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Haselsh1
24-01-2010, 15:47
I have just sold my Thorens TD160 Super with Alphason Xenon arm via ebay to a punter in Worcester. At the same time I have bought a Technics SL1210 MkII from a geezer in Kent who decided, after I had paid for it, that he would bog off on holiday for four days without any form of communication. I have paid 225 pounds including courier for a barely used example which I am hoping will satisfy my needs until I decide to rip it to bits.

My thinking behind a Techie...? I want a turntable which is speed stable and convenient. I want a turntable which looks good for it's very reasonable price and I want a removable headshell. I intend to fit my Denon DL160 until something considerably better arrives.

Whatcha think...???

(I have argued on this forum that the Technics looks like a dogs dinner. My answer would be that through choice I would have a VPI Scout but where could I get one of those for 225 quid...???)

Rare Bird
24-01-2010, 15:52
I recon you should have heald back the 'Xenon' for the techi.. VPI 'scout' was gonna be my next purchase btw prior to selling out to digital..It's a brilliant deck.

Haselsh1
24-01-2010, 15:58
I recon you should have heald back the 'Xenon' for the techi.. VPI 'scout' was gonna be my next purchase btw prior to selling out to digital..It's a brilliant deck.


Andre, the VPI Scout reminds me of my old Logic DM101 in looks and is a look I've always tried to regain. I would dearly love a VPI Scout but doubt I shall ever be in such a financial position again. I understand it is around 1800 pounds and that is way beyond me.

At some point in the future I shall build on the SL1210 with a new arm and armplate that would enable me to use a wider choice of cartridges but for a year or so, it will stay as it is.

I was very disappointed with the sale of the Thorens. It only fetched 170 quid.

Rare Bird
24-01-2010, 16:03
Logic 'DM101' is probably the best deck i've owned, i loved it...I get confused why people opt for the SL1210 over the SL110!

TD160 don't & never have fetched large sums..Might sound creepy but i'd have a TD160 Super over a LP12 anyday.

DSJR
24-01-2010, 16:16
SL110 feeds back very badly and an LP12 creams it......... been there, owned both!

I'm sure the 110 benefits by mass loading and superior feet though.

Rare Bird
24-01-2010, 16:17
SL110 feeds back very badly and an LP12 creams it......... been there, owned both!

I'm sure the 110 benefits by mass loading and superior feet though.

I did some work on a SL110 years ago, i still think it's a better deck than the 1210

DSJR
24-01-2010, 16:20
It LOOKS far better to me, I'll give you that, but you can play tunes with your fingers on the plinth, it's so live :(

The SL120 is the same..

Rare Bird
24-01-2010, 16:22
It LOOKS far better to me, I'll give you that, but you can play tunes with your fingers on the plinth, it's so live :(

The SL120 is the same..

You can a lot of decks but i still think it's a better deck, granted it needs modding.. I've been looking for a pic of a plinth i made for a 110 customer but fruitless

cuddles
24-01-2010, 16:49
I bought my unused Techie 1200 last Feb off eBay for a tad over £200. I changed the headshell for a Sumiko and put on the Denon 160. Bliss. All I want now is the Timestep PS and new bearing and I'm sorted for the rest of my life ... until the the new platter comes up ... and the 12'' arm mounting ... But! my record player is lovely!

DSJR
24-01-2010, 16:53
Andre, I've seen SL110's in solid complementary plinths and if it's done right it looks great to me. These decks are collectors items now and the prices are un-realistic to be honest for a forty year old deck in need of severe modding.

Welcome Cuddles. More about you and your audio setup please, otherwise the identity police will be on your case...:)

Rare Bird
24-01-2010, 16:57
Dave no they aint just watched on on e-bay with SME 3009 went for peanuts.

DSJR
24-01-2010, 17:07
Don't tell HiFi dave, he paid a few hundred for his.......

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q8/DSJR_photos/DSCF0566.jpg

I adore the look of it though and would love to hear what can be done to it...

I've just realised, I *think* the mat's upside down on this one, unless Technics removed the raised bits and made it a more "cushioned" one. The SL150 has a different mat altogether..

Rare Bird
24-01-2010, 17:10
Andre, I've seen SL110's in solid complementary plinths and if it's done right it looks great to me. These decks are collectors items now and the prices are un-realistic to be honest for a forty year old deck in need of severe modding.

Welcome Cuddles. More about you and your audio setup please, otherwise the identity police will be on your case...:)

Most probs my old plinths ;)

twelvebears
24-01-2010, 17:35
I was very disappointed with the sale of the Thorens. It only fetched 170 quid.

What WITH the Xenon still on it?!! That's a bit of a bugger! :doh:

chris@panteg
24-01-2010, 18:49
I bought my unused Techie 1200 last Feb off eBay for a tad over £200. I changed the headshell for a Sumiko and put on the Denon 160. Bliss. All I want now is the Timestep PS and new bearing and I'm sorted for the rest of my life ... until the the new platter comes up ... and the 12'' arm mounting ... But! my record player is lovely!

