advertisement


Steve Guttenberg sells his SME 15 for a Technics 1200G

I tried one, actually bought the thing. It’s good, but I much preferred my TD-124! Just more alive and fun. Took me about 30 seconds of Dexter Gordon’s One Flight Up to decide and nothing I tried later reversed that initial impression. My suspicion is the Technics is just too mass-damped for my taste.
 
The TD 124 is suspended isn't it Tony? Can the suspension be "clamped out" and if so, have you tried it that way? Would that be ruinous of the TD124's playback performance - adding vibration perhaps? I ask as I've never heard one perform.
 
Voyd the Voyd said:
The TD 124 is suspended is't it Tony? Can they be "clamped out" and if so, have you tried it that way? Would that be ruinous of the TD124's playback performance - adding vibration perhaps? I ask as I've never heard on perform.
Click to expand...

51903996125_c08907eff0_b.jpg


No, I’d not describe it as suspended. The whole TD-124 sits on four fairly firm rubber ‘mushrooms’ between it and whatever plinth the end user selects (they are under the thumb-wheel levelling adjusters visible). It certainly has no ‘bounce’ the way a Linn does, think of it more as a Planar 3 or SL1200 when it comes to isolation, though conceptually different as the plinth being an end-user choice is a variable. Mine is a very light-weight variation on a 1950s Ortofon design. Think of it more as a ‘stand’. In some ways one could view the way the 124 is isolated more along the lines of the Roksan Xerxes as the rubber ‘mushrooms’ do kind of do the same job as Roksan’s rubber composite ‘blobs’ between the lower and upper plinth assemblies. It’s certainly not a suspended subchassis deck anyway.
 
Thanks for the description Tony. It's certainly in great shape with you and looks just lovely with the SME 3009 arm.
 
gavreid said:
He did say that he felt that the ability to change cartridges on the fly trumped the better sounding SME...
Click to expand...

Yes that's probably one reason. I think this is also where SME are missing a trick, i.e. when moving up to SME 20, 30 (or 60) kind of money, I would expect the possibility to run 2 or more tonearms on the same TT.

I am sure that the 1200G will sound different to an SME 15, whether one perceives this 'different' as 'better' is another question entirely.

And just to clarify, albeit an SME 15 owner myself, my 'Hmpf' comment was obviously tongue in cheek! No plans to part with it.
 
vln said:
Yes that's probably one reason. I think this is also where SME are missing a trick, i.e. when moving up to SME 20, 30 (or 60) kind of money, I would expect the possibility to run 2 or more tonearms on the same TT.
Click to expand...

Maybe it's an engineering compromise?
 
Maybe it's an engineering compromise?
Panasonic Corporation/ Matsushita Electric 100+ years global giant
If they built a £50k SME would cost £10k
SME could not build the Motor used by technics for £10million in tooling / design
SL1200G would cost well into 6 figures in small scale volumes
 
gavreid said:
He did say that he felt that the ability to change cartridges on the fly trumped the better sounding SME...
Click to expand...

I suppose he could have mounted a different tonearm with removable/interchangeable headshell on the 15 had he wished to do so, best of both worlds?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top