New Technics 1200

Boofer, are you kidding ? Do yourself a favour, stay away from any clones of Technics by Pionner, Hanpin, Audio-Technica, Gemini, Vestax, Stanton or whatever CHEAP CRAP designed for pro use in the club for djs today. Professional standards is very low today. All those turntables are plastic sh***t.

None of them can even get close to classic SL1200/1210 mk2 (made in Japan). You can buy this deck used very cheap from Japan, then you can upgrade it also cheap (feets, tonearm etc). This turntable build like a tank and i’ve been using it myself since 1995. Still have upgraded pair here. But in the main system i use SP10 mk2 and SP20 waiting for new plinth. It’s like a day and night compared to SL1200/1210.

If you like Technics simply buy SP10 mk2 and forget about SL1200/1210. It is not worth the investments for upgrade SL1200/1210 IMHO, much better to start with a new deck like SP10 mk2 !

Vintage classic direct drive decks like Denon, Victor 81 and Pioneer PL70II, Luxman 441 and others available today for reasonable price used.

I am going to add my .02 cents worth here, (for what it's worth).

When I first got into the audio business, my first store was a Technics dealer.  I sold hundreds of the SL1200 series of tables.

I still have a SL1200MKII from that time.

I have been very curious about these so called "clones", so a couple of years ago,I went out looking for some to see for myself.

I bought an Audio Technica AT-LP120 off of Craigslist for $100 from the original owner in perfect shape with the Audio Technica AT95E cartridge.  All with very low use/hours.

A couple of weeks later, I found, off of Craigslist, an Audio Technica AT-LP1240 for $200.  Again from the original owner in perfect shape with the box and manual.

All I can say, is that I've had a blast with these 2 tables.  They are pretty well built and sound very good.  Not quite the equivalent of the Technics SL1200MKII, but surely not as bad as what is stated above and on other forums.  This is from "personal" experience, not just hearsay.  Granted, I have very little money in them and probably wouldn't have bought them new, but used and at the right price, they ROCK!!!

NO, they are not better or even close to my VPI or Oracle or fully modded Regas, nor are they even close to the price of these, but really not that bad either...

I don't know.... $4k sounds a little steep to me but I guess it's all a matter of what the market will bear. I think a good price would be $3k maybe. I mean the last model was like $2500 before they were discontinued.

In fact I am using a 1210M5G with a Herbie way excellent II mat, Ortofon 2M Black, and a highly modified Tubes4HiFi PH-16 tube phono preamp with very satisfying results. I have the whole thing resting on a DIY Gingko cloud platform. With only $700 (used) in the turntable, $500 for the cartridge, $100 Herbie Mat I just cannot see  $4,000. If anything I would purchase an SME 309 arm and maybe a TimeStep HE III external power supply.

As a someone who has serviced audio gear for many years, I can confirm there is a vast gulf between the quality and construction of the SL1200II clones, and the genuine Technics turntable.  Most would be shocked to see the internal construction comparison.  

The 1200II is a solid all around turntable, and hard to beat for DJ use.  For $4000, the new G model would be near the bottom of a long list of turntables I would consider.