I heard my first sp 10 mark II yesterday. Had a Jelco tonearm and a MM cartridge on it. The cartridge was an Old Stanton. Not sure which one. It sounded great but I would not that the 1200G is a compromise. In fact I would rather have my 1200G any day. Sorry... Its closer to a lateral move than anything but the 1200G is newer and I honestly think its sounds better to me. Of course my table has a lyra delos on it but not sure that it matters that much. That Stanton sounded great. So great in fact that I am getting an older Pickering MM cartridge that is supposed to be close to the Stanton he had.
I don’t think a turntable has sound, it’s cartridge and tonearm which makes bigger difference than one Technics motor or another (they are both good). Compromise is a tonearm, you can not use most of the "12 arms on Technics SL1200G for example. Stanton cartridges are really good if it’s at least 881, 980, 981 or higher models like CS-100 WOS, but they are not for Jelco tonearms, Stanton are high compliance cartridges for light mass tonearms like Luxman TA-1, Infinity Black Widow or related light mass tonearms. I’ve heard them on Technics tonearm and it was also nice, but Jelco has higher effective moving mass than Technics tonearm.
If you think an SL1200G is not a compromise then why do you think Technics made SP-10R ?
I just told to another member that i have Pickering XSV-3000 which is equal to the Stanton 881. It’s inexpensive cartridge with Stereohedron stylus.