Serious bit of kit, that. Looks like you could operate on someone with it.
2 Likes
£8500 though!
I’ve not heard any of their kit but the engineering does look amazing.
How about a cartridge with a 1.7mm diamond cantilever?
You will often see these Dynavector Bi-axial tone arms on those very elaborate top of the range turntables.
Slight deviation on this topic, but does anybody here go into Play Vinyl? He’s just off Broadway Market in London.
Went in there yesterday afternoon to flick through his small, pretty pricey, but usually VG used records (and too have a drool at the vintage HI-FI he sells).
The owner is very knowledgeable,passionate and opinionated on the subject to say the least, when I went in he was talking at a couple who had probably expressed an interest in buying a set up. After they seized their opportunity to run for the exit, I made the mistake of engaging in conversation (being the amiable bloke i am) after a while he basically told me that listening to music on a 1210 (as I mistakenly told him I own) was almost akin to burning books and a complete waste of time and probably no different to using the speaker on my phone. He then started running through a long lecture on the subject and demo of Lenco turntables. As a finale, he proceeded to completely trash a quite prominent DJ, promoter and broadcaster’s widely known audiophile reputation (and indeed the whole ‘scene’ surrounding it). Amazingly, he described them as a good friend of his partner. Luckily, some other people came in, and I grabbed the chance to scarper.
Might be a while before I go back in, which is a shame as I usually find a record to buy, and his stock of vintage equipment is wonderful
6 Likes
I’m admittedly far from being an expert /audiophile but I thought 1210s were reckoned to be pretty decent ? And with tone arm/cart/stylus/feet upgrades, very good indeed. Why was this bloke so anti?
2 Likes
1200’s are great, and anyone who says otherwise has something to sell you. Really cant understand sinking serious amounts of money into trying to wring out the last 5% of performance out of a seriously flawed medium.
2 Likes
Technics are designed for a purpose and do that job very well. You’re not going to DJ very well on a belt driven turntable. What’s most important in direct drive is that it gets up to speed almost instantly?
Belt driven audiophile such as an LP12 are built for a different purpose.
Direct drive is always going to inject a small amount of rumble and noise into your setup. Whether you can hear it is a different matter. Audiophile does everything it can to isolate the platter and provide solidity to get rid of that “possible” vibration.
You pays your money and takes your choice.
I have a belt driven Linn and always wanted a pair of 1210’s and a mixer but never had the space.
5 Likes
“Ha! You think that industry standard benchmark turntable everyone likes to use is going to be okay to listen to music on? Tell you what mate, lucky you ran into me, your new best friend. I’ll let you know that you might as well throw that in the bin. What you need is actually a super rare, limited run table that was made in 1982 for a 3 month period. No one else appreciates them, but that’s because they don’t understand sound like you and me mate!”
11 Likes
Yeah, 1200’s have a pretty poor rep with audiophiles, but most audiophiles are silly’s that spend stupid amounts of money on ever decreasing returns until , in the end it’s all just lies, ego and poor mental health.
The 1200 (in good nick and with a decent stylus) is a really nice turntable. This guy seems like one of those that has a huge itch to scratch.
If you go in again, tell him that you once owned a Western Electric rig but threw it away cos it was old. That could be an amusing scenario.
9 Likes
Happy user of Dynavector XX-2 MkII here
2 Likes
There’s a good and easy mod for the platters on the Technics 1200’s. I’ve done both pairs and it makes a real noticeable difference. Particularly useful in stopping feedback if you’re out and about.
I was sworn to secrecy but the man who showed me turned out to be a horrible person so i’ll share if anyone is interested.
9 Likes
I’m interested.
Thank you.
1 Like
If you take the platter off the turntable and hold it on your finger like a cymbal, tap it and it’ll sound like a gong, it resonates very freely even when it’s on the turntable and even though it has that rubber moulding underneath. The heavy rubber mat that is supplied with the new turntable does something to alleviate this but not nearly enough and of course most of us chucked them in a drawer and use felt slip mats instead which add nothing in terms of sound deadening.
The way the rubber moulding is glued to the platter is patchy so negates much of the benefit it could add.
A reasonable solution is to replace the rubber moulding with dodo mat.
The process is pretty straightforward
edit. Remove the magnets first!
You warm the platters in the oven on about 100c for half an hour. That should soften the glue between the rubber and the platter. Like I said it’s slapdash at best so you can then use a tool to peel off the moulding. I used a wooden raclette scraper but anything that won’t gouge the aluminium is good. If you can get the whole moulding off in one piece it’ll serve you well later on and will make you feel nice too.
Get rid of any glue residue. A stanley blade or similar works well. You’ll need one of those anyway for cutting the dodo mat.
Use the moulding you’ve removed as a template to mark out the Dodo mat with a sharpie and then cut it out. You’ll need to have a join as the size of the sheets is too small to do it in one.
Stick the dodo mat to the underside of your platter and really work it flat to get it to stick with no bubbles or gaps.
That’s it.
Now you can compare the resonance of your other platter which rings like a gong to your newly modded one which is as dead as a dodo.
Edit…Really important, remove the magnets before you put them in the oven or heat them up.
12 Likes
I had one of my 1210’s modded with an Origin Live tonearm and the Dynavector DV-10X5 MKII. Sounded lovely. Sadly sold many years ago.
3 Likes
About 15 years ago I got really carried away with upgrading my Technics:
- Tonearms upgraded
- External power supplies
- Even upgraded the bearings
- Various different platter mats to deal with ringing platter issue mentioned already - the Sound Dead Steel SDS Isoplat seemed to do this best, I think.
To be honest, if I was going through this again I think I would just go with one of the new fancy versions (can’t remember which one is good for DJing - GR maybe?). Probably costs about the same and you’re more likely to get a good outcome.
Best way to dramatically increase the sound quality, though, is through cartridge and pre-amp upgrades, in my opinion. Something like the Lehmann Black Cube is a significant upgrade over any of the preamps in current DJ mixers (bar possibly the esoteric ones like Carmen or Isonoe).
5 Likes
I totally agree with the pre amp upgrade idea. Even a really cheap one off amazon is likely better than the one in a low or even mid priced dj mixer.
I’m not sure i’ve heard any really positive feedback on the new Technics models . I’ve heard a few disappointed reviews though mostly to do with the weight and general vibe of the things compared to the tank like 1200/1210s.
I’ve got a 1210gr in the living room and pretty happy with it. It sounds better than my mk2’s, but some parts of the build quality aren’t as good, mainly the arm lift.
2 Likes
Finished the new home made speakers and gave them a warm up. Sounding amazing so far - worth all the cutting, glueing and sanding.
39 Likes
Well done on the build, Those corner joins look super neat.
2 Likes