Technics 1200g - Any long term users?
- Thread starter Robby
- Start date
herb
brain's right hemisphere
Good for classical music? The songs bubbled out of the groove giving a wonderfully zesty presentation that bristled with detail. Everything was so secure and so well proportioned that the sound might as well have been bolted deep into the earth's crust.
I go to lots of live classical concerts, my kit is far from perfect but this would not be an improvement ….
daytona600
Registered User
New SL-1500C should be circa £899
Tarzan
pfm Member
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this Robby.
It’ll be the first DD turntable I have owned and I am intrigued as to how it compares to the Gyro SE I still have here.
daytona600
Registered User
It’ll be the first DD turntable I have owned and I am intrigued as to how it compares to the Gyro SE I still have here
Better start your " Gyro SE I for sale thread "
Better start your " Gyro SE I for sale thread "
Oh the Gyro is already sold. Will do a quick comparison before I get it boxed and sent to it’s new owner
TheDecameron
Unicorns fart glitter.
Thanks Tarzan. How would you compare the TT with any others you’ve had an SME V on? I’ve only ever had belt drives.
Tarzan
pfm Member
My Gyro has every mod you could wish for.... the Techie not quite as modded, that said l prefer the Gyro, it is quite a bit more refined and is very musical, I installed Pete's Pylons and B'Jeepers the sound has become rock solid.... l cannot begin to tell you how good an upgrade this and it takes away the blooming W&F.... that said the Techie/SME V is also rock solid, got a Knats more drive.... however is not as refined or clean sounding.... that said as Robby is finding out if you do not want to faff about a new Techie is the way to go, l myself am thinking about the new Techie and Jelco arm ( so l can change cartridges at will.)
1200GAE review that influenced me to buy one was in HiFi News -arm came in for particular praise (IMO-deserves it).
I run a SMR IV on one of my 1200Mk5's -table it's self has only had the KAB plastic/nylon thrustplate installed and Isokinoe feet -feet were installed after I found myself thumping on the bottom of the shelf the 1200GAE sits on and thinkin "These REALLY work!". In order to get the combination of a SME IV /Shure Ultra 500/JICO neo SAS to align properly vertically -I find myself running the thicker Technics matt and a 4mm spacer between the bottom of the arm's headshell area and the top of the cartridge. This has the arm as far down as it can go in the Technics SME adaptor - IOW- the arm rest/arm lockdown is sitting the thickness of a paper index/file card above the top plate of the Technics turntable. I have no particular aversion to spacers and this works/sounds very fine. But I'd guess that those folks with a aversion to spacers on their headshells -probably want to avoid SMEIV/V mounted on a Technics 1200 ?
I run a SMR IV on one of my 1200Mk5's -table it's self has only had the KAB plastic/nylon thrustplate installed and Isokinoe feet -feet were installed after I found myself thumping on the bottom of the shelf the 1200GAE sits on and thinkin "These REALLY work!". In order to get the combination of a SME IV /Shure Ultra 500/JICO neo SAS to align properly vertically -I find myself running the thicker Technics matt and a 4mm spacer between the bottom of the arm's headshell area and the top of the cartridge. This has the arm as far down as it can go in the Technics SME adaptor - IOW- the arm rest/arm lockdown is sitting the thickness of a paper index/file card above the top plate of the Technics turntable. I have no particular aversion to spacers and this works/sounds very fine. But I'd guess that those folks with a aversion to spacers on their headshells -probably want to avoid SMEIV/V mounted on a Technics 1200 ?
Tarzan
pfm Member
Only if you are using a not very tall cartridge- l had this problem with a Denon DL103- had put a headshell weight on the SME V and it worked a treat.
The SL1200G arrived today (after a 1200GR arrived by mistake yesterday).
Set it up this afternoon after listening to the Gyro this morning. First thing is the build quality on the 1200G is incredible - it is heavy and very solid. And really that is an understatement. Makes the Gyro seem flimsy by comparison.
So how does it sound? To my ears astounding. A revelation in fact. It is vastly different to the Gyro and makes me think that I mustn’t have set that turntable up properly even though I spent hours tweaking it. It sounds really how it feels - solid and weighty and with an inky black background that didn’t know vinyl was capable of.
I need to play around with sorting the VTA out because the height of the PTG33/ii isn’t quite tall enought but even with this compromise the sound quality is incredible.
As you can tell I am very happy - I cannot imagine at the moment needing anything more than this.
Set it up this afternoon after listening to the Gyro this morning. First thing is the build quality on the 1200G is incredible - it is heavy and very solid. And really that is an understatement. Makes the Gyro seem flimsy by comparison.
So how does it sound? To my ears astounding. A revelation in fact. It is vastly different to the Gyro and makes me think that I mustn’t have set that turntable up properly even though I spent hours tweaking it. It sounds really how it feels - solid and weighty and with an inky black background that didn’t know vinyl was capable of.
I need to play around with sorting the VTA out because the height of the PTG33/ii isn’t quite tall enought but even with this compromise the sound quality is incredible.
As you can tell I am very happy - I cannot imagine at the moment needing anything more than this.
TheDecameron
Unicorns fart glitter.
Thanks, this is really useful first hand experience like Tarzan’s. How did the SME compare SQ-wise with the Technics arm?
spacers wouldn’t bother me but faffing with changing them to get to the right height would. Technics could publish a data table for commonly used carts like the AT range*.
*selfish interest alert.
two different tables (1200GAE/1200 Mk5) into two quit different phono pre-amps (100kOhm/47 pF LCRIII/ Parasound JC-3 jr) with two different cartridges ( Audio technica AT-152 MLP/VMN40ML/Technics T4P to SME heashell adapter compared to Ultra 500 Shure with neoSAS VN5 stylus and to be perfectly honest- whatever is hooked into the Parasound JC-3 jr sounds the best. This is the only SME IV I've ever set up -had set up two V's about 25 years ago and with dozens of arm designs /set ups over the previous couple of decades -the SME V just made sense -instead of adjust this-check to see how far off the previous adjustment(s) are -readjust -remeasure/cut the mean/hope for the best -the SME V (and IV ) seem thought out. Can't tell you this doesn't influence me. This is a old IV (FWIW) - but it's got a fine ability to just seem not there -no fluid damper-but some of the same getting out of the way of the music that the KAB Damper/SL-1200GAE arm gets me - remarkably stable images from both of these fine arms. Full disclosure : While I have a few LOMC carts - mainly I find myself preferring MM/IM carts-so I work to optimize those.
Tarzan
pfm Member
TheDecameron
Unicorns fart glitter.
Interested in SME V compared with the stock arm Tarzan.Is that to me?
Tarzan
pfm Member
Easily worth the outlay l would say- however l do remember with great fondness the sheer musicality of the stock arm and being able to change cartridges easily and quickly, if you have good kit then the SME V makes a very good match, a sound with great bass and authority, l have a Hana SL on my Techie SME V now and it sounds very nice indeed.