Timestep vs Mike New - opinions?

hi all,
i guess what i am realy saying is,,, the people who come up with all the mods for this deck,,, why dont they just bite the bullet, put their neck on the line so to speak and bring out their own version of this iconic direct drive turntable, because from where i see it the only thing they seem to rate on this deck is the motor [or is it that thats the only part they cannot replicate] because lets face it thats basicaly all thats left of the original design at the end of the day!
never before have i seen such an original piece of equipment so severely modified that it bears little to no resemblence to its original design.
A...

Very well put Anthony, one I completely agree with, a couple of years ago I totally reworked an Esoteric D-03, when finished it sounded most agreeable, then when you realised you changed/added, over 200 pieces, it was time to seriously design your and incorperate all those upgrades, shorten circuit pathways, greatly improve power supply lines, use lower voltage componets, spent more time with RFI issues, correct shielding, and out stage selection.
At the end of it, you have piece which gives great pleasure and pride of ownership.

My observations of some comments here would be that:

a) I suspect that 'money-pit' rather than 'cash-cow' might have been a slightly more turn of phrase. Relative to Dave's other business, I suspect that the pain-in-the-arse to income ratio of some, if not all of the Techie developments isn't all that great.

b) Yes it's possible that equivalent performance (though some might just say different) can be bought elsewhere for similar money, but to my knowledge, it's not easily done in such bite-size chunks and with a deck that's as unfussy and unobtrusive.

As for being modified so far from it's original design, surely much the same could be said of Linn. How much would actually be left from an original LP12 which was fully modded?

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Originally Posted by anthonyTD

hi all,
i guess what i am realy saying is,,, the people who come up with all the mods for this deck,,, why dont they just bite the bullet, put their neck on the line so to speak and bring out their own version of this iconic direct drive turntable, because from where i see it the only thing they seem to rate on this deck is the motor [or is it that thats the only part they cannot replicate] because lets face it thats basicaly all thats left of the original design at the end of the day!
never before have i seen such an original piece of equipment so severely modified that it bears little to no resemblence to its original design.
A...

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I thought us diyers and fiddlers was bad:lol: Totally agree with what your saying though Anthony.

If i may comment as a new member , i got a technics because i couldnt afford a michele gyro or top of the range Linn or whatever. My only option was to buy a Project deck and be grateful or get a techy and have fun improving piecemeal style as i could afford it.
If panasonic were bothered about the hi fi market they would have upgraded the platter ,arm and bearing but it wouldnt have been worth it , tooling expenses etc, as there market was djs who wanted a workhorse.
I imagine those who have taken the time to do those modifications are not going to retire rich on their sales from such a niche market . I rather think as ex engineers it has been an interesting project to embark on and i hope they continue to transform a deck that needed transforming 30 years ago

hi all,
lets get one thing clear here, no one is saying that modifying an already good piece of kit for the better is a bad thing, quite the opposite, but thats just it, we modify equipment because we find merit in its original design, and we concentrate on rectifying its weak points in an effort to make an already good piece of kit even better, [if we agree so far everyone say aye :eyebrows:] my point is, if there are all these mods available for this paticular product, what was it that was so good about it in the first place!
A...

If im honest , i like the deck for nostalgic reasons. That design is iconic to me.
But the thing thats special about the engineering is the fact its one of the few quartz lock direct drives the japanese did that actually worked properly. Despite my advancing years i still like to listen to a bit of electronic beat stuff, and nothing ive heard does that precision timing like the 1200. I havnt owned a cd player that times as well as a technics.

...altogether now, the motor!

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Originally Posted by colinB

If im honest , i like the deck for nostalgic reasons. That design is iconic to me.
But the thing thats special about the engineering is the fact

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its one of the few quartz lock direct drives the japanese did that actually worked properly.

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Despite my advancing years i still like to listen to a bit of electronic beat stuff, and nothing ive heard does that precision timing like the 1200. I havnt owned a cd player that times as well as a technics.

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now we are getting somewhere!
A...

It's a cost effective entry to a well designed DD motor unit!

The cost to develop & produce DD turntables is huge & I believe thats part of the reason most new TTs that appear are belt-drive.

When you add up the price of all the mods needed to elivate the 1200 to the very high standard that it can achieve you could buy a good condition SP10 which IMO is still a better TT!

The Japanese developed alot of very nice DD TTs that were & still are world class, but all have been out of production for some years & command high prices on the 2nd hand market & then there's no telling what history or problems they may have! Brand new 1200 can still be picked up for relative money then upgraded as & when! But to develop a new DD TT would be very expensive I would think.

There's some stunning alternatives to the now Reference SP10 but the outlay will be High, Denon DP100M, Denon DP-75 M, Exclusive P3a, Sony PS-X9, Kenwood L-07D even my DP-6000 ;). Now, if someone could make a modern DD today to better these decks that would be great but I think R&D would just cost to much. Building on the 1200 motor unit is though attainable today!

LOL just rambling on

Cheers, alfie