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

IIRC, someone measured it to be about 50pF.
But apparently @punkmusick is using an MC, so the capacitance is insignificant in his case.

Might as well pry off that sticker at the right near the pitchfader.
Lol.

 

Dropping the load to 50 on a 12 ohm cartridge will be a significant volume reduction, about 2dB, so you have to be careful to level match if you want to honestly evaluate the difference.

 

I also own an OC9XML and found loading it at 500 ohm was the best in my system but I had to lower the VTF to 1.8G. The lower VTF really tamed the sharp highs and heavy bass slam I was getting at 2.0G. Now it sings! no harsh highs or heavy bass notes, just an open well balanced sound!

 

Thx! ..When reassembling, did you have to adjust/position the base so that the seam was even? The base is made of a slightly soft, slightly malleable material.

I'm not sure if my base is slightly misshapen or if it was imprecisely aligned during assembly and therefore correctable.

 

I opened mine to change the arm (SME). Everything went back to normal. To bad you live 40 min. from me, or I would offer to lend a hand.

 

Thanks for the offer ..Trying to first decide if it's correctable. Here's a pic. You can see the base bulging out at the seam right in the middle. If you run your thumb down across the seam you can definitely feel it. ..Move toward the sides and the seam is perfect.

One possibility is the assembler over-torqued the screws that secure the aluminum top-plate thus causing the base to distort slightly.

 

That might be a possibility. I don't remember if the base has a keyway or not.

 

It sounds like so far you're not finding significant differences in sound quality between the G and GR. Do you think the G merits the extra expense?

 

I was listening to a couple of records last night, and again this morning, and it got me thinking, I'm pretty confident my system now sounds the best it ever did, and I can't upgrade it unless I spend an amount of money I don't want to and mess with the living room arrangement which I also don't want to.

I could still return the G but it's so amazing I wouldn't even think of that. To me, the upgrade was totally worth it. GR is already for sale.

 

That’s exactly my experience as well.

 

Hello, I've been looking into a new mat. Is anyone using the Achromat on their G/GAE, if so, what thickness are you running? Thanks

 

What is the distance between the raised outer edge on the GR platter? Asking to determine the diameter of the mat.

From what I can gather, most favor the Herbie's Excellent II mat. The most common size is 4mm/285mm diameter. That will allow you to use 16mm tall cartridges. To use 15mm tall cartridges, you'd need the 5mm thick mat.

 

I have the Herbies ll 3mm. Hight adjustment is not a problem for me, as I have an SME 309 on the deck. The mat for the 1200/1210 is 3mm, I was just wondering if the 5mm would be a better choice & not the 7mm.

 

Those bases are a moulding so might not be perfect. Doubt you will be able to improve it as it is fairly rigid. I don't think any of them are perfectly symmetrical. Maybe it notices more with the black top plates?

 

5mm sounds about perfect, 3mm is too low according to a lot of cartridges height, or maybe 4mm would be perfect.
People are always going on about setting the VTF dial at a certain setting per the manual guidance offered with these decks but if you leave it at 3mm then you mostly are at 0 on the VTF dial and it's quite common to not be able to go any lower when you need to to get a level arm.

Getting the arm/headshell level is what matters, not what the dial is pointing to on the VTF dial, so by having 4mm or better at the platter mat you have the increased ability to set things up right.

 

I am. I like it- 5mm.

 

So why not use a shim between the headshell and cartridge? Always worked for me over last 50 years. Cheap and solves the problem. Is there some issue I don’t know about? Have had a few cartridges come with a plastic shim just for this purpose.

 

With a deck that you ca swap out carts on, why shim all your mounts as you add carts when you could just bring the platter height up a bit and then just solidly mount these carts as intended?

Shim away if that's what you want, but I found that padding the height on the platter non detrimental to the sound and the added bonus is I can fine tune VTF correctly.

 

That was with my old turntables that didn’t have the ability to set VTA. With my 1210GAE I have not needed to go any lower than the lowest setting.

 

Depends on the cartridge and the headshell.

 

Could be... Anyone else disassemble one and care to comment?

As an aside, the LP on my table is "Idiot Prayer - Nick Cave alone at Alexandra Palace" which I bought just yesterday. Wow, what a beautiful, hypnotic almost meditative album. ..But a torture test for a turntable as there are LOTS of long sustained piano notes against an otherwise quiet background which lay bare a table's pitch stability. ..It sounds magnificent on my Technics table.

 

Yes piano music sounds very good on these decks… The best solo piano record I own is “Don Grusin - Out of thin air”.
It even has space, not just a point source of sound coming from the piano, but almost like you’re between the left and right hand… when listening on speakers, but even more so when I’m playing it through Sennheiser HD800S headphones.
Those have a massive soundstage… especially after a while when you don’t notice wearing them, that record becomes hypnotic…

 

Just tried my beloved Nagaoka MP-500.

Man, this system is sounding just amazing!

I prefer the MP-500 over the AT-OC9XML, nice to have both but there's no contest for me.

Just read in another thread someone saying only MC cartridges sound tridimensional. I wish that fellow could visit me, he would chance his mind as soon as the stylus hit the record.

 

What do you like about the MP500 over the XML?

 

Right now, with this album, I like how the guitars sound bigger, louder and come closer to me than with the AT, and how the whole music sound more juicy, tasty, rich and colorful.

Edit: by the way, you're the guy I read saying only MC sounded tridimensional, in the Parasound amp review, but I read it again and actually that's not exactly what you wrote.