Technics SL-1210GAE Anniversary delivery .

@vinylnostalgic

I've not seen any reviews, but I've owned one for the past 8 months so I can give my thoughts -- obviously anecdotal / subjective (even more so because it's the first deck I've owned in 30 years so I don't really have anything to go on when it comes to comparisons. What I can say is that it's very well built and feels every one of its 40 pound mass. The first thing I noticed when I lowered the arm for the first play was just how very well isolated this deck is compared to my last one. I have mine sited about 1 inch from my left floor standing speaker (due to space limitations) and there is zero transmission of vibration to the cartridge cantilever from either the speaker or the floor. You can dance right in front of it -- and nothing, nada, gets picked up (it probably helps that my carpeted ground-floor listening room has a concrete floor). The only vibrations I can hear are music ones caused by the stylus being dragged along the record grooves. Apart from installing the cart, setting the tracking weight, anti-skate bias and arm height; it's pretty much plug and play but I am sure you could do upgrades / mods if you were so inclined. I could do without all 'DJ' type platter speed controls/sliders, LEDs, lights / strobes etc but they don't really bother me or detract from performance (get a VPI or an LP12 if you feel otherwise). I really enjoy the sound it puts out. Highly, highly musical. I much prefer it to my digital sources. Appreciate, that's of little use to those who need to know how good it is as a turntable per se as it maybe just that my ears really like the sound of vinyl. I've found rock titles like Fleetwood Mac's Tusk, Blondie, Tom Petty, Led Zeppelin etc, etc (all purchased new 2020-2021) etc, etc sound phenomenal. Vocals, treble, midrange, bass, dynamics, detail - all spot on for me. It's warm yet not warm as the midrange and bass are fast and tight. With classical I'm not as convinced although I have only one new classical LP -- Berlioz (and a lot of very old ones from the 1970s that look ok, but sound beaten up. They all sound a bit harsh -- bright / sibilant / metallic -- more like what I associate with a CD-type of sound. It could be that the recordings I have are not good or are from digital masters (I do believe classical recordings need to be of the highest quality, and preferably pressed from the analogue original).

Hope this is of use.

I could do without all ’DJ’ type platter speed controls/sliders, LEDs, lights / strobes etc but they don’t really bother me or detract from performance.

How can it bother anyone? 

Some people don’t understand why there is a pitch control on High-End turntables, for most of them pitch associated with DJ turntables only.

In reality pitch control is an amazing feature for reference class turntables and critical listening sessions too! Musicians will get the idea quicker ...

JVC/Victor engineers explained very well why there is a special pitch control on TT-101:

The pitch, "A" is standardized at 440Hz according to international standards, and is the standard for all western musical instruments. In other words, the tuning of all instruments of the orchestra is based on this pitch. But in reality, the basic tuning pitch of each orchestra differs due to the instrumentation and individual characteristics of each orchestra, as well as the personality of the conductor. The diagram shows such differences by orchestra. Most of the pitches range within +/- 6Hz of 400Hz. To reproduce these subtly different pitches, a quality turntable with highly accurate rotation is required. Another important requirement is the possibility of minute speed adjustment. If the speed of a turntable could be adjusted to the individual pitch used by an orchestra while at the same time remaining controlled by a quartz-locked servo system, the benefits of flexibility and precision would be significant from a musicological viewpoint. For this reason the TT-101 is equipped with built-in speed-control facilities which can adjust the pitch in 1Hz steps within a range of +/- 6Hz or 440Hz. The difference of pitches between master tape recorders and disc record cutting machines has been intentionally ignored before but now the speed of a record can be adjusted to match the original pitch of the orchestra, even if the master was recorded differently from the original performance. For example, a performance of the NHK Symphony Orchestra on the record can be adjusted to match the pitch of the same performance on a record by the London Symphony Orchestra, for the enjoyment of critical comparison.

The "A" key of a piano in your home is usually tuned to 440Hz. When you practice the piano while playing back a record, you can adjust the pitch of the record, to be in perfect tune with your piano.

Thank you Chakster. That is fascinating & I stand corrected.

Those pitch anomalies you describe explain why I hear some classical recordings as sounding ‘off’ - but others so ‘right’ (when by chance the pitch matches that of the original orchestra).
I don’t own a piano and even if I did am not at at all confident I’d be able ‘tune’ the pitch of a record with it as I don’t have a musician’s trained ear. However, I may just try playing around with the pitch on a few records to see if I can, by ear, hit that ‘sweet’ spot. (If anyone is interested; one of those ‘right’ records that stirs the emotions & makes the hairs on your neck stand up is Stuttgarter Kammerorchester’s Masterworks of the European Baroque conducted by Karl Münchinger).