A close look at the video above should dispel any myth that the the SL-1200GAE has much to do with the original. This being most obvious to those with intimate knowledge of the plastic guts inside the original mass produced SL-1200.
The direct drive motor is a brand new design, the hybrid platter is 3 times heavier & spun balanced. The arm while also similar looking, is actually a new design with new tooling, notice how it sits inside its own sub assembly. The plinth is twice the weight and rests on machined tuned sprung feet. This table is more the evolution of the SP10MK2 with a SL1200 wrapper.
If you stop the pictures in my slide show you’ll can see even more details. The platter is now screwed down to the motor. There are now 2 aux weights, you can balance cartridge/headshells up to 28.5 grams. Notice there’s even a USB input under the platter to upgrade the software inside the table. If the 1200G turns out to be the last turntable Technics ever builds, then perhaps it strikes the perfect balance.
Visual appearance aside, more importantly it sounds like a brand new design. While it’s going to take me a while to get my head wrapped around the sonic performance of the 1200GAE, its safe to say there’s serious potential.
Last night I couldn’t get the Kondo IO on song mounted to the stock Technics head-shell. With some tweaking I was able to get the Ortofon Vienna/magnesium head-shell to sing. By this I mean music was playing in my room ... not HI-FI.
Right now the table is coming off a bit hot in my system but I will get it dialed in and report back with results.
The direct drive motor is a brand new design, the hybrid platter is 3 times heavier & spun balanced. The arm while also similar looking, is actually a new design with new tooling, notice how it sits inside its own sub assembly. The plinth is twice the weight and rests on machined tuned sprung feet. This table is more the evolution of the SP10MK2 with a SL1200 wrapper.
If you stop the pictures in my slide show you’ll can see even more details. The platter is now screwed down to the motor. There are now 2 aux weights, you can balance cartridge/headshells up to 28.5 grams. Notice there’s even a USB input under the platter to upgrade the software inside the table. If the 1200G turns out to be the last turntable Technics ever builds, then perhaps it strikes the perfect balance.
Visual appearance aside, more importantly it sounds like a brand new design. While it’s going to take me a while to get my head wrapped around the sonic performance of the 1200GAE, its safe to say there’s serious potential.
Last night I couldn’t get the Kondo IO on song mounted to the stock Technics head-shell. With some tweaking I was able to get the Ortofon Vienna/magnesium head-shell to sing. By this I mean music was playing in my room ... not HI-FI.
Right now the table is coming off a bit hot in my system but I will get it dialed in and report back with results.