Mike New Platter for Technics SL-1210

Great photo's Martin , fantastic bit of work you put in there , looking forward to reading about the result ' with high expectations naturally:)

Martin,
Thanks for your observations and comments. You will not believe this!! The diameter of the Base Plate was not arbitarially decided. It was chosen so as to just clear the casting-number which it does on both my units!! There are so many minor variations of the SL1200 over the many years of continous production. In future when this batch of 25 has gone, I will probably increase the diameter to just clear the rectangular block at the top of your image, and then mill a very shallow slot to clear the casting-number.

In fact for the 10 remaining Base Plates I will mill the slot, just for people like you, who make my life difficult!! In fact no one else has mentioned it, so it may only be pertinent for the very latest models.

Mike - mine's a new-ish Mk.2, perhaps you've been working on Mk.5 decks?

Martin,
For some reason I thought that you had a MK5, in fact both my experimental unit and my personal one, are both MK2s although both are early models I believe; one being an ex DJs unit.

Over time there would have been a number of die-mould sets made for the SL1200 and possibly the casting number was not assigned a critical locational dimension.

The fact is that anyone doing what I am doing must contend with these sort of variations. The very big advantage that I have, is that I control all the design and manufacturing myself, so I can react instantly to input from all of you out there, who are fitting my upgrades.

I left the turntable running all day today to let things bed in properly. Playing a variety of records tonight I can hear that the base plate has released more transparency in the area of the shape of notes and their position in three dimensional space. Everything hangs in the air in a wide and (reasonably) deep soundstage and there is precious little indication of two speakers generating it all.

Surface noise and pops/ticks are even more suppressed than before. Dynamics and the frequency extremes are as before (with the bearing and platter) but I detect a possible further tightening of the bass.

I would say that the preferred order of purchase is pretty much the way I have gone: the bearing representing a step-change improvement; the platter bringing about clarity, tonal neutrality and dynamics; the base plate topping it off with a further tuning of the best aspects of the Techie's performance.

Listening to Norah Jones' Not Too Late playing in the other room while I type this, it sounds like she's set up and performing in there. That's the kind of realism that generates goose-bumps.