The Mike New Technics Bearing

[Marco]

Hi Chris,

It was very nice chatting to you yesterday - got your PM, btw

Yes, I'm coming round to that way of thinking, although the effect of the Time Step PSU is equally fundamental, but simply in a different way. I'm not sure that fitting a Mike New bearing without the Time Step PSU already in place would be the best way of going about things.

Experience tells me that the general poor quality of the stock PSU, situated underneath the platter, causing low-level hum and generating a sonically detrimental magnetic field in the process, deteriorates the sound far more than the mechanical inadequacies of the stock Technics bearing...

However, THE most significant factor beyond a shadow of doubt, which succeeds in completely transforming the performance of the SL-1200/1210, is that the combination of BOTH bearing and PSU upgrades lowers the noise floor and distortion/coloration so dramatically, thus allowing one massively greater insight into recordings of music, that it renders the rather bland and musically uninspiring sound of a stock SL-1210/1210 as completely unrecognisable and, in conjunction with a top quality arm and cartridge, catapults it head-first into the veritable 'superleague' of high-end turntables. I have no doubts whatsoever about that.

Having listened intently to the effect of the Mike New bearing with music over the last few days, I have little doubt that my Sound Hi-fi modified SL-1210 is now every bit as good as the venerable and highly acclaimed SP10 - certainly those I've heard so far - and if there are others out there which are better and would outperform my modified SL-1210, then the forthcoming platter upgrade should all but close the gap.

Ok, folks, that's it for now until I write the full review in Strokes of Genius. Look out for it later in the week, as I'm sure that some of you will find it interesting reading!

Marco.

[chris@panteg]

Hi Chris,



Experience tells me that the general poor quality of the stock PSU, situated underneath the platter, causing low-level hum and generating a sonically detrimental magnetic field in the process, deteriorates the sound far more than the mechanical inadequacies of the stock Technics bearing...



Marco.

Hi Marco

Yes that puts in a nutshell and perhaps any future buyer's would be better advised to get both the psu and bearing upgrade ' and there is the option of Dave's cheaper but still very effective timestep bearing .

[Marco]

Yes that puts in a nutshell and perhaps any future buyer's would be better advised to get both the psu and bearing upgrade...

Yes my advice, if you're serious about hearing what this turntable is truly capable of, would be to do both in the one hit - not cheap, but then it depends if you're after having merely a good T/T to play your records on, or a truly exceptional one......

The latter, unfortunately, rarely comes cheap!

Marco.

[REM]

It may not be a cheap T/T anymore but it still represents outstanding VFM. Even with the psu, bearing, arm, feet, mat, (am I missing anything?), the Techie still costs less than the Keel 'upgrade' alone for the LP12.

[Marco]

Precisely. Kind of puts it all into perspective, doesn't it?

Forget about the LP12, I'd rather use the Techy, the way it is now, than any 'high-end' turntable I could afford at £10k and beyond! I'd love to put it up against an SME20, Brinkmann La Grange, or one of the top Avids or Kuzmas, for example, using the same arm and cartridge in the same system, just to see what happens

Marco.

[dmckean]

Shoot, I'm going to have to sell this spare set a speakers to finance all this.

[Tarzan]

"Rather bland and musically uninspiring" is one of the last things l would call stock Techie to be perfectly honest- against all the upgrades maybe

[Marco]

Hi Andy,

Well we'll have to agree to differ, matey. I personally couldn't live with the stock one

Marco.

[Tarzan]

Marco, l am so happy with mine, but we will have to agree to disagree, but the upgrades do look tempting.

[Marco]

Happiness and satisfaction is what it's all about, Andy. The good thing is, if you love your Techy now, you've got a mind-blowing whole load of fun still to come!!

Marco.