Technics Upgrade advice

[Tarzan]

Morning all,it is upgrade time! However l do need some advice, my love affair with me Technics SL1200 continues, l will cut to the chase, she sounds superb, l mean really good, however for a bit of fun l bolted on to the tonearm lead a cable l really like with a further jump in sound quality, there was no hum issues, so l tried a different cable and again a nice jump in sound, this got me thinking do l stay with this set up which cost virtually nothing and go for a bearing mod, so l can kill two birds with one stone, or get the proper re-wire, which would give a bigger bang for the buck?However l am beginning to think go for the bearing mod so l can experiment more with tone arm cable( l do not think l could be with out the T/T for a fortnight or so!So l now leave the floor open what to do, and if the bearing mod which is the one to go for,Soundhifi, Mike New- help.

[DSJR]

Ken Kessler "discovered" this deck by using a lyra as I remember and this was with original wiring.

What about the power supply? I think that should be done before the bearing myself. Sadly, the options will cost a few hundred quid () but if you have the funds available I'd still look here forst, as getting rid of the internal transformer (which is directly underneath the platter) must be a good thing IMO..

[kininigin]

hi andy,if you still have the stock wire in your tone arm i would say get it re-wired first if your not planning to get a new tonearm anytime soon.

I recently re-wired mine and there is a big difference in sound.Im not sure that you will get the most out of a new bearing with the stock wire you have at the moment and i think the thinking is to upgrade the psu before the main bearing,but im no expert and im sure someone will with more knowledge can advise.

[Tarzan]

To be honest the extenal PSU will be the last uprgrade l do as l like having as few boxes as possible- keep the suggestions coming chaps.

[kininigin]

To be honest the extenal PSU will be the last uprgrade l do as l like having as few boxes as possible- keep the suggestions coming chaps.

If the end result concerning the psu is an extra box anyway what's the difference going for it now but each to their own.

I may be wrong but im sure i read on hear someone else who had the stock arm and upgraded the bearing and it made the technics sound worse or had some negative effects but he was changing the arm anyway.

Might be worth finding that thread.

[The Vinyl Adventure]

To be honest the extenal PSU will be the last uprgrade l do as l like having as few boxes as possible- keep the suggestions coming chaps.

I can understand that, I have just gone through a box cut down...
But...
The psu, is the most bang for buck upgrade by a good margin IMHO... The timestep route, which gets my vote, takes up little space... I have mine sat under my rack.... Probably not the best idea... But for now it's the only solution


It kills 2 birds... It supplies better power... Obviously (although I don't know what I mean by better power) it also takes the ruddy great psu out of the techie which is also a huge advantage... Others will no doubt fill in the technical details!

[chris@panteg]

Hi Andy

I say go for the Timestep psu and also the Timestep bearing , the Mike New bearing ' shortly to be replaced by the Timestep HR bearing is worth going for if you intend to go for the new heavy platter .

But and this is the thing if that's a step too far then the much cheaper Timestep bearing is all you will need , its an excellent upgrade and you will hear the difference regardless of any wiring .

Upgrade the wiring of the stock Techie arm is a good move so long as it doesn't cost too much ! but if you really want to hear just how good the SL1200 with the above Timestep mods can sound , you need to be looking at a different arm such as the Jelco 250st or SA750 ' or if you can stretch a bit further a 309 .

To clear something up ' when i got the Timestep bearing i was running my DL160 into the mc input of a Cambridge 640p , which i subsequently found out was a disastrous mis match , causing overload and compression i have since changed to a Trichord Diablo which is perfect for the 160 .

[kininigin]

Hi Andy



To clear something up ' when i got the Timestep bearing i was running my DL160 into the mc input of a Cambridge 640p , which i subsequently found out was a disastrous mis match , causing overload and compression i have since changed to a Trichord Diablo which is perfect for the 160 .

yeah ignor my earlier comments about the bearing and the tonearm wire i couldn't quite remember the cause of your problems.

[Tarzan]

Thanks for the feedback chaps, will post in the morning- been on the lash most of the afternoon-you know how it is What HR bearing?

[chris@panteg]

On the Soundhifi site , it appears the MN bearing is no longer listed but states a timestep HR bearing to be shortly available at the same price ! perhaps its one and the same thing only Dave and Mike have merged together maybe ?