Just wanted to chime in and add my 2cents. As an ex 70's/80’s DJ working full time in clubs at the time, I’ve had my hands on the 1200 MK2 for many years, everyday, 6 hours a day and more, which makes me quite sensitive to the looking down comments of the "local experts" here... Don’t bash this old lady that had many qualities, certainly not an approximative tone arm, out of control component noises and hunting and pecking speed control. Speed control and torque was another of its qualities, and was so good that it was not a problem to set and let go 2 1200 playing the same record together, both faders up, for the entire time of an extended 45 without a 100th of a second speed variation. That, added to the general built quality, reasonable price for a professionally usable gear made it the queen of TT to those who were really using them, the DJ’s. Nobody else knows them that deeply. Coming with numbers and unilateral judgements long after their time is just not doing it for me. Of course if you refer to a battered one, which suffered travelling on the back seat of a car or worse, worked for years in tobacco pot, suffering the nicotine infiltration everywhere, or abused or mistreated in any other way, yes you can find it somewhat substandard. Just a word on the weight of the platter, yes quite light, and for the better because again, added to the torque and the exact speed control, you could with a little nudge get back in the beat to carry on your mix successfully. And this was exactly what the DJ’s were after. More than enough torque, light platter, speed control, ergonomy of this S shaped tone arm, 0 to right speed in less than a quarter, stop to 0 in less than a quarter too, and tell me if I forgot something... None of the competition, I say None, full stop, was offering that, not mentioning the trust you could put in it as a pro, and for years and years to come. I know because I played daily on the others, Thorens, Lenco L75, even Dual1218 and Dynacord, + some I forgot. Let me tell you about fishing a belt fallen out inside the case, in the middle of your set on a Saturday evening lol!
The sound quality? In a club it is pretty hard to pretend having a great sound quality. Getting practical and reliable is the first thing. For the rest, speak to the equalizer...
Is it an Audiophile TT? Nah, and has never been, it was a mass production hi fi turntable that turned out to be adequate for a DJ work. I still love the looks (And to see that so many hifi manufacturers have copied it comforts me in my opinion). I also love to see it working, mine (a beautiful 1210) is not perfect though but with a bit of love will be great. It sounds as good as my CD’s with the "emotion" of the analogue on top, thanks to its Ortofon M2 Blue, and I consider that good enough for me, and my old ears.. :). I don’t think it can reach the Audiophile level mentioned by some, and it is not built like that anyway, but who cares about the snobbish, unrealistic comments of a bunch of pretentious auto convinced of their superiority? Peace!
