Thanks, agreed on speed stability being the number one requirement of a turntable design, however the 1200G I had in my system for a couple of weeks sounded too precise, if that makes sense, rather uptight about the way it went about its business, so that I couldn't really relax into the music.
I shall have to listen to the GR2 when it's released next month, but the Technics rep in the video was clearly claiming that the design changes are genuinely innovative; in that case, you'd think it would make more sense for them to be introduced in the top model(s) and trickled down, rather than trickled up.
So I am sceptical.