
When a product in your inventory starts being associated with the words ‘icon’ and ‘legendary’, the business of making changes to it becomes fraught with risks that simply don’t apply to normal production items. The temptation to simply leave the device in question to just crack on being highly regarded must be a very strong one.
Panasonic Corporation; the parent company of the Technics brand has long held a more relaxed attitude towards tinkering with their big name products than most organisations. Having produced the SL-1200 turntable in one form or another for nearly forty years, the company unceremoniously pulled the plug in 2010 and canned the Technics name altogether shortly after. When the Technics name was resurrected in 2014, the SL-1200 returned a year or so later, almost completely unrelated to the outgoing model suggesting that Panasonic had no desire to preserve the design like a coelacanth with a tonearm. Now, it is time for the GR model to receive its first significant revamp with the imaginatively named GR2 replacing it.
Principle changes
The principle change for the new model concerns the business of rotating the platter. The GR2 is still a direct drive design, with the motor operating directly on the platter which connects to the hefty drive assembly via a single-rotor, surface-facing, coreless direct drive motor as opposed to a twin rotor unit in the more ornate G series models. The platter is still a metal casting with a rubber mat for the playing surface and it makes contact with the drive over a magnetic contact section.
What has changed is the manner in which this arrangement is fed with electrical power. The company calls it Delta Sigma drive and it refers to the means by which the electrical supply is controlled; in this case using Pulse Width Modulation. This is in turn controlled via a digital to analogue conversion stage which means that the Technics to all intents and purposes has a DAC in it. A low noise, high speed switching power supply is now used to supply as clean and interference free power as possible (while also eliminating the need for a bulkier transformer). For good measure, an active noise cancelling system is then employed to further improve the signal. The outgoing GR wasn’t completely analogue in terms of the power supply but this is a significant revision. Technics is not alone in this approach- we’ve seen a few such PSUs, but it seems to be something that upsets particular corners of the internet.
This approach is designed to help reduce vibration and high harmonics which can otherwise make their way to the playing surface where it can be picked up by the cartridge. Technics also says that the result has improved pitch stability as well although it is only fair to point out that the outgoing model was hardly lacking in this area. It has no effect on the operation of the GR2 which retains buttons for 33 and 45rpm playback and 78rpm is achieved by pressing both buttons at once. In keeping with tradition, there is a sliding pitch controller as well although some of the real DJ niceties like reverse playback remain the preserve of the Mk7 model.
Subtly different
Technics is less forthcoming about other changes on the GR2 but the revised model does feel subtly different to the outgoing version. The most significant area is the tonearm. It’s still an S-Shaped model with an aluminium armtube and detachable headshell but it is by far the most confidence-inspiring example I can remember using. Some of the slightly vague travel in the older version seems to have been eliminated and it has a precision and positivity that wasn’t always the case before. The supplied headshell is the same as other more recent Technics models and I’m not terribly keen on the sloped front edge which makes fitting some cartridges harder than it needs to be. It is easily changed though.
The only other real usability gripe on the GR2 is the placement of the mains socket and audio connections. The former is mounted at right angles to the rear panel under a lip and is a pig to make a connection to with no discernible benefit in neatness or cable fitment. The RCA outputs are slightly less concealed but still something that requires a degree of fumbling to attach a cable to and the vertically mounted ground post is also somewhat odd.
These quirks are thrown into sharp relief by how pleasant every other aspect of the Technics is to use. It was always going to be fairly unlikely that any significant adjustment would be made to the styling of such an iconic device but this is undoubtedly helped by the ergonomics of the GR2 being as good as they are. The separate speed selection and start button is utterly logical and while the strobed platter edge looks a little fussy, you know at a glance that your rotational speed is correct. No cartridge is included in the purchase price but the arm is more than up to the job of supporting all but the most leftfield options without issue.
Beautifully made
The whole turntable is also beautifully made. Compared to the more expensive G Series components that make more use of machined sections, the GR2 is more prosaic but it’s still bolted together with a thoroughness that makes pretty much anything else at the price resort to words like ‘artisan’ to describe how they are constructed. Thanks to usefully pliant feet, the Technics is fairly unfussy about how it is placed and the inclusion of a lid is a very welcome one too. As has been tradition for most of the SL-1200’s production life, an SL-1210GR2 is also available which is identical in every way save for being finished in black, and, in keeping with later production GR models, the tonearm is now black as well; an aesthetic tweak that I’m not completely sold on.
For my initial listening, I fitted the Technics with an Ortofon 2M Blue cartridge for the simple reason that much of my listening of the SL-1500C that I reviewed in issue 224 was carried out with the same cartridge and it provided scope to listen with a little context to that non Delta Sigma equipped design. The jump in performance was considerable and somewhat unexpected. Of course, some of this is because the GR2 is a more expensive and ornate turntable than that 1500C but I would have considered that the more affordable model, once equipped with a better cart and mat could have kept the original GR honest but that isn’t the case here.
