. BTW, the SH-4 headshell is designed to level 2M Ortofon carts on 70's and 80's turntables which do not have a VTA adjustment feature, otherwise when the 18mm high cart is placed in the standard headshell from those TT's, originally designed for a 15mm tall cart, the 18mm cart will be tail low with no solution for leveling it. Now, in my case, I have quite a few 15mm tall carts but I only have one proper headshell to level those carts in the Technics tonearm without shimming. It's a Sony SH-35. Using the stock Technics headshell my 15mm carts need a 2mm spacer to level with the tonearm VTA set at Zero. Right now, the Technics headshell accommodates a Shure V15V/Jico SAS using a 2mm plastic spacer. LPs sound really great. I've got three more Technics headshells/spacers on order to accomodate another V15V with MR stylus, M97xE and V15 III with Jico SAS stylus.

 

Where you got this from?

 

Klassik cartridge VTA gasket spacer 2mm/4mm on eBay

 

Does anyone have any advice about isolation platforms for the Sl-1200G?

I currently have a Rega P3-24 on an IKEA Apptitlig bamboo butcher block, which is on four model 2 vibrapods. I’ve worked out that I could add four more model 2 vibrapods to match the weight of the “G”, but I wonder if that’s a good match (or even necessary) for its footers.

Has anyone experimented with this?

 

Are you sure they are needed? I found the RP3 to be more sensitive than my other tables, including my old 1200mk2. The G is supposed to have much better feet.

I should say that my home is a slab so I don’t have issues one might have otherwise.

 

That's exactly what I'm wondering. I’ll try it on the top of my rack first but I just wondered if anyone had found a solution that works really well. I’m expecting it to need something different to the Rega, but maybe that’s not true.

 

I believe it will work anywhere.

 

I thought I should link this review, says the GR tonearm has 8-9g of effective mass against the commonly assumed 12g:

https://oslohificenter.no/analog/pl...Product-ExternalReviews.OHC-PageLink-FileLink

 

The more I think about it, the figure just doesn’t make sense. If the headshell is 7.6g, that means the arm itself would be .4-1.4g! Not very likely

 

The 12g (including headhell) figure is correct, at least for 1200GAE. I have it confirmed by Technics Engineering.

 

Petition launched to reintroduce Technics turntables (Update: The SL-1200 is Back!)*

 

Nice work. I went WHOA did they redesign the arm? The Jelco 850 is a killer arm. No wonder it outperforms the stock arm with your cart. Jelco has been making arms FOREVER.

 

Does the DJ-cool reputation of the Technics SL 1200 turntable sometimes over-shadow a table’s real value? I’d say so. I found this beauty this afternoon at guitar center.







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You couldn’t move the VTA adjustment ring with a stick of dynamite. Lol

 

Been rode pretty hard from the looks of it, but I bet it works perfectly. The local GC here usually has some pretty abused stuff. I find much better 1200s at the pawn shops, but you have to ready to haggle!

 

That thing is beat to hell. Looks like it was sandblasted. I couldn't get myself to drop $349 on something that worn.

 

They probably gave the schlub $100 for it.

 

It looks like it was recovered from a shipwreck to me!

Amazing what some people think something is worth just because of a name......

 

$349 dollars in THAT condition? What were they smoking?

 

But a road worn guitar is cool?