Turntable purchase advice sought
Hey everyone,
Looking for a bit of advice on a possible turntable purchase. There is a Technics 1200 Mark II with many Dave Cawley modifications listed on the other site. I have used a VPI hw19 Mark 4 and a Rega P3 before and I'm now running an NAD c558 but I'm looking for something with a bit more bite to it. My cartridges go between a Hana ML MC and a Clearaudio Maestro V2 Ebony MM.
I don't mind fussing with turntable setup and in fact love aligning cartridges and setting VTA and all that, but I've heard lots of good news about how durable the Technics is. Any thoughts would be appreciated. And thank you.
Asking price for the modified 1200 Mk2? And specifically what mods were done? Keep in mind that the older SL1200 series is quite different from the modern 1200G series, even though Technics made the bad decision to have them look nearly exactly alike. If the cost of the modified SL1200 is anywhere near to the cost of a new G series, go with the latter, is my advice. |
@lewm Price is $1K and mods are as follows: Linn mount (Silver color) and SME Tonearm armboards Technics SL-1200, SL-1210, SL-1200GAE, SL-1200G - black - dave-cawley - retail for $133 each |
The fact you don’t mind fussing around should lead you to trying it. Count me as an SL1200 believer. Like any turntable, changes are very possible and you should be able to assess whether or not different is better as you experience an other machine. In addition to DC’s Timestep, Kevin Barrett @ KABUSA has much info as well as cost effective mods that are great for jumping in. The original SL1200 MkII unit up through 2010 production should prove over time to be one of the more relevant turntables ever IMO. MUCH performance can be pulled from its well executed design. |
@boothroyd Thank you for the advice. My one last hesitation is that it has fixed RCA cables coming from the tonearm. Assuming I keep that tonearm for the time being means I'm stuck with whatever quality those output cables have. Should this be a concern? I'm using Morrow PH4's at the moment. |
