Just read this in WHSmith. Ed Shelley did a review. Mainly good, but found that the midband was a little coarse knocking it down to 4.5/5 stars for sound quality. To be honest, they didn't really push it cartridge wise - entry level Nagoaka and an Ortofon Quintet Black S towards the end of the session. Could that coarseness be down to PSU or tonearm or both? He did note that the stock technics headshell could be improved by an Ortofon one.
What's more alarming is that idiot from Technics - their "audio specialist" Jonathan Danbury gave a small interview. When pressed for a cartridge reco, he said "we found the Ortofon 2M Red is a good match, but refer to your dealer". I mean, call himself an audio specialist? They should be obsessing at Panasonic HQ on the best possible components to make the 1200GR/G/GAE sing at their best. A boring £85 2M Red on a £1200 turntable. Seriously? I just found it to me another cogging cog full of lameness to come out of that man's mouth. Jonathan - its not enough to take a product from japan, stick a Plug & Play Ortofon 2M black on it, play some Diana Krall at Bristol...........and call yourself an audio specialist!!
I really wish David Price had done the review, or Noel Keywood had got a new stock 1200GR in and compared it against a 1210mk2 with mods - to see what the best way of spending £1200 is.
Rant over.