How many G/GR owners have tried the Stereophile torque tweak? Basically switching the torque to manual and turning it down a bit. I did it and liked it, but it would be interesting to get the thoughts of more users. It only takes a few seconds to make the change.
mmm…
Took me a while to find the article.
https://www.stereophile.com/content/technics-sl-1200g-turntable-page-2
“Next, I shone an LED flashlight through a hole in the platter to locate the torque control. After setting the switch from automatic to manual, I reduced the torque by about a third of a revolution. The resulting change floored me. The turntable
sounded mostly the same, but its somewhat mechanical, uptight character was nearly gone; now the music flowed and shimmied more convincingly. I also heard improved sustain and decay. Taking RPM Pro for another spin revealed a slightly inferior set of measurements. I suppose the utility of this control depends on whether you believe a turntable's job is to make recorded music meaningful and exciting or to exhibit near-perfect technical performance. For me, this adjustment proved essential and made listening to the SL-1200G considerably more enjoyable and engaging.”
The adjustment instructions are in the hard copy manual, p.19
I haven’t tried it yet as I am still in the honeymoon period, but selfishly I thought I would note it here. I will still forget it, but at least I made an effort.
One thing that I have changed is the interconnects.
Firstly I now have shorter interconnects from the turntable to the phono amplifier. Was 1 metre, now 0.5 m. - this makes sense as the voltage coming from the cartridge is low.
1 metre interconnects from preamp to the main amplifier.
Now using Chord Shawline interconnects that sound noticeably different to the Clearways I was using before.
Until I at least get used to the sound of the new cables, then I will forget about reducing the motor torque.
The turntable sounds jolly good and I have no motivation to muck about with it.
There is a 2m Mono stylus on the way - that is the next and hopefully last bit of jigsaw for a while.
Please comment on the changes experienced if you have altered the torque settings. + or -