Technics Turntables...really???

I wound up selling my Sota that had been factory freshened and VTA installed and really wanted to use it  and the belt would keep coming off and I frankly did not like the full manual mode.   At some point I bought  a  SL-1600 mk ii  off of ebay and  sent it to a refurbisher in TN.  I think it was..   who has since passed.  A weak  link in the system is a nylon or plastic of some sort gear that is elemental to the arm operation ..   I bought a Rega 3 with upgrades and used very briefly and found on ebay of all places this restorer of Technics who had the gear that I needed.  I sent him the table and he fixed it and its back in operation --the only table in here..   Suffice to say,, Im not playing enough vinyl but then I just recently moved to a whole new area in Cali..    surrounded by fires these days although lucked out and not really in a critical area where fuel for fires is plentiful.  Makes for some very hot weather after living near the ocean all these years in the bay area.    

Hi Norbert @nkonor,

I unfortunately can add nothing to my original post on the wonderful AFI FLAT:

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/relaxing-records-for-better-sound-using-the-afi-flat

A friend in Europe had arranged for one to go to a potential agent in Hong Kong and he knew I had a number of warped records so he arranged for me to have it first and I used it for 6 weeks. I flattened and heaps of records in that time and Relaxed a whole bunch of others. I wrote my review after that experience. I was so taken with the Relax function that I immediately ordered one from Europe. I also ordered some other equipment and the whole lot was meant to be bundled and sent to me. The FLAT has been paid for and sitting in Europe but there have been delays with the rest of the equipment. My model will not be the new one that you mention but one like I used before as it was bought way back. My understanding is that the efficacy of the old and new model is the same.
From my experiences with the Relax function, as described in my thread, I am absolutely sold on it and cannot wait to get my AFI FLAT, hopefully in the next few months. There is no doubt to my ears and that of my friend’s as to the increase in SQ from this function regardless of whether the record is old or new and or perfectly flat.

I hope you get yours and would be most interested in your experience.

All the best,
bluewolf

Sleepwalker65, 

As an aside: "FM radio is anything close to true HiFi?" With a really good tuner and an outside antenna mounted on the roof, FM can be very satisfying. Not the sound of a good analog rig or SACD or hi-res recordings, but still very listenable. Just my 2 cents.

I own a Prime and a Technics 1200GR. Each is on a separate system now so direct comparison is not possible; the 1200 is on the main system the Prime used to be on and uses a Dynavector P75 mkiii phono pre and the Prime uses a Parasound JC3+ phono pre. The speakers on the main system with the 1200 are Thiel CS2.4’s.  Very revealing speakers, but the Technics is exemplary. I have no complaints. 

For those who would like to upgrade Technics stock tonearm to something new and truly high-end i would recommend Reed 3P instead of Tri-Planar!