Personally - and I speak as someone who owns 5 of them, and who services, modifys and supplies lots of them still, as well as uses them professionally- I would still stand firm that there is nothing wrong with a decent set of mk2s.
Get the best cosmetic pair you can find, a few choice parts, a bit of rewiring, improving and fiddling and they will be perfect and last a lifetime.
I swear, after the nuclear dust has settled from WWIII, cockroaches and technics 1200s will be the only things left - they are bombproof.
I always liked the mk4s ....am a sucker for rarer models and largely useless 78rpm functions :stongue:
DJ RANN
So true about mk2's. They really are workhorses. I know people who have abused theirs for 20 odd years and aside from the odd service every 5-10 years, they are still going strong. really how many man made things can you buy for a few hundred that will last you lifetime?
Why 5 lol?
As for the mods, which do you do? I take it the ground wire mod (I've done it plenty of times for clients but never saw the need myself) and maybe removing the center click and replacing the cables with gold plated interconnects (again no need with my mk5g's), but what else do you need to do?
Freak
2 1210s flightcased for use with clients, 3 1200s for me. All purchased from new and immaculate.
The essential basics are; a simple oil and service, re-calibration if necessary, a good length of quality van damme cable, some good quality phono plugs, a brand new phono PCB, wire the ground internally, a set of isonoe feet with sorbothane boots (non glass model), and a new technics headshell with M44-7 and broken in stylus
I don't normally remove the centre click- it is useful to have a 0 reference point, and if they are calibrated properly and you can mix then it isn't really an issue.
There are other things you can do but those are the basics, and if you buy a good condition set in the first place then it minimizes issues - knackered pitch faders are the usual culprits on ex-club ones.
DJ RANN
Ah, makes sense now.
What Oil do you use? When i was a service tech, we used the Technics factory spindle baring oil but I think it's extinct now :(
Good old Van Damme! - are you using their mic cable then grounding the shield to the negative terminal on the PCB for each cable?
What RCA's do you use? Sanj actually raised a good point when i worked for VDC and I never had an answer for him: The Neutrik RCA's grip the sockets too tightly - in some cases they will pull/break the socket right out. We didn;t sell anything that was high enough quality that didn't death grip them.
Do you use a real PCB technics part for the internal ground, or the one already designed for it from technics1200.com?
interesting about the isonoe feet - do they really work? I thought they were juts an audiophile thing.
Also, do you not have the problem with the dead spots either side of the center click? I once removed the center bypass circuit board for a client who was adamant that it ed up his mixes when he got too close. You can still either keep the center click or remove it with or without that bypass. I did both so he just had one continuous smooth pitch.
Brandt Slater
There was a pair of M5G's that sold for $2900 on eBay last week. They're getting more and more valuable. Good thing I kept all mine.
@ RANN, fortunately I stocked up on the Technics oil before it went off the market.
DJ RANN
Yep, there's a pair going on ebay right now and they're already up to 26 bids and $1500 with several days left! I'm so ing happy I have mine.
Yeah, the oils is like hen's teeth now. There's a ton of audiophile baring oils out there (for things like LINN and Audiotechnica turntables) but some people claim the technics one is no different from any decent quality, low viscosity synthetic motor oil.
Just got to get new needles and Freak is gradually persuading me to drop my beloved Ortofon nightclub E's......
atxbigballer1
PIMP MY TURNTABLES
DJ RANN
All that time, effort and money to make some of the ugliest turntables in existence lol. Oh well, Jazzy at least looks happy, that's all that counts.
They replace a lot of parts with aftermarket, and much as I don't mind modding a set of techs if it makes them better, I don't want 3rd party parts on my decks.
I've also heard some people say that even replacing things like the LED's (especially installing the halos etc) can end up completely ing up the calibration of the deck.
Brandt Slater
I've seen some great 1200 mods, but I have seen some bad ones. Only mods I've done was replace the audio cables and removing the ground wire. The other replacing the pop up with a blue led.
DJ RANN
For anyone looking for the original Technics Oil, it turns out these guys found the original source that panasonic (technics) bought it from and you can buy here for under $5.
They also do a ton of bonkers audphile parts and mods (if you believe thing like these give you, in their words, "more agile bass", an "open soundstage" and "less thickness" etc).
Innocence Lost
Especially that DC power supply, lowers noise floor and increases dynamics in a turntable. It def turns heads and has peeps spinning. :toothless