Hi

You have a similar deck to mine ' yes you will be well sorted with those upgrades.

Why not introduce yourself in the welcome section;)

chris@panteg
24-01-2010, 19:03
I have just sold my Thorens TD160 Super with Alphason Xenon arm via ebay to a punter in Worcester. At the same time I have bought a Technics SL1210 MkII from a geezer in Kent who decided, after I had paid for it, that he would bog off on holiday for four days without any form of communication. I have paid 225 pounds including courier for a barely used example which I am hoping will satisfy my needs until I decide to rip it to bits.

My thinking behind a Techie...? I want a turntable which is speed stable and convenient. I want a turntable which looks good for it's very reasonable price and I want a removable headshell. I intend to fit my Denon DL160 until something considerably better arrives.

Whatcha think...???

(I have argued on this forum that the Technics looks like a dogs dinner. My answer would be that through choice I would have a VPI Scout but where could I get one of those for 225 quid...???)

Hi Shaun

Welcome to the techie club ' when you start modding/tweaking your 1200 it can become addictive and even obsessive as i have found ' i hope it does it for you ' and of course plenty of good advice on here from eveyone i should think;).

Rare Bird
24-01-2010, 19:50
No No tech club , we don't want no cult thimgs no more!

cuddles
24-01-2010, 19:58
Hi

You have a similar deck to mine ' yes you will be well sorted with those upgrades.

Why not introduce yourself in the welcome section;)

Yeah, I'm a lazy git - I'll do it soon :)

Haselsh1
26-01-2010, 09:33
Well, it's Tuesday 26th January and I've just had a cup of Lapsang to start the day. Yesterday my Technics SL1210 MkII arrived and whilst trying to cook Thai Green Curry and Rice I assembled it and aligned the Denon DL160 as best as I could.

First findings...? Christ, it's been a long time since I heard my vinyl sound this good. The Denon is going into the Crofts MM phono stage and is a true wonder. There is just so much detail coming off the vinyl I'm amazed. So far I've listened to 'Pilgrim' by Eric Clapton and the sound was, to my ears, the best I have heard for a few good years. With what I have heard in the last few hours, I am very satisfied.

I'm using the SL with an Audioref rubber mat and a rather nice solid aluminium record puck but I am going to experiment with a Michell record clamp as well. I have added more mass to the headshell which is something I never did with the Alphason but is something I am sure is a bonus and I've set the alignment using a Heybrook type gauge.

Things really are looking up. Over the last five years I've used a Townshend Rock MkII and the Thorens TD160 Super both with the Alphason Xenon arm. The SL so far, is miles better than either.

chris@panteg
26-01-2010, 10:35
Hi Shaun

I am so very pleased you are liking the SL ' so the DL160 works very nicely in the Croft , plenty of gain then .

I have been seriously considering a croft Phono stage .

The best bit though Shaun ' is if you fancy doing some of Dave Cawley's mods it just gets better and better:)

Beobloke
26-01-2010, 10:38
Don't tell HiFi dave, he paid a few hundred for his.......

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q8/DSJR_photos/DSCF0566.jpg

I adore the look of it though and would love to hear what can be done to it...

I've just realised, I *think* the mat's upside down on this one, unless Technics removed the raised bits and made it a more "cushioned" one. The SL150 has a different mat altogether..

Aaaah, that looks just like mine.

I also paid....er....probably more than I should have done for it but I don't care! :mental:

Marco
26-01-2010, 11:36
Hi Shaun,

Excellent stuff - I knew you'd 'get there' in the end! ;)

The thing about the Techy is that because the noise floor is so achingly low due to the accuracy of its drive mechanism (especially when used in conjunction with a quality off-board PSU), it strips away so much coloration and bloom, which most belt-drive T/Ts I've heard infect the sound with, and allows you to hear properly what's happening in recordings for the first time (if previously your ears had taken this type of musically intrusive (low-mass) belt-drive T/T coloration for granted as being part of the music) that the experience can at first be somewhat unsettling.

Genuine revelations in audio are often like that......

I still remember when I first got my KAB-modified SL-1210, after years of using and being accustomed to the 'house sonic coloration' of (low-mass) belt-drive T/Ts, and spinning 'Dissidents' on Thomas Dolby's album 'The Flat Earth' (an album I know inside out).... After recovering from being blown back into my seat with the sheer levels of low-end impact (which no belt-drive T/T I'd used before had managed to reproduce), I marvelled at how much more information overall was present on the recording; subtle nuances that I'd never even heard before! It was a hard-hitting learning curve for me.

These days, after fitting the Time Step, etc, and with the forthcoming addition of the Mike New bearing, the quality of my music listening experience on vinyl is in a completely different league to what I experienced in the 'bad old days'....

Trust me, Shaun, you're about to embark on a similarly rewarding journey :)

Marco.

chris@panteg
26-01-2010, 11:41
Hi Marco

Hope you don't mind me asking ' you had a rega then an LP12 is that right ? .

