But if you want to avoid heavily DJ used gear, then why go for a tt meant for DJ use

[Hypnotoad]

I have a stock Technics SL-1700 in my bedroom system and it's a fine table even in un-modded form.

I read a post on another forum about someone packing a cylinder of foam inside the SL1200 series arm tubes, and putting a plug in the back to dampen resonances, they do it during a rewire and it really improves the stock arm. Jelco and other manufacturers do the same thing apparently.

I am planning to do this to my SL1700 arm when I get around to it.

[DSJR]

The SL1700 has a different and massier tonearm than the SL1200 today (I have an SL-1500 tonearm assembly fitted to my SL150 and these arms are very similar).

The SL1700 is a deck I'm intimately acquainted with and I should say the tonearm wires are fine as-is unless the passing decades have affected them. The internal arm wires look to be very good copper and the exit cable is a solid core, foamed dielectric and well shielded cable, the moulded plugs not looking posh, but I'm sure they're fine..

used as standard with the suspension working properly, the 1700 has a slightly "dark" presentation with no "tonearm harshness/ringing" that I can hear. We sold loads with the Dynavector 20A at the time and it's a fine match, even in the standard Technics headshell of the period.



Before dismantling the arm and possibly ruining the sensitive auto-return mech (so handy), get the Herbies/Timestep mat for it (or possibly a Funk one) and a Sumiko headshell. I think you'll be very surprised indeed


P.S. I'd suggest the lid be totally removed when playing, as although of good quality, it transmits loads of airborne vibration into the deck structure - terminal on the 1300/1400/1500/150 mark 1 models and all Techies that preceeded them. Just slacken the fixing screws and it easily comes away from the hinges.

[Marco]

Hi Dave,

Lol - you've just gotta love those old reviews. A whole page full of technical info and nothing about the most important thing of all - how the deck actually sounds, other than some oblique reference to it having a "smooth performance"!

WTF does that mean?

I know things have gone a little too far the other way these days in reviews, with reams of flowery (often meaningless) prose to describe how a piece of kit sounds, but 'dry' doesn't even begin to describe the above review... If I had been a potential customer in those days, I still wouldn't have had a clue whether the deck was worth buying or not!

Still, there's nothing wrong with the SL-1700 - it's pretty good, albeit not in the SL-1200 league, sonically. However, I'm sure that with a few judicious mods that could quite easily be rectified

Marco.

[Epicurus]

I know things have gone a little too far the other way these days in reviews, with reams of flowery (often meaningless) prose to describe how a piece of kit sounds

Not only meaningless, but also - on several occasions - revealing that the reviewer doesn't know what he's talking about; I remember a recent (Greek) review of TAD's ultra-expensive speakers, where the reviewer waxed lyrical about how the speaker presents the characteristic sound of a Stratocaster's rear dual-coil pickup.

Excuse me?

I happen to own a 1992 Fender American Standard Stratocaster and I also have Paul Day and Tony Bacon's "The Fender Book": the standard specification for the Fender Stratocaster is three SINGLE-coil pickups. And it's precisely the single-coil sound that's the Strat's signature tone, as it is produced by the pickups' interaction with the whole design of the guitar (ash or alder body, bolt-on maple neck with a maple or rosewood fingerboard and floating vibrato bridge)! Sometimes, reviewers should just keep their hands off the keyboard for a bit, especially when they're going to tread paths they don't know.

In that same magazine - and same issue, methinks - a reader's home and set-up was reviewed; and a 1980s reissue of the Stratocaster's '57 model in Firemist Gold (complete with bridge cover) was erroneously identified as a... genuine 1975 (CBS-era, for crying out loud) model!

Sometimes, you just have to either laugh at reviewers' ignorance when it comes to music, harmony, instruments and musical equipment in general - or stand in awe before it.

[DSJR]

Hi Dave,

Lol - you've just gotta love those old reviews. A whole page full of technical info and nothing about the most important thing of all - how the deck actually sounds, other than some oblique reference to it having a "smooth performance"!

WTF does that mean?

I know things have gone a little too far the other way these days in reviews, with reams of flowery (often meaningless) prose to describe how a piece of kit sounds, but 'dry' doesn't even begin to describe the above review... If I had been a potential customer in those days, I still wouldn't have had a clue whether the deck was worth buying or not!

Still, there's nothing wrong with the SL-1700 - it's pretty good, albeit not in the SL-1200 league, sonically. However, I'm sure that with a few judicious mods that could quite easily be rectified

Marco.

Put it this way Marco, the two techies are more alike than different, quartz control or not and the 1700's tonearm is much better suited to MC cartridges, the auto linkages not as elegant as Dual achieved with their decks, but as gentle none the less with no friction penalty at side-end, unlike all the auto competition. I think it would retail for around £1,000 to £1200 these days. Whereas the current model uses loads of rubber type compound to mass-damp the structure, the 1600 and 1700 had a sprung sub-chassis, the feet attached to the top plate and the motor/platter and arm being mounted on a sprung "under-tray." B&O tried something similar (with a leaf-spring/pendulum arrangement), but made this part from plastic and despite the tonearm being quite rigid, the sonics were severely bland and uninteresting, unlike the SL1700 we had in in the 90's for a new cartridge. I was quite impressed with it and the Herbies mat would clear up the slight "heaviness" in the bass I heard.

Anyway, that's my lot. Apologies for the thread-drift..

[sonddek]

Finn, I'm willing to dem mine in London.



Wait a month or two and I'll have a replacement arm for my Sondek to compare it against.

I have recently compared full spec Radikal Sondek SE/EkosSE/Akiva against Well-tempered Amadeus+DynavectorXX-2 and SL1210/Ekos2/Dynavector. The Sondek had the least speed stability. The Technics was the stablest, most musical and informative. I'm sticking with the Technics for the moment.

[Marco]

Hi 'sonddek',

Welcome to AOS

Could you please pop into the Welcome area and introduce yourself to our community by supplying your first name, basic geographic location, system details and music tastes, as this is the requirement for all new members joining AOS.

Cheers!

Marco.

[DSJR]

Did you compare at a dealers? if you did, I bet the Linn dealer's face must have been a picture if deep inside he thought the SL1210 had any merit at all, let alone beating them all

Also great that you're getting such good results from an Ekos2 on a Techie. Who'd have thought it?

[The Vinyl Adventure]

i have no idea why these conversations about techies happen ... why people haveto argue weather or not they are good... if theywerent good people wouldnt buy them and if they werent improved by modding people wouldnt mod them.... if you have a problem with people using techies as hifi turn tables and dont like what they sound like based on hearing them, that is your own personal preferance ... other people have different preferance for sound... going on to a forum that contains members from all over the world who are hugly happy with them and saying they are bad is so pointlessly moronic it beggars belife

[sonddek]

Did you compare at a dealers? if you did, I bet the Linn dealer's face must have been a picture if deep inside he thought the SL1210 had any merit at all, let alone beating them all

Yes it was at a Linn dealer. One staff member preferred the Amadeus. We agreed that it sounded smoother in the treble than my frankenstein, but I felt that texture was being lost. The shop owner was skeptical and pro-Sondek but he didn't really sit in on the session, so I don't think he had a chance to assess carefully.

Also great that you're getting such good results from an Ekos2 on a Techie. Who'd have thought it?

It needs to be mounted with great care, especially with regard to decoupling. Just bolting it straight to the arm plate produces some quite nasty resonances and dullness. I would like to try other arms, but it's difficult to do so without buying them.