The most important thing to stress when trying to frame these differences is that the fundamental character of the Technics is unchanged by the changes made. Listening to the title track of Hot Chip’s boisterous Freakout/Release [Domino] is everything I want a record played on a direct drive Technics to be. It’s urgent, propulsive and something that engages you at an emotional rather than cerebral level. It’s as utterly pitch stable as the digital file while possessing an energy and texture that is considerably more exciting.
Plenty of bass
Some of this is down to the bass on offer. There is plenty of it and it starts and stops with the same urgency that the platter of the 1200GR2 does when you press the start/stop button. It’s far more than a blunt instrument though. Even with the relatively affordable Ortofon in place, there is texture and detail present that brings material to life. Change tack completely to the huge orchestral swells of Berlin Sunrise on Fink Meets the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra [Ninja Tune] and this ability to capture the fine detail in the bottom octaves helps to bring the music as a whole to life.
This more refined piece of mastering is the first clue that the internal revisions that Technics has undertaken here have yielded results. I have never really considered the older models to be noisy in terms of their operation but the GR2 is exceptionally quiet and this has impressive results in how much fine detail that is worked into the presentation. By the time I changed the Ortofon out for a Gold Note Vasari Shibata; one of my very favourite cartridges under a grand and capable of exceptional detail retrieval in its own right, the GR2 was demonstrating an ability to find information in records and proceed to convey it in a wholly natural and self-explanatory way.
This is combined with a more intangible but repeatable effect that the GR2 is much more comfortable with less ballistic music than any 1200 model I’ve tested so far. The charming and delicate World on the Ground by Sarah Jarosz [Rounder Records] is reproduced without sounding forced or as if Jarosz has assumed the dimensions of an NFL quarterback. This is by far the most effortlessly delicate performance I can recall from a 1200 and it is still underpinned by a level of pitch stability that even the long sustained piano notes of Orange and Blue cannot defeat.
Final element
The final element of the improvements relates to the space and soundstage that the GR2 is capable of. The SL-1200 has never struggled to sound big and confident and in this regard nothing has changed. The vast title track of Frankie Goes To Hollywood’s Welcome to the Pleasuredome [ZTT] is as sprawling and epic as it should be but there is more air around the recording than has traditionally been the case. The birdsong at the beginning of the track occurs in a space that extends far beyond the placement of the speakers and that lends the whole piece an epic scale. This is something that the Technics has consistently demonstrated with a selection of cartridges and running into a variety of phono stages and amplifiers. Where once the perception of scale the SL-1200 delivered was more akin to a ‘wall of sound’ effect, here there is more space around the music itself, helping to unfold and open out even very dense and congested recordings.
This being an SL-1200, there is more to be had from the basic turntable too. Changing out the headshell, as well as making fitting cartridges a good deal easier, can extract more from the arm as some testing with an Audio Technica MG-10 and a Goldring Eroica HX demonstrated pretty quickly. Likewise, getting shot of the stock rubber mat and substituting the lipped Achromat from Funk Firm is a very sensible option too. The improvement in performance is less marked than it was on the 1500C but it still cleans up the midrange and further improves the already impressive clarity. Once your warranty has ended, there’s scope to look at the more extensive rebuild options which tap into the fundamental strengths of that tremendous motor and freshly tweaked power supply.
Deeply impressive
Crucially though, I don’t think you will be rushing to start tearing the GR2 to pieces in the pursuit of higher performance because what it can do out of the box is so deeply impressive. Judged at the asking price, this the most complete and capable example of the breed I have yet tested and I suspect it has the scope to run the G Series models closer than might be idea. Panasonic’s lack of deference towards their design icon might seem callous at times but there is little arguing with the fact that they keep pushing their fifty year old turntable forwards at an impressive rate of knots.
The really clever bit is that this has been done without impinging on any of the things that make the SL-1200 the turntable it is. The GR2 looks and feels every inch the design classic and going back to simpler turntables afterwards can have you looking at aftermarket cueing lights and wondering how to rig them on your current turntable. Once you’ve made the connections, it asks nothing of you while delivering an exceptional level of overall performance. The SL-1200 might be a legend but it isn’t relying on past glories.
Technical specifications
- Type; Direct drive record player with fixed axis tonearm and moving magnet cartridge
- Motor 110-240v Delta Sigma controlled direct drive
- Speeds; 33, 45, 78, selected by push button
- Tonearm; Aluminium with detachable headshell
- Finish, Silver, Black (SL-1210GR2)
- Dimensions: 453 x 169 x 372 mm
- Weight: 11.5kg
- Price: £1,799, $2,199.99, €1,999
Manufacturer
Technics
Tags: TECHNICS SL-1200GR2 TURNTABLE
By Ed Selley
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