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Any Love for the Pioneer PLX-1000 Yet?

Early in the year, Steve Guttenberg (C-Net, formerly S'phile and others) and Herb Reichert (longtime high end figure; new to S'phile) posted favorable reviews of the new (released last year) Pioneer PLX-1000 direct drive turntable.

Although the PLX-1000 is obviously filling the gap left by the discontinued Technics SL12x0 series, Guttenberg and Reichert reviewed the table from an audiophile standpoint, and not as a DJ deck.

Reichert and Guttenberg auditioned the turntable together but wrote about it separately, so their reports mention the same electronics and cartridges as well as the other turntables they compared the Pioneer to. Both reviewers came away with an enthusiastic recommendation and consdiered this the one to beat at $2K and under. Not bad for $697.

Now in my latest issue of Stereophile, Reichert wrote a followup, where he revisited the turntable on his own, made sure he used LPs he's familiar with, tried out a bunch of his own cartridges, and compared the Pioneer with yet another group of turntables.

His conclusion? The Pioneer is even better than he thought the first time around.

I found it encouraging that the Pioneer improvements were very similar to what I did to my SL1210 M5G--damped the tonearm and replaced the feet. I also got the KAB fluid damper and record grip and a discontinued Oracle sorbothane mat. However, the Pioneer has a couple of other improvements I couldn't perform--a higher torque motor and extensive internal damping between (I think) the plinth and chassis. Also, the plinth is a zinc alloy now, which should be more rigid and sonically inert than the Technics' aluminum.

Has anyone here heard the deck yet? Thoughts? Feelings? Opinions?
johnnyb53
johnnyb53 OP
3,510 posts
 
invictus005:No love here. I don’t support fraudulent products that steal.

Steal?Nobody held a gun to Technics’ head to drop the SL12x0 series. Panasonic didn’t want to be bothered retooling the assembly line. In doing so, they created a gaping hole in their direct drive TT product line, a hole that Pioneer was all too happy to fill, with no complaints from Panasonic.
And to my knowledge, Matsushita/Technics/Panasonic never sued or issued a "Cease and Desist" order against Pioneer for reviving SL12x0-style turntables. If Technics lost product presence in DD turntables, they did it to themselves. One could even say that Pioneer invested the money to provide free "proof of concept" for the continuing viability of Panasonic style DD turntables. Panasonic’s response to Pioneer was to come out with a new DD turntable product line whose demand far exceeded Panasonic’s expectations.
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
Panasonic didn’t want to be bothered retooling the assembly line. In doing so, they created a gaping hole in their direct drive TT product line, a hole that Pioneer was all too happy to fill, with no complaints from Panasonic.

There was no gap as they made a few millions of Technics SL1210/1200 mk2, mk3, mk3D, mk4, mk5, mk6 ... variations. All of them are so cheap on the used market (now getting even cheaper), so the price of the Pioneer clone was at least for a double price. Pioneer is a leader of professional equipment for clubs and djs worldwide, their goal is a mixers and CDJ digital players. What they did (as many others before) is a clone of Technics design to sell for professionals (clubs and djs). They could not replace Technics, because the Technics has a cult status for professionals (clubs and djs) worldwide, the SL1200mkII is a legend, no other manufacturer can replace it, it's impossible. If you will look at the other clones of that model you will find Audio-Technica, Stanton, Numark, Gemini, American DJ, Reloop and many more bad clones for a very low price, they are all DD and made way before Pioneer released their clone which is definitely better than other clones, but still not a Technics.  

Panasonic’s response to Pioneer was to come out with a new DD turntable

I'm sure it was NOT a response to Pioneer, you're comparing apples to oranges. Again, the Technics SL1200 mkII reached 3 000 000 copies before they quit for some time and now returned with CORELESS MOTOR, so no one can compete with Technics, really. 



   
roberjerman
4,319 posts
 
@chakster :  The PLX1000 is a high quality DD TT at an affordable price! I have one! The $1800 Technics is overpriced! I doubt that the Pioneer and Technics differ sonically!
chakster's avatar
chakster
6,144 posts
 
@roberjerman The fact that you have one does not make it good, even old SL1210 mkII is much better built (in japan) than plastic Pioneer PLX-1000 (made in china), i’ve tried both, the fairy tales that Pioneer made this turntable for audiophiles has nothing to do with reality. Pioneer is a DJ/Pro/Club oriented comany for decades. There is only one reason for Pioneer to make a clone of Technics is to sell it to the Club/DJs like everything else from Pioneer (as i said: mixers and CDJ digital players for deejays).

Audiophiles are free to buy it, but the pitch control is for DJs, copy paste of the Technics size is also for DJs. Audiohiles have no clue how it’s important for DJs, Pioneer knew it very well when they decided to make a clone of Technics instead of their own superior design from the past (developed primary for Audiophiles: Pioneer Exclussive series of turntables from the 70/80s).

Do you think Pioneer PLX1000 has a Coreless Motor ?
If you like quality and cheap DD designed for DJs then you can look at the Denon VL12 as well, Denon at least changed the design a bit. Can’t remember anyone mentioned it here. Zu Audio upgrading those Denon turntables and cartridges.

Anyway the originator of this iconic design is Technics and i have no idea why do we need all those clones if we have Technics again? Personally i have 22 years of experience with Technics DD (different models from dj to high-end) and never had any problem with them.

Technics has a Coreless DD Motor in all new models (which is amazing):

If you think Technics GR for $1800 is overpriced then look at two new models released in 2019: $1199 MK7 and $1399 SL1500C (with cartridge and phono stage included).
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