Current state of play

Hi All

Been through much of this forum, loads of great info and some amazing decks/modifications to the venerable SL's. I'm looking taking the plunge myself but struggling to know where to start, i've a good mk5, never been dj'd and is a good representation of the turntable.

So where to start these days? A lot of the mods seem no longer available, thinking about the bearings specificaly but also a few of the cottage industry types seem to have closed up shop and no longer provide mods for this deck, has the boat sailed and the love that these decks moved on? Guessing any upgrades will need to be sourced on on the used market?

Things i'm considering:

New bearings
Platter
New arm, love to pick up an sme903 if i can find one for the right price.
External PSU
Internal upgrades, clock for example.
Anything else i should consider?

Any recomendations for easy sound quality wins would be appreciated, order of upgrades etc.

I'm using a cyrus dac8 and dino mk3. Amps up for an upgrade later in the year and may get the dino nc psu.

Cheers

Pete

Depends on what you want to spend

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Originally Posted by Mikasa

Hi All

So where to start these days? A lot of the mods seem no longer available, thinking about the bearings specificaly but also a few of the cottage industry types seem to have closed up shop and no longer provide mods for this deck, has the boat sailed and the love that these decks moved on? Guessing any upgrades will need to be sourced on on the used market?

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I think life and circumstances (won't get political) have soured many a thing. While sourcing parts has become more interesting, I don't necessarily think the boat has completely sailed, not yet anyway.

I just purchased a Delrin-AF thrust plate upgrade for one of my "stock" 1200s from kabusa. It's not a Mike New bearing. Nevertheless, the old thrust plate was getting a little long in the tooth so this is a measure for extending the longevity of the deck. (I did do a thorough cleaning of the spindle and bushing.) Next will likely be an arm rewire. There are still lots of options.

Though I now have an SL-1200G (which I take absolutely nothing away from), my main and most often used deck is still a modded 1200MK2.

Bearings are still available. Funk have one, and timestep may still do one.
PSU - MCRU for the LDA external.
Platter I know funk do one, but you need to keep your eyes peeled on the 2nd hand market if you want something specific.
Arm board - Magna audio. There are a few examples shown on his threads.
Feet - Isonoe or Boing.