Technics 1200 Critic Fremer Praises the newer 1200G

Companies like Vestax released higher torque dj turntables, but no one can beat Technics as this is the original product with legendary status that all of them trying to copy.

I am not trying to start any fire and have never even heard of Vestax, but this sentence implies that Vestax already beat Technics. At least when it comes to torque. I doubt than anyone truly needs more torque than 40-year-old Technics DD turntable has, but still....Vestax has more.

But for $1700 Technics with SL1200GR can satisfy both (audiophiles and vinyl deejays).

I may be seriously interested in 1200GR so do not dismiss me just yet. However, I have been asking on forums, without much success, to find out what makes a turntable "audiophile". Why would this one satisfy DJs and "audiophiles" while some other one would not? I am trying to learn as I see these "audiophile" statements thrown around a lot, but no substantial answer.

atmasphere,

are we the only two people out there who think a new design would have been a better idea?

@glupson anyone can make higher torque but will it sound musical

I am not arguing about which sounds better, I have no clue about it, but was just referring to that sentence about the torque. It was probably written quickly so it ended up clumsy, but the fact is that Vestax has a higher torque and beats Technics at that particular thing while the sentence claimed the opposite. That is all. I did not really think deeper than what is written.

@glupson

Why would this one satisfy DJs and "audiophiles" while some other one would not?

Pitch control is the key for DJing, that’s why Technics SL1200mkII became DJ standard. You will never find any DJ turntable without pitch control fader. It can be 8% or event higher in both direction to slow down or speed up one tune to another to mix/blend them right. The tempo is the key when few hundred people are dancing infront of you at the disco. Old school DJs used a microphone between the tracks, but since the 70s DJs developed their skills to mix the records. The skills depends on genre of music, but the pitch is necesary to fine tune the records. Technics released pitch control as a fader in SL1200mkII (not as a knob like it was before on their earlier models). This is the reason why modern DJs can NOT djing on any Hi-End turntable, there is no pitch control fader to quickly adjust the speed of the record to mix them together in tempo. This is the answer why High-End/Audiophile SL1200GAE is still a perfect "DJ turntable".

The best coreless direct drive turntables like the Victor TT-101 has lower torque than Technics. Victor has an electronic pitch control +/- buttons, but nor manual pitch control fader like Technics.

My Luxman PD-444 has lower torque that Technics, but i like Luxman much better for home listening. No pitch control, just stable 33/45

In Audiophiles world the speed stability is the key, not the torque.
Victor TT-101 direct drive has an ultimate speed stability, but lower torque.

BTW: Technics SP-10 mkIII has the highest torque ever among any Direct Drive as far as i know!

So the Technics is still unbeatable in terms of torque when it comes to reference models, but there is not pitch control on the reference models. 

What is OK for audiophiles is not acceptable for professional DJs and vice versa. 

I got that part of why SL1200 was embraced by DJs. In fact, I mentioned something along those lines in another recent thread about it.

More of a question would be what qualifies a turntable as an "audiophile". If it is speed stability, that should not be that hard to achieve in 2018 and most of the relatively decent ones (not little plastic boxes rumbling their way) should be "audiophile". In my, very layman, view, torque should not have that much impact after the speed is finally achieved. I admit, I might have just written something entirely stupid out of almost utter ignorance of turntable technology.


Now, when you mentioned Luxman, I have my eye on their latest turntable just for the looks. The only reason why I have not bought it is the belt drive. I am sure it is great, but the idea of having to change belt is not that appealing no matter how simple the procedure it is. I really do not care if it does or does not have torque or if it is "audiophile" or not. I have a feeling that all these machines actually perform very close to each other. Of course, after a certain threshold of quality.