I've been think about writing a few words on this deck , when I was searching the internet prior to buying I couldn't find anything usefull . The only scriblings seemed to be from people who had seen them at shows or heard them in dealers showrooms . I also noticed a few people asking Tony how he was getting on with his new 1200G , well the very same turntable has been in my possesion for a few weeks now so I thought I'd pen ( or is that key ? ) my thoughts .
First things first , looks . Whilst this thing may look like a MK2 it doesn't feel like it , it is a substantial thing much heavier than its compact footprint suggests .
The build quality is superb and in my opinion is as good as anything out there at any price .
I won't go into details on the fancy motor , platter , bering ect . All this info exists in cyberspace .
What most folk will want to know is "what does it sound like" . Well when engineers where thinking about designing CD players and imagined audio playback with absolute speed stability and virtually zero noise floor they could have been thinking about this TT . It sounds like the best CD player you could hope to hear .
This might seem like damning praise but it's not , the benefits of this rock solid speed and very low noise floor is that all the detail in the music comes to the fore nothing is obscured and it is presented in a very open spacious soundstage . It won't suit everyone , it does not have a lush romatic personality , It is very neutral and gives you what is on the record .
There is more torque than I have ever seen in a turntable ( and it’s adjustable but all my listening has been in auto ) , music is driven , bass is deep and taught , percussion has plenty of snap . Yet it still provides subtlety when it is required .
All sounds great doesn’t it , well there is a fly in the ointment and that fly is the tone arm . More specifically the tonearms lack of VTA . It follows the tried and trusted Technics method of the screw ring on the base for adjusting the VTA and it works a treat until you want to put on a shallow cart , in my case a Denon DL103r or Audio Technica’s AT33EV . With both of these carts correct VTA can not be achieved, extra mats and headshell spacers helped but these things drive me daft .
However all is not lost , there are mounting plates for all sorts of arms and in my possession I have a Jelco SA750D , so we soon had this .
Did it make a difference , yes I can now accommodate all manor of cart heights . There is also a subtle change in the sound , it may just be down to the extra mass of the Jelco suiting my carts better but there is a bit more refinement to the sound .
I would love to hear one with a real top end arm , but until I win the lottery this combo wil keep me very happy .
First things first , looks . Whilst this thing may look like a MK2 it doesn't feel like it , it is a substantial thing much heavier than its compact footprint suggests .
The build quality is superb and in my opinion is as good as anything out there at any price .
I won't go into details on the fancy motor , platter , bering ect . All this info exists in cyberspace .
What most folk will want to know is "what does it sound like" . Well when engineers where thinking about designing CD players and imagined audio playback with absolute speed stability and virtually zero noise floor they could have been thinking about this TT . It sounds like the best CD player you could hope to hear .
This might seem like damning praise but it's not , the benefits of this rock solid speed and very low noise floor is that all the detail in the music comes to the fore nothing is obscured and it is presented in a very open spacious soundstage . It won't suit everyone , it does not have a lush romatic personality , It is very neutral and gives you what is on the record .
There is more torque than I have ever seen in a turntable ( and it’s adjustable but all my listening has been in auto ) , music is driven , bass is deep and taught , percussion has plenty of snap . Yet it still provides subtlety when it is required .
All sounds great doesn’t it , well there is a fly in the ointment and that fly is the tone arm . More specifically the tonearms lack of VTA . It follows the tried and trusted Technics method of the screw ring on the base for adjusting the VTA and it works a treat until you want to put on a shallow cart , in my case a Denon DL103r or Audio Technica’s AT33EV . With both of these carts correct VTA can not be achieved, extra mats and headshell spacers helped but these things drive me daft .
However all is not lost , there are mounting plates for all sorts of arms and in my possession I have a Jelco SA750D , so we soon had this .
Did it make a difference , yes I can now accommodate all manor of cart heights . There is also a subtle change in the sound , it may just be down to the extra mass of the Jelco suiting my carts better but there is a bit more refinement to the sound .
I would love to hear one with a real top end arm , but until I win the lottery this combo wil keep me very happy .
.
