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Technics SL-1200 • SL-1210 • SP-25 from an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan! Is the Technics SL1200/SL1210 a DJ deck or an audiophile turntable? Wikipedia has this to say "The Technics SL-1200 is a series of turntables manufactured since October 1972 by Matsushita under the brand name of Technics. Originally released as a high fidelity consumer record player.... " And indeed we now bring you the bearing upgrade and power supply for the original consumer audio SP-25. It is a common misconception that direct drive motors hunt, in fact the servo mechanism is entirely analogue and does not hunt or jitter. By contrast an AC motor belt drive deck can suffer from cogging as the motor steps from magnet to magnet. DC motors can easily suffer commutator noise and vibration too. Belt drives often suffer from belt oscillation. However, all Hi Fi decks are designed to minimise these problems, and so is the SL1200! The SL1210 is the black version and the SL1200 is silver. There isn't any significant difference in all the versions, the MK II is the simplest and cheapest. All our mods will fit any version of the SL-1200 or SL-1210. Our
modifications take away the DJ part of the DNA and restore it to
it's original audiophile birth. Our modifications are not at
all suitable for DJ use ! Before we go on take a look at these
arm choices:
The Jelco arm fitted with an AT-OC9ML/II cartridge
A close up of the
Jelco arm fitted with an AT-OC9ML/II cartridge to a SL1200 - SL1210
The SME M2-9 arm
fitted with a Transfiguration Axia cartridge, record weight and
Audiophile Mat 1
A close up of the SME M2-9 arm fitted with a Transfiguration Axia cartridge to a SL-1200 SL-1210
A customers SL-1210
MKII with SME 309 and Shelter 501 II cartridge, rather tasty?
A customers SL-1210
MKII Copper Mat 2 with SME V and Koetsu Rosewood Signature!
__________________________________________________ Arms & Cartridges: The Standard Arm is not that bad and a lot better than some cheaper audio turntables. The easiest thing to do is to fit an Audio Technica AT120e or an AT440MLa. The Jelco arms will take almost any cartridge, our favourites are the AT-OC9ML/II and Shelter 501. If you don't yet have a moving coil phonostage, then the Shelter 201 is a good starting point. The SME M2-9 is very cool indeed. We suggest the Transfiguration Axis or the Shelter 501. You will sleep at night knowing you have a superb combination. If you can afford it go for the SME 309.
__________________________________________________ Arms plates: All these photos show the original arm plates. They have been replaced by the new anodised plates available in silver or black. They are also different in that the correct VTA will be obtainable whatever thickness of mat is fitted. They are a composite sandwich design that also has better energy dissipation. They have taken a long time to design and represent the ultimate Technics arm plate, expensive, yes! but you only get what you pay for! __________________________________________________ Recommended arm - cartridge combinations
__________________________________________________ Audiophile mat:
Mat 1: The Standard mat is
quite hard, does not fully support a record and is designed for DJ use. Everything you don't
Ours is made from
finely textured, open-cell silicone foam, this mat has unsurpassed
vibration-absorbing characteristics and no resonant qualities to
discolour the music. Records are thoroughly decoupled from unwanted
platter vibration.
Mat 2: Copper mat
specially designed for the SL-1200 & SL-1210. This does need
our external power supply due to the extra energy required to spin
up to speed. Unashamedly inspired by the no longer
manufactured Micro Seiki CU-180, this is a precision machined,
copper mat that offers an optimal platform for vinyl records.
_________________________________________________ Feet: The standard SL-1200 SL1210 feet are designed for a hostile DJ environment, and made to a cost. Our feet make a huge difference in sound and we give you a choice!
__________________________________________________ Power supply:
The SL-1200 has three problems with its power supply a) the transformer mechanically hums and this is audible through the cartridge, b) the transformer has an electromagnetic field also audible though the cartridge, and c) the existing power supply dips on some motor demands giving variable and poor dynamics to the feedback system. This low noise power supply eliminates all these problems. If you can solder, you can easily fit it yourself. We supply fully colour illustrated step by step instructions, if you can solder one joint, you can fit this easily yourself. For more much details on how we designed this PSU click here. Other power supplies are not created equal, click on the link to find out why? 5 year guarantee. A lot of customers have asked if ours is better than the KAB. Well they are nice guys, but ours is a) a better power supply, and b) ours eliminates the internal regulator ripple. So is it better? yes it is significantly better, so much so that if you have a KAB, you really ought to upgrade, you won't know what you are missing!! Click here to find out why? For high end applications we will always use linier power supplies, just like this one! We will never use a switched mode power supply (SMPS) to drive the SL-1200 series! 110/120 & 220/240V versions available. _________________________________________________ Strobe disable mod: Some customers say they can tell the difference if the strobe light is disabled. With our External PSU this is very unlikely as it has proper regulation and the strobe current pulses are not a problem. However, we are always ready to help and if the External PSU is fitted by us then we can make it so! _________________________________________________ Motor dynamics mod: Belt drives suffer from 'belt flutter' whether they use AC or DC motors, there isn't much you can do about it. However with a direct drive, you can alter all the characteristics by simply changing the loop filter. This modification reduces the phase comparator loop filter gain and moves the turn-over point, thereby totally eliminating the low frequency instability. To be honest, the effect isn't as dramatic as our 'zoomed in' scope shows, but it is very worthwhile. This modification gives über pure bass, if you thought the SL-1200 had a handle on bass, and it does, then this will blow your socks off! No good for DJ's, but wonderful news for audiophiles!
