Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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44 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Ultimate Turntable, September 25, 2006
Occasionally a piece of equipment comes along that is so well designed, well built and far ahead of the pack that it defines the state of the art and any major improvements are not only unnecessary but impossible. 30 some odd years ago Technics released the first SL1200 direct drive turntables and defined what phono turntables should be; affordable, reliable, excellent. In the 30 years since then there have only been minor revisions to the SL1200.
If you're like me and you have a vinyl fetish the 1200 MK2 is the turntable to buy, the extra heavy duty construction that made this deck so popular with DJs at clubs serves audiophiles just as well at home. The 1200MK2 is impossibly smooth; turn it on and watch as the platter gets up to speed in a single rotation, the platter speed is incredibly accurate, again, this sets the standard. Combined with a properly installed cartridge (I use a Shure Type 15 VMR) this turntable will give you years of pleasure from your record collection
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best, regardless of price, February 7, 2008
I am a vinyl junkie.There; I've said it. And for years I was in search of the perfect turntable on which to indulge my passion. This turntable is analog nirvana. Clearly, this turntable was intended for both the professional and home markets. The direct drive motor keeps the platter precisely on speed thanks to the quartz-locked control, or varied with the pitch control slider. A green light lets you know when you're locked right on speed. In addition, the strobe on the outer rim of the platter helps you gauge where you are when you adjust the pitch. The S-shaped tonearm offers adjustments for tracking force, anti-skate, AND vertical tracking angle. The importance of VTA is often downplayed, but I can tell you it matters! When it's right, you'll know. I have no fewer than 16 cartridges on headshells that can be used on this turntable, and all sound excellent. But my strongest recommendation for the best cartridge to use with the 1200for home use is the Denon DL-160 high output moving coil.My records have never sounded better, and this cartridge, like the turntable, is a bargain. I've been using this combination for transferring some of my favorite LP's to CD so I can play them in my car. In many cases, the sound was so good it was hard to tell this was an analog transfer. This is definitely the finest turntable ever built, regardless of price. Even the snooty high end audiophiles should take a good look at this table if they want great sound at a bare-bones price (compared to most high end turntables that don't do anything this one does). There's something to be said as to why this turntable has been available for so long. I've had mine for nearly 20 years, and I'll never let go!
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Technics SL-1200MK2 Beats Them All, March 14, 2009
Hello Everyone,
There is a reason this turntable has sold thousands (millions?). The Technics is simply the best turntable you can get period for a grand or under. Yes it became popular as a DJ table, but it was originally designed as a professional level audiophile home turntable. You need only to spend a few hours with the 1200 to realize this. This is what I've been using it for and it has blown my socks off. I've been very impressed not only with its unparralled build quality, but especially with it's great sound quality as well as its perfectly accurate speed and pitch control.
This turntable is a legend for a reason. I've been an audiophile for 34 years, and I can tell you confidently that this is a superb turntable for home audiophile use. You can spend more money on more expensive "boutique turntables", but you're wasting your money unless you spend three to four times as much. Keep the coin and get some great LPs instead.
The Audio Technica 1200 is a good turntable (speaking from several months of ownership) but the Technics blows it out of the water on all fronts. The AT is mostly plastic and very loosely assembled and poorly manufactured in China. Mine started having issues after the first week. The Technics is still hand assembled in Japan, as it has been for the last thirty odd years, and is made of high grade METAL parts. This turntable will probably outlive me!!! I highly recommend this turntable, and I'm a jaded audiophile. They just don't build them like this anymore. Cheers to Technics for continuing to manufacture this turntable in Japan, to the highest quality standards and built from the highest quality components. This will be the last turntable I'll ever have to buy.
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