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Re: when you are purchasing tables, look for these four things:
Good post, but there's some misinformation unfortunately.
| quote: | | 1)PITCH-the most important thing for these tables...over time, the pitch can go out of line and to repair it is half the price of a new turntable....THE PITCH ABSOLUTELY AND POSITIVELY WORKS!!! AND YES, YOU SEE A STRAIGHT LINE WHEN YOU LOOK @ THE "RED" LIGHT!!!! |
True, the pitch is one of the essential parts of your deck that need to be checked. However, the dots DON'T make a straight line (?) at Zero pitch - the largest row of dots (third from the top) stands still. Check for sudden jumps in pitch as you move the slider, as well as double-zero points.
Recalibrating the pitch is a fairly simple procedure and will NOT cost "half the price of a new turntable".
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2)TONEARM:-this is most overlooked...the ortofon needles, albeit vastly improved, are notorious for this evil...the tonearm pins can be pushed in too far, making any stylus' contact with the pins impossible and rendering the table useless...this is a $100 repair...THE PINS IN THE TONEARM MAKE CONTACT WITH ANY STYLUS!!! AND NO, I DON'T USE ORTOFON CARTRIGES!!!
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Again, true to a certain extent. Concorde carts have their pins slightly more towards the center than they should be ... so they sometimes push the pins in the tonearm in at a weird angle. They usually pop back out without any problems, but if they don't you can just pry inside with a thin needle and put them back into place. The pins are NOT pushed in too far (just check the length of Concorde pins against the pins on a standard headshell). BTW. to avoid this problem alltogether, you can just get the OM version of the Ortofon carts.
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3)STARTING/STOPPING-again, very overlooked...if the 1200's don't start or stop on a dime, question it...especially if the platter stops and goes backwards for more than a couple of inches...THESE 1200'S STOP AND START ON A DIME!!!=)
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No they don't. The spin-up time to 33rpm is about 0.7 seconds, the braking time is about half that. They shouldn't spin backwards though; if they do, you can adjust the brake with a potentiometer inside the deck, again, a relatively simple procedure. Taking the deck apart and - more importanlly - putting it back together is the most difficult part.
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4)USA MADE VS. CHINA-all technics are made in the usa...look for serial numbers and look @ the plug...it should say "made in the usa..." if not, question it...aftermarket shell replacements should be questioned, too...
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This is bollocks (glorious American patriotism at it's best ...). Technics decks are made in Japan and the little tag should read the following:
"Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. LTD. Made in Japan"
There is a way to determine what market the turntable was distributed to based on the serial number.I believe canadian decks' serial number sticker starts with "MC". I'm not sure about other serial numbers but I'm sure somebody with a little time can dig it up somewhere on the net.
Also the "aftermarket shell replacements" aren't replacements, they're simple faceplates that simply go on top of the regular faceplate. These are acutally a rather good idea since it preserves the original finish of your 1200.
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