Loricraft Garrard 301 to Dobbins Sp10 Mk3 - What can I expect ?

One important difference I missed out is, from 1200G to Sp10 Mk2 there was a marked increase in slam factor. 

Interesting. I run 2 different AudioGrail 401s. One is in a slate plinth with new 3rd party platter and idler. The other with original platter and new idler in a birch ply plinth with walnut top. Both sound great. Extremly musical and every record sounds great. The slate version is faster and to my ears, more neutral and transparent. The benefit of speed is critical in preserving the clarity in a way that mere detail does not. I heard the new SP tables in New York and prefer my Garrards. Obviously, there were many other factors but what was missing was a musical rightness that you have expressed.

one thing that I found that really made the 1200G sound better was to adjust the torque to its lowest setting. The factory setting was not right and made the player sound as you described.  I find the 1200G to have plenty of slam.  I actually like it better than the sp10 mk 2. 

I tried the 1200G with lower torque, default torque and also higher torque. The sound did change a bit. The thing is when you want to “fine tune” these things matter. When you are looking for a more fundamental change in sound these things don’t help or doesn’t matter. I am not saying someone liking the Technics is less critical. I think it is all about how the ears have gotten trained over the period. After listening to the flow and uncompressed dynamics of idler the DD sounded too controlled. I can imagine exactly the opposite if I was a long term DD user and listening to idlers. I would probably complain about the noise, control and less organized presentation of idler.