I meant to post to this thread some time ago and didn't, so I'm glad it's cropped up again. A lot of what I have to say I've already said on other threads before. To briefly recap: I've owned my 1200 for close to 23 years now -- buying it as soon as I could afford to upon first using an SP at my college's radio station -- and don't have in-home experience with other audiophile-worthy tables. While the rest of my system has been replaced at least three times over since I got the SL, I continue to be satisfied using the Technics table. But I sorely lack points of reference for making any claims about where the 1200 falls within the universe of audiophile belt-drivers, either around or above its price range. All I can say is that it's durable, swell to use, its sound doesn't suck or fall short in any obvious way, and is not lacking compared with my digital separates in a system that presently would retail for over $25K* -- not top-drawer, but not chump change. I generally feel that if I did replace my 1200, I'd have to begin looking at around five times its current price, and I'm not sure that the improvement -- if it was even comprehensive -- would necessarily be commensurate.
I upgraded my unit a few years back with Kevin at KAB to include both the fluid damper and the outboard power supply (as well as the 78rpm mod). Both work basically as claimed, and the p.s. in particular is now to my mind a prerequisite for using this table in an audiophile context. I was Kevin's first customer for this accessory, and commissioned him to do a customized installation that provided a method for switching between the stock, onboard p.s. and KAB's outboard one, so I could perform A/B comparison tests. As far as I know, I am still the only owner with this capability, and I can assure those interested in buying the regular mod that its effect is entirely beneficial and worthwhile if you own a high-resolution cartridge and system. The changes are fairly subtle yet all-encompassing -- if you only play Black Sabbath through Cerwin-Vegas you may not hear (or need) them, but for well-recorded, more sensitive material and better systems, the only thing that might obscure the obviousness of the improvement could be the time lag needed to perform the installation and the lack of ability to easily revert to stock operation for comparisons, so making some good before-and-after recordings might be helpful as a reference.
Although I was happy with the table before the p.s. was added, I would now hesitate to call it truly high end without this mod. Not going into flowery descriptives, the outboard p.s. addresses a couple of engineering limitations of the stock table by virtue of being both a stiffer supply and removed from the plinth physically. Providing an across-the-board increase in purity/transparency/resolution, this yields a richer tonality, more detailed harmonic structure, better attack and detail of transients and eludication of decays, an extended bandwidth, wider dynamic envelope both micro and macro, smoother textures, improved clarity, more palpable imaging and deeper and more authoritative soundstaging -- all of which translate into superior musical expression. I assume an improved power supply will do many of these things with any turntable, even belt-drivers not additionally saddled with having their stock p.s. onboard the plinth. The KAB unit is not extravagant, but it's effective and I feel justifies the expense; as the de facto beta-tester, I wouldn't have purchased the mod if I hadn't been able to prove its worth for myself.
Someone above raised the question of platter mats. The 1200's most inherent weakness IMO is that its cast aluminum platter cannot be made to not ring. You can only minimize it. In my tests, all lightweight mats have been shown the door, they can't damp the ring well enough to use. The stock mat on the original 1200 Mk.II is thick, heavy rubber, which is what KAB retrofits to all their 1200's, though Technics has introduced a thinner rubber mat and slipmats for verions other than the Mk.II. The heavy rubber mat does a good job of damping the platter. I prefer the sound of an equivalently-thick Sorbothane-type mat (used with a clamp), which also damps the platter well, but ultimately have combined this with one of the Technics thin rubber mats underneath, and that double-mat arrangement, with different materials doing different jobs (the rubber mat damps the platter with help from the heavy Sorbothane above, the Sorbothane mat damps the vinyl record and is isolated from the platter by the rubber mat in between), works best out of all usable options tried, although the increased thickness can make clamping dicey with 180g or heavier pressings (you can run out of spindle to grip unless the felt clamping washer is removed; KAB's screw-down clamp/spindle may eliminate this difficulty). This is an inelegant and partial solution, and I believe Kevin has investigated various approaches to modifying the platter in order to eliminate the energy store-and-release at its source, but for the time being it's the best method I've found, and might well be no worse or possibly better than a glass-plattered Rega with their felt mat or the punningly-named Ringmat.
About the arm, I feel it's more medium-mass at 12g than low-mass, and have had no problems using medium-compliance MC's from AQ, Benz and van den Hul (with and without the fluid damper, which I reviewed previously), as well as higher-compliance Ortofon and Shure MM's. The bearings have been excellent, with no friction detectable, and zero play apparent until just recently, not bad for over two decades of pretty heavy useage. (The only other items now wanting replacement are the cover hinges whose springs have become a little droopy.) I'll also want to upgrade the lead-out cabling and try KAB's strobe disabler.
