Technics SL1200MK2 Turntable

technics sl-1200 simply the best.

By Yahoo! Shopping User  Feb 5, 2004 | 6 out of 7 found this Technics SL1200MK2 review helpful

Pros: high torque, good isolation, solid components/construction

Cons: audio/power cables are attached to turntable, making replacement hard

When many people talk about this turntable they go on about how great this table is for djing and how every club uses these series of tables and so forth... but what about the average consumer wanting a great centerpiece for a hifi setup? well this i...s the turntable for that as well. With it's low maintenance direct drive motor you never need to replace belts, and it's proven the test of time. I've known djs who have owned the same tables since the early 80s and the only things that went wrong with them was the stylus light burned out from all of the use. Aside from that they still perform as good as my new ones. The heavy duty rubber and aluminum construction works well at preventing sounds from resonating through the platter. Also another advantage for the consumer is this table accepts an endless number of cartridge types by using a standard 1/2" mount for use with the headshell or a "concorde" type that plugs into the standard 4pin bayonet mount. The tonearm also has hight adjustment, antiskate adj up to 3grams, and gimball tonearm w/ weight and aux weight. The only disadvantage i see in this table is the pop-up stylus lamp will eventually burn out even though it's not really that important for anyone aside from dj usage.In newer versons such as sl-1200m3d sl-1200mk5 the center click on the pitch control is removed and a quartz lock button is added so the pitch adj won't click at 0% (some djs complaned about the dead area around 0% on the mk2) sl-1200mk5 also includes an improved stylus lamp that uses a led instead, antiskate that goes to 6grams, easier access to brake adj, and markers on the rear of the tonearm (the purpose i don't know) the SL-1200MK5G "Grandmaster Edition" features a stunning metallic black finish, blue stylus led lamp, Pitch adj selectable from +/-8% to +/-16% that's backlit, slightly different tonearm, and is overrated and overpriced. Another sl-1200 would be the sl-1200LTD. Only 10000 were ever made world-wide and lucky of me; my mentor won a pair back in 95' or 96' :D Beautiful.... amazing, i cannot express my love. Alot like the MK2/M3d cross. it still had a 0%click but used a pitch reset button. And it came out years before the m3d. but what gets me is it's beauty. Black piano finish, 24K Gold plated tonearm, platter, buttons, (everything that's silver on regular 1200s is in 24k gold plating) This was just a pure joy to see and may have been one my inspirations to get into djing. Read more Less