It's great to be 'famous'!!

[The Grand Wazoo]

I think it may have a lot to do with pricing too. What seems to us as a rather ordinary and humdrum UK product feels exotic and rarified to you simply because of the jacked up imported price. And vice versa.

[Stateside]

The Absolute Sound and Stereophile are the preeminent print journals in the States, and I'm guessing that their operations are largely funded by ad dollars paid by manufacturers, distributors and retailers for hi-end gear, and all of their inventory of turntables are belt-driven.

TAS and Stereophile establish conventions concerning hi-fidelity gear quality that some internet hifi reviewers (not those like 6 Moons or Positive Feedback, of course) may feel compelled to abide by or suffer the pity and disdain of the 'real' reviewers at the big boys.

When you read, e.g., Robert Harley's 'The Complete Guide to High-End Audio (4th ed. Acapella Publishing), the clear preference for high-end belt drive tables is explicit. (No criticism is intended here at Mr. Harley, the editor in chief of TAS, whose reviews are careful and great reads.) Again, the buzz is that money talks and BS walks when it comes to getting reviewed in TAS and Stereophile, and Matsushita has no money to spend on promoting the Technics deck.

Best,

MIke

[jazzpiano]

Hello,

It's interesting how there's eventually a re-assessment of things. I mean the Techies were flat ubiquitious by rockers who didn't give a crap about hi-fi in the 70s here and were generallynot taken seriously as hi-fi turntables here at all. I knew so many people who had these and set them on top their Klipsch Hereseys, JBL L100s, etc. The Technics SL-1200 is probably the ultimate example of a re-assessed,re-appreciated product.

Best,
Barry

[TONEPUB]

Don't know how I stumbled upon this but it appears to have caused quite a stir. Back when Marc worked for us, he never really enjoyed the 1200. I have to admit I've never been a huge fan of a stock 1200, however, between the enthusiasm I've seen here and on a few other forums, along with Dave C's help, I really enjoy the modded 1200 these days. We now have two of them in the fleet - one with most of the Sound HiFi mods and one with most of the Zu mods. Both are great tables and well worth the money spent.

I think one of the toughest things to overcome as a reviewer is to try and keep an open mind with everything.

Hell, I'm even going down the TD-124 path now.

Can't have too many turntables, I say.

[sq225917]

He's just another guy with a personal opinion about what he likes and what he doesn't like. it's no more or less valid than anyone else's choice about what deck they prefer and his opinion doesn't validate or negate anyone else's personal opinion about the deck they own and use themselves. If one simply accepts that people have different opinions and that they are as entitled and just as likely to be right or wrong as anyone else in then what's the trouble?

Marco, if you are happy with your own choice then why give two figs about what anyone else thinks? Unless you feel the need to have your opinion validated by others.

I think there's some merit in part of what he says, but ultimately think he lands at the wrong conclusion. If I wanted the best sound from a DD deck and wanted to choose my own arm and work on the PSU in a platform that leant itself most easily to modification and the highest quality replay then i'd buy a SP10 MK3. I understand that the 1210 gives a more accessible point of entry and is therefore a more logical choice for many. But once you've spent a few grand on it, might you not have achieved more, and potentially for less outlay starting from the Sp10 than a 1210? I genuinely don't know the answer.

At the end of the day, opinions are like arseholes, we all have them and some of them are full of shit. ;-)

[Marco]

Don't know how I stumbled upon this but it appears to have caused quite a stir. Back when Marc worked for us, he never really enjoyed the 1200. I have to admit I've never been a huge fan of a stock 1200, however, between the enthusiasm I've seen here and on a few other forums, along with Dave C's help, I really enjoy the modded 1200 these days. We now have two of them in the fleet - one with most of the Sound HiFi mods and one with most of the Zu mods. Both are great tables and well worth the money spent.

I think one of the toughest things to overcome as a reviewer is to try and keep an open mind with everything.

Hell, I'm even going down the TD-124 path now.

Can't have too many turntables, I say.

Hi Jeff,

I'm trying to reply to your email, but it keeps bouncing back when I send one to jeff@tonepublications.com

Are you still having problems with your server, or have you got another email address I can contact you on?

Marco.

P.S Simon, I'll reply to you later.

[TONEPUB]

Hi Jeff,

I'm trying to reply to your email, but it keeps bouncing back when I send one to jeff@tonepublications.com

Are you still having problems with your server, or have you got another email address I can contact you on?

Marco.

P.S Simon, I'll reply to you later.

Still seems to be a bit wacky, but I did get your email.. Hopefully sorted in the next day or so

[chris@panteg]

He's just another guy with a personal opinion about what he likes and what he doesn't like. it's no more or less valid than anyone else's choice about what deck they prefer and his opinion doesn't validate or negate anyone else's personal opinion about the deck they own and use themselves. If one simply accepts that people have different opinions and that they are as entitled and just as likely to be right or wrong as anyone else in then what's the trouble?

Marco, if you are happy with your own choice then why give two figs about what anyone else thinks? Unless you feel the need to have your opinion validated by others.

I think there's some merit in part of what he says, but ultimately think he lands at the wrong conclusion. If I wanted the best sound from a DD deck and wanted to choose my own arm and work on the PSU in a platform that leant itself most easily to modification and the highest quality replay then i'd buy a SP10 MK3. I understand that the 1210 gives a more accessible point of entry and is therefore a more logical choice for many. But once you've spent a few grand on it, might you not have achieved more, and potentially for less outlay starting from the Sp10 than a 1210? I genuinely don't know the answer.

At the end of the day, opinions are like arseholes, we all have them and some of them are full of shit. ;-)

Some good points raised , if you get an SP10 mk2 put it in a plinth , serviced and your arm/cart of choice , then you have an excellent turntable with just as much scope for improvement (perhaps even more ) than a SL1200 mk2 ? If your highly modified and maxed out 1210 sounds better than a good SP10 ? Then fine but what about a maxed out SP10 ? There are plenty of mods/improvements for it , though many owners often just get them serviced with a decent plinth .

[Daniel Quinn]

For those with little time , ill sum up this thread .

bloke A as the temerity to trash the technics twelve months ago and bloke B spends an age proving bloke A is an idiot without actually saying it whilst pretending all he really objected to was the bloke A's suggestion that a reasonably priced out of the box dd turntable is available .

Bloke b's opinion should be accepted because of his wealth of experience and golden ears and whilst he fully accepts - for he is reasonable and rational - that low mass belt drives may suit sum , you are left in no doubt -for it is more than inference even though he deosnt actually say it - that any body who prefers such a means of music making is mad and deaf.

several technics acolyates chip in for support one person attempts to defend the notion that bloke a's opinion may be just as valid .

[Marco]

Still seems to be a bit wacky, but I did get your email.. Hopefully sorted in the next day or so

Nice one, Jeff. If you could reply, when you get a chance, I'd appreciate it

Marco.