Essrand:
I own the AMR DP 777se and owned a SL1200 GAE for two wonderful years. I understand your point, a DP 777/ DP 777 se can make lesser analog rigs a waste of time. I had them both maxed out and ran the following cartridges on the GAE, London Ref, Audio Technica ART 1000, Denon 103r, Ana Mighty Sound modified Denon 103r (103.3) and a Kiseki Purple Heart (a friend loaned me the Kiseki, not a fan of this one). I own or owned and used the Luxman EQ 500, SPL Phonos and iPhono 2 with the GAE.
It is a superior sounding table once the bearing is fully run-in. I would say that my AMR with an optimized music server (HQPlayer), linear power supply and more optimization’s than I care to mention and the GAE were on par with each other. They both made music and often times it would come down to the mastering job on a particular record. For instance, Sade seems to have been mastered to vinyl far better than CD, while the 45 of “Jacintha Is Her Name” seems to have been treated very very well in the vinyl realm as well as the CD (of course the 15ips tape is better than both).
I only sold my GAE because I wanted to play with an idler and I do not need three tables. I thought it would be cool to have the idler next to my SP10 MK3. Had a Commonwealth 12D/3 which is a great table, but I chose a Garrard 401.
My buddies have some expensive tables and I’ve not heard any of their tables flat out beat the GAE. I thought the Dohmann Helix ($40k) and the GAE sounded very similar. In fact you can find earlier posts I’ve made where I stated that the Dohmann was the one belt table I’ve heard that I really liked and could happily own.
You cant lose with a SL 1200 G.
If there is one thing that I personally believe is a must change to bring out the best of the Technics it is the deletion of that horrid platter-mat they have been stuffing in the box with their tables since the 70’s. That mat was horrid with my SP10 MK3 and it was horrid with my GAE. I ended up using a delrin (relatively sure it’s delrin) mat by Artisan Fidelity. The stock mat sounds muddy and sucks the life out of the music, it’s terrible. I did try one of my friends custom copper mats (he owns a GAE) that he is developing specifically for the G/GAE and it did indeed sound excellent. I tried my Artisan Fidelity custom copper mat that was made for my SP 10 MK3 on the GAE, did NOT like that at all. I think it was too heavy, again, that mat was a one-off for my MK3.
Whatever you decide, I hope you enjoy. It’s a lot of fun. I listen to a great deal of music and really enjoy my analog and digital.
