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SL1200G Owners - what cartridge are you using?

Thanks for all replies so far. Currently experimenting with the original mat & the airborne mat on top plus a MoFi spindle weight. Not sure the Oyaide headshell was a good idea for this deck, worked well with my old Jelco but maybe not such a good match for the Technics.
 
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I have the carbon fibre one but I've not tried it yet. Do you think the Audio Technica (e.g. 440, 150, 33ptg) will work well with it on a Jelco based arm?

Amber Audio said:
I like the AT shells, have several models, had loads of their carts along with Dynavectors. Must admit I’ve a bit of a fetish for Yamamoto shells though :)
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hockman said:
I have the carbon fibre one but I've not tried it yet. Do you think the Audio Technica (e.g. 440, 150, 33ptg) will work well with it on a Jelco based arm?
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Yamamoto Specs here http://mockingbirddistribution.com/yamamoto-sound-craft/yamamoto-headshells/

Review of it on a Jelco
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/testing-the-yamamoto-hs-4-carbon-fiber-headshell

I had my 33PTG in a HS-1a which is pretty much the same weight as the carbon HS-4 so it should work fine, I actually prefer it in an AT MG10. I imported all the Yamamoto shells to have a play with over lockdown, headshell pron pic below :)

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I have an AT33PTG on mine, with a Magnesium AT headshell (I can't remember the model) and a carbon fibre-spacer that came off eBay. The mat is the Funk Achromat. The headshell and mat were small improvements over the standard ones, but adding a KAB arm damper made a much bigger difference and gets my recommendation.
 
I removed the stock arm and installed a Fidelity Research FR-64S (using an Ammonite Audio armboard), which I’m using in conjunction with a Koetsu Urushi Sky Blue and an Ortofon LH-9000 headshell.

I’m also using an Auditorium 23 Hommage mat.
 
I'm moving towards the idea of mounting the SME IV on the Technics but waiting for a 6mm mat to see if that makes a difference.
 
mikechadwick said:
I'm moving towards the idea of mounting the SME IV on the Technics but waiting for a 6mm mat to see if that makes a difference.
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Must admit I’ve toyed with the idea, be great if you do the swap to post pics of the change. Think you need short hex keys to get it all adjusted fully.
 
Amber Audio said:
Must admit I’ve toyed with the idea, be great if you do the swap to post pics of the change. Think you need short hex keys to get it all adjusted fully.
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From Ammonite Audio:

"SME Bedplate Notes
The recessed design of our SL-1200 armboard means that there is plenty of space for a standard SME tonearm bedplate, but access the bedplate adjuster bolt heads is awkward if you try to use the standard SME tools, because SME assume that the arm base will be at the same height as the supporting board; and for that the SME hex wrench is fine, but with our sunken board it is not, as you can see from the photo of an SME 309 fitted to our armboard, shown above. The bias knob of an SME 309/IV/V tonearm obscures some of the adjuster bolts, which on most turntables are normally accessible from the side; however you can simply rotate the arm temporarily out of the way so you have access to those bolts while setting the optimum position. We recommend using shorter hex keys instead of the SME tool, which should mean that you can set fore/aft (HTA) position and arm height clamp bolts properly. The recessed centre plate is a necessary design feature of our armboard for all other tonearms where the arm needs to go low enough to achieve correct VTA against the slimline, low-slung Technics platter - SME arms still benefit from that because the arm can always be set at its lowest possible height.

One ‘workaround’ solution is to not bolt the SME bedplate into our armboard straight away, but instead just sit it in place with the four M3 bolts, without any securing nuts underneath. Then, you can lift the whole arm up to perform the HTA/VTA adjustments using the SME supplied hex wrench, before finally bolting the bedplate firmly to the armboard once everything is in its correct position."

To be honest that's what's making me hesitate.
 
mikechadwick said:
I'm moving towards the idea of mounting the SME IV on the Technics but waiting for a 6mm mat to see if that makes a difference.
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The bottom surface of the SME armrest limits how far you can lower the arm, it contacts the plinth. So you are back to VTA issues.

I just got a set of plastic headshell spacers from Audio Origami. They are rather nicely made. It took me a while to make one myself.
 
Jowcol said:
The bottom surface of the SME armrest limits how far you can lower the arm, it contacts the plinth. So you are back to VTA issues.

I just got a set of plastic headshell spacers from Audio Origami. They are rather nicely made. It took me a while to make one myself.
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Got to be worth a try for a fiver!
 
mikechadwick said:
From Ammonite Audio:

"SME Bedplate Notes
The recessed design of our SL-1200 armboard means that there is plenty of space for a standard SME tonearm bedplate, but access the bedplate adjuster bolt heads is awkward if you try to use the standard SME tools, because SME assume that the arm base will be at the same height as the supporting board; and for that the SME hex wrench is fine, but with our sunken board it is not, as you can see from the photo of an SME 309 fitted to our armboard, shown above. The bias knob of an SME 309/IV/V tonearm obscures some of the adjuster bolts, which on most turntables are normally accessible from the side; however you can simply rotate the arm temporarily out of the way so you have access to those bolts while setting the optimum position. We recommend using shorter hex keys instead of the SME tool, which should mean that you can set fore/aft (HTA) position and arm height clamp bolts properly. The recessed centre plate is a necessary design feature of our armboard for all other tonearms where the arm needs to go low enough to achieve correct VTA against the slimline, low-slung Technics platter - SME arms still benefit from that because the arm can always be set at its lowest possible height.

One ‘workaround’ solution is to not bolt the SME bedplate into our armboard straight away, but instead just sit it in place with the four M3 bolts, without any securing nuts underneath. Then, you can lift the whole arm up to perform the HTA/VTA adjustments using the SME supplied hex wrench, before finally bolting the bedplate firmly to the armboard once everything is in its correct position."

To be honest that's what's making me hesitate.
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I really did think that this potential restriction would bother my SL-1200 SME armboard customers, but in fact not one has come back to me with any complaint; and the SME board is the most popular variant.
 
Shuggie said:
I really did think that this potential restriction would bother my SL-1200 SME armboard customers, but in fact not one has come back to me with any complaint; and the SME board is the most popular variant.
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Thanks Hugo - just ordered one. That’s my weekend sorted :rolleyes:
 
mikechadwick said:
Decided to give it a go. I know if I sold the IV I’d only regret it in the future.
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I sold my V a while back for peanuts judging by recent sales, hey ho. If a IV pops up I'll likely have a crack, cold swap the PU7 but the SME would look fabber on the Techy
 
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