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

Anybody using an AT7V on the 1200?

 

But that's not the point. ..I have no interest in ripping my LPs into digital files. ..As I mentioned earlier, I love LP's for their liner notes, album art.. the connectedness of the songs, etc... ..I have no intention of ripping them. ..Till I saw this, anytime I'd buy a used album and found it TOO noisy to be enjoyed, it would be relegated to the back of my LP rack. ..This allows me to clean it up as I listen to it. ..Most times, I'll have it set to bypass. ..But when I have an interest in listening to an LP in rough shape, this is perfect. ..I bet this is how most us it and the user for whom it was conceived.

 

Hey, if you enjoy it thats all that matters. Its not for me.

 

Virtual instruments have their merits, but I think it's nice to have an actual, existing, physical component in certain contexts.
It's just like watching a video of playing a record instead of playing the record itself (even if the real record sounds the same as the video recording)... many people would prefer the actual record.
Same for other instruments like audio mixers, most people like to have physical knobs, so they hook up a USB/MIDI controller to the virtual instrument.

 

This is from a Review on Postive Feedback. ..I think this explains the appeal of the SC-1 perfectly.

"I am also now, a lot more reluctant to resell or gift to friends, LPs that have degraded to below Very Good+ condition. I also have great regrets for letting go of hundreds of degraded LPs over the past few decades.

The SC-1 has also made me look for records in places where I used to never consider shopping for vinyl. Places like garage sales, Goodwill, and Thrift Stores where the vast majority of vinyl are usually in the Very Good+ or below category.

One of my favourite artists is Cat Stevens and I have a Tea for the Tillerman record that, at best, could be categorized as Good. The only reason I held on to it was because it is so hard to come by Mint or Near Mint copies of this album. With the SC-1, I can play this record and actually enjoy listening to it because the only scratches I can clearly hear, is when the stylus is transitioning from one song to the next."

 

I think most all understand the appeal of the unit, it's a cool little magical box.
But at it's price point one could but a lot of minty LP's.

 

Sorry to add to this significant thread tangent, but would something like the Parks Audio Puffin, which has a built-in "magic" feature that does the same thing, be a better fit? (if one was also looking at changing their phono stage)

 

That's a pretty amazing device as well! ..Except the form factor is not nearly as appealing (to me, anyway). But I see it does a great deal more than the SC-1 AND is much less expensive. ..I'll read more about it. Thx.

As for the threads tangent... I guess I'm responsible for that. But it's not like I (or others participating in the SweetVinyl SC-1 convo) are blocking people from asking Q's about a GAE/G/ GR. I asked about the SC-1 HERE on this thread b/c I was curious what other Technics GAE/G/GR owners felt about it. ..This is a group that (sorta kinda) shares by audio values, so I was curious about their thoughts specifically.

Anyway...

 

No worries on my part! I'm pretty used to the thread tangents here on the boards and I've learned to just go with it It's like a stream, it takes you down different paths but ultimately will bring you back to the main path eventually.

 

Back on!

A Conversation with Technics’ Bill Voss

 

This is my thing, too.
I have about 80k 78s, but for really noisy ones I have a program called clickrepair which does a similar job to the sugarcube. 78s being what they are, even mint ones (which I got from old shop stock) are noisy. I'm just weighing up how much I really want to sit and listen to physical records that have been noise reduced, as apposed to listening to them and putting them on the computer.
Where it would be really useful, in fact why I'm conciddering buying one, is listening to the noise being reduced in real time in hardware.
Here's a thing I made demonstrating clickrepair on a 1902 cylinder no less

 

Cool. Would be interesting to see if the cube could do even better.

 

If I could borrow one I genuinely believe I could give it some good marketing in a comunity that don't know about it EG 78 collectors.
There was a thing, still is, called Cedar which a lot of a particular generation of collectors bought, but it was like 15k or something crazy expencive and that was if you had the room for it it was a big thing!
Good to see you back on this thread :d

 

to add to this, what I'd really love is to hear an lp of brass being delt with by the sugarcube, brass is often a big problem for click removal and is very hard to get rite.

 

My GR is being delivered today. I'm equal parts nervous and excited. Hoping I get a perfectly flat platter and there's no shipping damage.

 

predicting it’ll be perfect! Congrats!

 

In assessing platter flatness, don't fixate on the strobe dots. Look just at the topline of the platter itself when viewed from the side. ..The strobe dots, no matter how hard Technics tries, are doomed to be at least just a little imperfect.. ..Not sure if anyone has counted them, but it's an incredibly tall task making sure that each is milled and polished perfectly. If you look at the strobe dots as the platter turns they will appear to move vertically ever so slightly. ..This is NOT an indication that the platter is not true, it's an indication of the fact that the strobe dots aren't 100% perfectly milled along the platter's rim OR that each isn't as perfectly polished as the one beside it. Doing both perfectly is practically impossible outside of Defense Contract/ Aerospace budgeting

..Honestly, I'm surprised that Technics didn't do away with the strobe dots with the latest iteration of 1200 decks. But again, they are kinda part of the 1200's iconic look

Again, my bet is your platter will be just fine Enjoy.. Its an awesome turntable!

 

The Cedar was pretty impressive. I interned in a mastering house in the late 1990s and they had one in one of the transfer rooms. They would sometimes get LPs in for reissues if the label didn’t have the tape and would do a needle drop through the Cedar. I think they were digitizing a good amount of transcription discs back in there as well.

 

Thanks for the tip!

 

The dealbreaker for me is that it introduces conversion to digital and back. Something like this would have seemed more practical, to me, before CDs took over the market in the ‘90s.

But, I could see it being nice for someone who has a lot of music on vinyl and/or 78, who is less concerned with listening in analog and just wants to play their existing media with less noise. That’s just not what I’m after, and certainly not at that price, now that nearly everything I have on records is available in an already-digital format if that’s what I want to hear.

 

I would have preferred they ditch the dots, personally, but I get it, they’re part of the whole thing... I guess that’s part of what they are catering to with the 1500c.

 

Noooo.. the dots are beautiful! I’ve loved them ever since I first saw them. The 1500C looks nowhere near as good with them removed in my opinion.

The person on YouTube criticising them for being wonky on new models is adamant that it’s not a problem on older models, but as an owner of multiple Mk2s I can safely say the dots all wander a tiny bit. It’s barely noticeable unless you stand there staring at it (which, to be fair we probably all do).

 

I really don’t detect any movement when watching mine. It’s possible I’m just correcting for it in my perception.

 

It’s actually less on my G than on the Mk2 sitting next to it, but it’s very small and it’s purely the dots. I doubt it would’ve noticed if not for all the talk about it!

I have seen the odd video where the whole platter is undeniably wonky, luckily I haven’t suffered that problem.

 

I had a Mk2 (bought as NOS in 2016) and the dots did indeed wander a bit and did so more than my new 1210GAE

What matters is that the dots that are illuminated by the strobe don't move laterally. ..A tiny bit of movement up and down is meaningless so long as the platter top - when viewed from the side - is clearly flat. The dots seen away from the strobe will definitely look a bit uneven particularly once they get even the slightest bit dirty. ..If you touch a few dots each time you place or lift a record, they'll pick up a bit of oil from your hands. I believe it's the uneven dirtiness of the dots that causes much of this "movement" phenomena.