Technics SL-1200 MK2

Technics SL-1200 mk2

I just got hold of my long desired Technics SL-1200 turntable . I have wanted one of these bad boys for many years. Now most people would want 2, but my desire has been for just 1. Why? well I have a DJ set up consisting of a Pioneer CDJ-200 and Denon DN-S3000 and Pioneer DJM-400 Mixer, that takes care of my DJ needs. I got theTechnics SL-1200 turntable to scratch with, for music production. Not being flush with cash I contacted my good friends down at DMC Records in Prahran, Lance and Stuart, who have looked after me with nearly all my music production gear. Now they advised me rather than buy a cheaper but new turntable, to get the industry standard Technics SL-1200 turntable used(2nd hand). I could have bought a new Pioneer or Numark deck through work, at cost, but I figured it was good advice, as the Technics SL-1200 turntable will hold its value and are a real workhorse, so should give me many many years of trouble free service.

I got the deck, and fitted a SHURE M44-7   Turntabilist scratch cartridge. I then adjusted the counter weight and anti skate etc to Shures recommendations and I was ready, to hook it all up. I intially planned to feed it directly into my M Audio Firewire 410 sound card, using a Behringer Micro phono PP400 phono stage, that converts the standard RIAA phono output to a line level output, but this overloaded the inputs. I tried adjusting the input gains but realised it made more sense to feed it though a mixer, so I could adjust the level and use the fader to help with scratching. Its how I should have gone straight off, but never having done this before I didn’t think about too hard.

I had a mixer for use with my computer and my Denon deck, so hooked the 1200 through that, so it was all pretty straight forward. I decided to keep the Behringer pp400 in the signal chain and then go into mixer at line level, because even though the mixers has phono inputs, its a V cheap unit, so the pp400 should give me a better quality signal, and as this set up is for recording,going the better quality set up is always a good idea.

I have been playing with the set up almost every waking moment, only stoping to eat and add this blog entry, and I couldn’t be happier with it. I’m glad I went for the Technics SL-1200 turntable rather than buying what my limited budget would have bought new. You can feel the quality, and even though Im playing some old 7inch vinyl 45’s I have had since the days they were all we had, the sound quality is superb. I have some limited edition 45s that I didn’t play when new, and they played back without even pops and clicks. Very nice. They have now been played once lol. I have normal 45s that I played back in the days, and they obviously have a few pops and clicks that we were used to, in those days, and I may scratch up a couple of those, if there is something that fits a song I’m writing, but I bought a scratch disc to mess with, and now just have to learn how to scratch like a pro.

I rate this product 9 out of 10