Hi Sonny,
Sorry for the late reply - as I said, just been busy elsewhere!
The other possibility, though, is that your essentially home-assembled TT is not as good as a 1200G (which you haven't heard), for twice the money not including all your work on it. Sceptics, while admiring your enthusiasm and not doubting the knowledge you've gathered on your odyssey, will think it more likely that Technics can freshly design, tool and hand-build a better DD turntable for £3k from scratch than you can cobble together from random components sourced from the crazily-priced world of hifi for £6k.
Absolutely, and if I were you I'd think the same, especially when you don't know me from Adam, or anything about the choices I've made, in respect of how my turntable has been modified. Or just as importantly, the calibre of the products installed, which have facilitated that, or that of the talented and consummate professionals who designed and built them.
Firstly though, I'd say that whilst your argument makes perfect sense, and keeping the discussion for the moment about direct-drives, the exact same would surely apply to Brinkmann and Inspire? The Brinkmann Oasis, for example, in case you didn't know, is a £9k turntable. So surely, to use your argument, Brinkmann can, and I quote: 'freshly design, tool and hand-build a better DD turntable for [£9k] from scratch than I can cobble together from random components..'?
Yet when I did the comparison with its owner, that's not what happened, which at the time he fully acknowledged. What actually happened was my 'Trigger's Broom', lol, ably held its own and competed very well with its more expensive counterpart, and in some areas bettered it. Ditto with the Inspire Monarch, at £7k, at a different demo.
So who's to say the same won't happen with a 1200G?
Plus looking at it another way, again using your argument, you'd think that even with my own T/T, when it was in stock form, and I bought it new as an SL-1210MK5G, Technics should've been able to 'freshly design, tool and hand-build a better DD turntable from scratch than I can cobble together from random components' - all I could possibly do was bodge it, right?
Again, not so. With the modifications I carried out to the turntable, I succeeded in successfully addressing its shortcomings, whilst building upon and maximising its strengths, and which trust me would be readily heard in any comparison with such. Do you see where I'm coming from?
It's a bit like comparing, say, a professionally race-tuned Ford Focus, where all the work's been carried out by NASCAR-trained technicians (independent specialists in their field), using bespoke parts from specialist manufacturers, against a stock one straight out of the factory. Which do you think would offer the superior performance?
Well... My turntable has been similarly 'race-tuned', using components from manufacturers who are specialists in their field (namely, mostly, Mike New and Paul Hynes, who designed and built the bearing/platter and PSU arrangements respectively), and crucially knew the Technics inside out and how to address and fundamentally overcome its limitations in stock form. All I did was buy their products and have them fitted by another professional - then sat back and enjoyed the results!
However, I knew what I was doing, as I'd researched both their products and them thoroughly, and so all along was confident about the outcome - and that's why I'm equally as confident that my 'Trigger's Broom' would compete very favourably against a 1200G or possibly even an R, because I know *exactly* what's gone into making it what it is
I don't mean that in a mean way at all. I accept it's possible that yours is better; I just don't think it's likely.
I get that, so why don't we find out?
Do you have an R, or even a GR? If so, let's arrange a bake off, at either your place or mine, and see what happens. I'm not expecting there necessarily to be an outright winner, as I know how capable the R is, so it could simply be a case of equally good but different 'flavours', thus come down to individual preference.
However, I think such a comparison would be useful and interesting reading for all Technics enthusiasts out there, and for me, exactly what forums such as this (and AoS) are all about!