*[I'll restate the system context as it applies to vinyl: Benz Glider M2, vdH DDT-II, and Shure V15-III carts, Camelot Lancelot phono, Levinson 380S pre, VTL MB-185 amps, Thiel CS2.2's, ExactPower and Power Wedge Ultra PLC's, vdH carbon IC's, Audience Au24 SC's, Shunyata and HT PC's, Symposium Shelf on FoculPods for TT, Salamander Synergy rack]
I upgraded my unit a few years back with Kevin at KAB to include both the fluid damper and the outboard power supply (as well as the 78rpm mod). Both work basically as claimed, and the p.s. in particular is now to my mind a prerequisite for using this table in an audiophile context. I was Kevin's first customer for this accessory, and commissioned him to do a customized installation that provided a method for switching between the stock, onboard p.s. and KAB's outboard one, so I could perform A/B comparison tests. As far as I know, I am still the only owner with this capability, and I can assure those interested in buying the regular mod that its effect is entirely beneficial and worthwhile if you own a high-resolution cartridge and system. The changes are fairly subtle yet all-encompassing -- if you only play Black Sabbath through Cerwin-Vegas you may not hear (or need) them, but for well-recorded, more sensitive material and better systems, the only thing that might obscure the obviousness of the improvement could be the time lag needed to perform the installation and the lack of ability to easily revert to stock operation for comparisons, so making some good before-and-after recordings might be helpful as a reference.
Although I was happy with the table before the p.s. was added, I would now hesitate to call it truly high end without this mod. Not going into flowery descriptives, the outboard p.s. addresses a couple of engineering limitations of the stock table by virtue of being both a stiffer supply and removed from the plinth physically. Providing an across-the-board increase in purity/transparency/resolution, this yields a richer tonality, more detailed harmonic structure, better attack and detail of transients and eludication of decays, an extended bandwidth, wider dynamic envelope both micro and macro, smoother textures, improved clarity, more palpable imaging and deeper and more authoritative soundstaging -- all of which translate into superior musical expression. I assume an improved power supply will do many of these things with any turntable, even belt-drivers not additionally saddled with having their stock p.s. onboard the plinth. The KAB unit is not extravagant, but it's effective and I feel justifies the expense; as the de facto beta-tester, I wouldn't have purchased the mod if I hadn't been able to prove its worth for myself.
Someone above raised the question of platter mats. The 1200's most inherent weakness IMO is that its cast aluminum platter cannot be made to not ring. You can only minimize it. In my tests, all lightweight mats have been shown the door, they can't damp the ring well enough to use. The stock mat on the original 1200 Mk.II is thick, heavy rubber, which is what KAB retrofits to all their 1200's, though Technics has introduced a thinner rubber mat and slipmats for verions other than the Mk.II. The heavy rubber mat does a good job of damping the platter. I prefer the sound of an equivalently-thick Sorbothane-type mat (used with a clamp), which also damps the platter well, but ultimately have combined this with one of the Technics thin rubber mats underneath, and that double-mat arrangement, with different materials doing different jobs (the rubber mat damps the platter with help from the heavy Sorbothane above, the Sorbothane mat damps the vinyl record and is isolated from the platter by the rubber mat in between), works best out of all usable options tried, although the increased thickness can make clamping dicey with 180g or heavier pressings (you can run out of spindle to grip unless the felt clamping washer is removed; KAB's screw-down clamp/spindle may eliminate this difficulty). This is an inelegant and partial solution, and I believe Kevin has investigated various approaches to modifying the platter in order to eliminate the energy store-and-release at its source, but for the time being it's the best method I've found, and might well be no worse or possibly better than a glass-plattered Rega with their felt mat or the punningly-named Ringmat.
About the arm, I feel it's more medium-mass at 12g than low-mass, and have had no problems using medium-compliance MC's from AQ, Benz and van den Hul (with and without the fluid damper, which I reviewed previously), as well as higher-compliance Ortofon and Shure MM's. The bearings have been excellent, with no friction detectable, and zero play apparent until just recently, not bad for over two decades of pretty heavy useage. (The only other items now wanting replacement are the cover hinges whose springs have become a little droopy.) I'll also want to upgrade the lead-out cabling and try KAB's strobe disabler.
*[I'll restate the system context as it applies to vinyl: Benz Glider M2, vdH DDT-II, and Shure V15-III carts, Camelot Lancelot phono, Levinson 380S pre, VTL MB-185 amps, Thiel CS2.2's, ExactPower and Power Wedge Ultra PLC's, vdH carbon IC's, Audience Au24 SC's, Shunyata and HT PC's, Symposium Shelf on FoculPods for TT, Salamander Synergy rack]