__________________________________________________ Bearings:
The standard bearing on the left cannot keep the oil in place. Instead a high viscosity "anti-fling" oil must be used. The centre Timestep bearing has the spindle as a solid single piece of polished 303 Stainless Steel with a much larges base diameter and the bearing is polished PB102 Phosphor Bronze. A ceramic ball and PTFE thrust pad are fitted. The whole assembly is in a captive oil bath so that you can use more suitable thin oil, or any oil of your choice. The right hand bearing is by Mike New which is precision ground and would not be out of place in a £12K turntable. Mikes bearing includes a Silicon nitride ball, carbide pad, brass for housings and a 35mm long top grade sintered bronze bearing. _________________________________________________ Prices
__________________________________________________ Hi Dave, Just to say how bowled over I am by the Technics sl1200 you modded for me last week. The deck sounds excellent with hitherto unheard detail, bass notes so much clearer, mid sweet and top airy. Images rock solid. Thank you very much.. Also I will be ordering the sorbothane boots for feet from you shortly. Regards John Received my PSU today. I must say the hardest part of fitting it was refitting the new cable in the rascally strain relief bush! Initial listening is very promising a lot more detail and much more open. Now all I have to do is save up some more pennies, sell my Garrard 401 and technoarm and put the cash toward a SME 309 and my Technics will be nicely Timestep'ed Looks cracking in black too, very impressed! Steve
Reviews: • Hi Fi World review of a SL-1210 with most of our options, click here to read it.
•
Tone Audio review
of the SL-1200 with some options
click here
to read it. Notes from the web, latest one is at the bottom of this list Note: 16 February 2010: There are new mats out there! Instead of trying hard and getting it to fit inside the platter, they have taken the easy route and made it a stock size. This means it drapes offer the platter only supported at the very edge. Instead of making it properly they hid the fact with some mumo jumbo. It costs more to do things properly and we believe in that. We will never take short cuts, our power supply is a testament to that!
__________________________________________________ SP-25, SL-1025: The Technics SP-25 is basically a SL-1200 in a new plinth mount chassis. It has a lower profile transformer and less space inside. The Timestep bearing will fit and gives quite a big improvement, unfortunately the Mike New bearing is too large. The Timestep Power Supply Unit wires straight in and has a very good performance. This will enable 120/110V versions to run on 220/240 and also 220/240 version to run on 120/110V. We recommend simply removing the existing transformer. The 78rpm mod will not fit. __________________________________________________ SP-15, SL1015: The Technics SP-15 is basically a SL-1200 in a new plinth mount chassis with a whole load of extra electronics to do digital pitch adjustment and 78rpm. This is a lovely turntable totally spoilt by the internal switch mode power supply! It needs the new Timestep HE+ PSU at £399.00. This will enable 120/110V versions to run on 220/240 and also 220/240 version to run on 120/110V. None of our bearing upgrades will fit. __________________________________________________ SL-120 MK I, SL-1500 MKI, SL-150 MKI, SL-1200 MKI, SL-1400 MKI, SL-1401 MKI, SL-1900 MKI,: These direct drive turntables really are good and we can make them even better by providing an external power supply. Our standard unit is £299.00. None of our bearing upgrades will fit. __________________________________________________ We can modify and service most Technics turntables, just ask. We can modify and repair almost any direct drive turntable, it might take time and it might not be cheap, but we can do it! We can fit almost any tonearm to almost any turntable. __________________________________________________
Mail order & Prices 06 March 2010
Sound Hi Fi PO Box 2001 Dartmouth Devon TQ6 9QN Great Britain Telephone 01803 833366 Fax 01803 839498 e-mail sales@SoundHiFi.com |
want for your
audiophile use! BEWARE: The Technics platter has an
outside lip that will make any other mat tilt up at the edges, this
means your records will only be in full contact at the very edge,
and not with the main part of the record. Our mat is slightly
smaller in diameter to fit inside this lip and give your records
constant contact. This small but absolutely necessary feature
demonstrates our fanatical attention to detail.