Marco
26-01-2010, 16:53
Hi Chris,

I've had loads of different turntables since 1982 when I first got into 'proper' hi-fi - too many to list! :)

However, yes, the last two belt-drives I had before getting the Techy were an LP12 and a (significantly modded) Rega P5, in that order.

The LP12 had a Norton Airpower PSU (in my view, way better than a Lingo or Armageddon), Cryo-d Hadcock GH-242 Integra, Koetsu Black Goldline and Funk Firm Achromat.

The Rega P5 had the off-board T/T PSU fitted, along with an Audio-Origami rewired, stripped and polished RB700, with custom-made heavy-duty brass counterweight balance (made by J7) and high-mass headshell area to accommodate the DL-103R (I also used it with an AT-33PTG). I then later fitted a Funk Firm Achroplat to it, which replaced the existing glass platter. All-in-all, it was quite 'hi-end' for a Rega. At the time it was my 'affordable' benchmark T/T in terms of SPPV.

I won't go into the boring details of how those two decks sounded - suffice to say though that the Rega pissed all over the LP12, and then the Techy came along and dropped a big fat jobby all over the Rega!! :eyebrows:

Before giving up on the P5 (it was pretty good in some ways) I was going to go the whole hog and get a P9 (having auditioned it and a P7), but the Techy bug bit before that happened. Then when I heard the KAB-modded one, it pissed all over the P7 and P9 I'd heard, so this convinced me that belt-drive T/Ts were just not the way to go - at least as far as how I considered music to be accurately reproduced was concerned.

I wonder what would have happened if I'd made the opposite decision and got the P9 instead? Where would I (AOS) and the 'Techy/direct-drive revolution' be now... ;)

Marco.

Kris
26-01-2010, 18:59
it's been a long time since I heard my vinyl sound this good. The Denon is going into the Crofts MM phono stage and is a true wonder

Excellent, well done! I use a Denon 160 as well and wouldn't change it for anything. It's a love it or hate it cartridge apparently, and I love it!


I am going to experiment with a Michell record clamp as well

That's what I use. One drawback though is that the Tecky spindle isn't very long so at times, with thick records, It's not easy to get the clamp to clamp to the spindle.

DSJR
26-01-2010, 21:14
I want the original PIG that Revolver used to do. A small rubbery puck that was a friction fit on the spindle, yet holding the label area in place..

The Grand Wazoo
26-01-2010, 21:20
I remember those, they looked like a baby's dummy!

Kris
26-01-2010, 22:21
I want the original PIG that Revolver used to do. A small rubbery puck that was a friction fit on the spindle, yet holding the label area in place..

I'll sell you mine if you want. I never use it because it's rubbish. IMO.

DSJR
26-01-2010, 23:03
I don't need a heavy or intense clamp or weight, but somthing light-weight which can hold a slightly dished record down on a Spacemat (with fabricated support in the dished area at platter centre...)

http://i132.photobucket.com/albums/q8/DSJR_photos/DSCF0346smaller.jpg

Please PM me to tell me how much you'd want for it...

chris@panteg
27-01-2010, 00:57
Hi Chris,

I've had loads of different turntables since 1982 when I first got into 'proper' hi-fi - too many to list! :)

However, yes, the last two belt-drives I had before getting the Techy were an LP12 and a (significantly modded) Rega P5, in that order.

The LP12 had a Norton Airpower PSU (in my view, way better than a Lingo or Armageddon), Cryo-d Hadcock GH-242 Integra, Koetsu Black Goldline and Funk Firm Achromat.

The Rega P5 had the off-board T/T PSU fitted, along with an Audio-Origami rewired, stripped and polished RB700, with custom-made heavy-duty brass counterweight balance (made by J7) and high-mass headshell area to accommodate the DL-103R (I also used it with an AT-33PTG). I then later fitted a Funk Firm Achroplat to it, which replaced the existing glass platter. All-in-all, it was quite 'hi-end' for a Rega. At the time it was my 'affordable' benchmark T/T in terms of SPPV.

I won't go into the boring details of how those two decks sounded - suffice to say though that the Rega pissed all over the LP12, and then the Techy came along and dropped a big fat jobby all over the Rega!! :eyebrows:

Before giving up on the P5 (it was pretty good in some ways) I was going to go the whole hog and get a P9 (having auditioned it and a P7), but the Techy bug bit before that happened. Then when I heard the KAB-modded one, it pissed all over the P7 and P9 I'd heard, so this convinced me that belt-drive T/Ts were just not the way to go - at least as far as how I considered music to be accurately reproduced was concerned.

I wonder what would have happened if I'd made the opposite decision and got the P9 instead? Where would I (AOS) and the 'Techy/direct-drive revolution' be now... ;)

Marco.

Thanks for that Marco

Very interesting you had the Norton psu i remember that ' was it very similar to the Naim Armageddon in the way it worked ' i can't quite remember .

Yes its a funny old world ' if someone had told me back in say 1990 ' in 20 years time i would be using a 1210 mk2 as my vinyl front end i would have laughed my socks off :lol:.

Anyway its a good combo i think with the DL160 as a starter ' its a very sweet sounding cartridge ' .