The Official *Technics SL-1200* Owners Club

Hi John
I have no regrets with the 501. I'm actually quite impressed. I've owned other Yamahas, I bought a new CR-820 back in 71 I think and the 501 reminds of it. It has a great sound stage and can push my Polk 10s with authority. I don't have "audiophile" ears anymore in my old age and I have tinnitus these days. And I'm battling poor room acoustics. Well, maybe one regret, I should of got the 701. I'm not interested in a DAC. It had to burn in and took a few hours of play to come into its own. I'm very happy with it.
Thanks so much. Your views are consistent with other reviews I've read. I am going to primarily use the amp for my turntable. But the reviews on that DAC are very positive and for the difference in price it seems I couldn't obtain one of that quality for that amount of money. Several of the albums that I have been buying lately come with a free high quality digital download. So I figured why not. I'm going to pull the trigger on the 801
 
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Hi John,
Sorry to be a bother, but I’ve got a question. What type of material is that 1200 protractor made of? I had looked at the same one before. I think they’re like $20 or so, but didn’t know if it was just a piece of paper or something. Haha
- Nick
Nick our back and forth has been very useful and a pleasure, never a bother. If I can offer some information that is useful to someone else I am more than happy to do it. That being said the protractor is made of material that I would say is consistent with a quality greeting card. Under strong magnification, I used an insulin needle which is very tiny, and made a small indentation where the tip of the stylus is supposed to sit. I saw the Geo disc which has a tiny indent for the stylist to sit in for alignment purposes. I just made sure that I was extremely careful not to move the platter while it was sitting in the dimple.
One thing that I noticed with this Technics specific protractor, is the inner and outer null point specifications are different then the Stevenson, Baerwald, and Lofgren specs. For what its worth
 
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Nick our back and forth has been very useful and a pleasure, never a bother. If I can offer some information that is useful to someone else I am more than happy to do it. That being said the protractor is made of material that I would say is consistent with a quality greeting card. Under strong magnification, I used an insulin needle which is very tiny, and made a small indentation where the tip of the stylus is supposed to sit. I saw the Geo disc which has a tiny indent for the stylist to sit in for alignment purposes. I just made sure that I was extremely careful not to move the platter while it was sitting in the dimple.
One thing that I noticed with this Technics specific protractor, is the inner and outer null point specifications are different then the Stevenson, Baerwald, and Lofgren specs. For what its worth
Hi John. That’s a great idea you had using the insulin needle. As you know, theres gotta be an exact point where the stylus has to go to properly set up a turntable. I’m pretty sure the Geodisc is unfortunately only set up for Baerwald specs. While that may work, it’s not ideal for 1200’s. I wasn’t 100% sure which specs were actually used for 1200’s, but I had a feeling it wasn’t one of the standard ones, but one set up to be a proprietary Technics SL1200 set up. Kevin from KAB told me to use the Technics gauge that the Headshell, cart, & stylus sit in. As long as the cantilever is straight and 52mm from the base of the rubber washer (very important to take the washer into consideration), the set up for a 1200 should be all set. The only problem when using the Technics gauge with the Jelco Headshell is what I had written in this post. I think it’s well worth the effort of using calipers though if need be:

That’s exactly what I do using the Technics gauge. It’s just cool to make sure everything is set up correctly even after using the gauge. Not to mention, I’m using a Jelco HS-25 Headshell that has a metal “tab” on the bottom behind the rubber washer as well as the top, which makes the Technics gauge basically unusable. I’m actually going to take a dremel and cut out a notch on the bottom too. The 52mm distance seems to work perfectly on 1200’s. I’ve been using a digital caliper in the meantime.

Talk to ya later, John!
- Nick
 
I used many alignment method and I always back to classic Technics 52mm :) It sounds the best. Engineers in factory are not crazy if they suggest 52mm
 
I used many alignment method and I always back to classic Technics 52mm :) It sounds the best. Engineers in factory are not crazy if they suggest 52mm
I agree. That's why I got the 52mm tool. I used it to set the distance, then used the Technics protractor to fine tune the cantilever alignment.
 
Dude! That’s so killer! I’m pumped for you. I see you needed a tonearm clip too.
How d’you like the Headshell? It’s built really well, huh?
Obviously let me know what you think, especially after the tonearm rewire.
Awesome, man!
- Nick
I left out this little gem. I gotta say that is a nicely machined solid headshell. Nice leads as well. I've been reading up on upgraded tonearm wiring and all reviews are consistent. They all sing it's praises. Hopefully with the tube liner and the end plug it will get rid of the slight hollow sound of the background. I would have liked to see the cotton included in the rewire kit. That way I know how much to use. Haven't found a video. Did download the instructions from KAB. Interested to see how much of an improvement the Delrin bearing thrust plate makes. As well as the wax to solidify the bearing to the turntable.
IMG_20180602_235037.jpg
 
I left out this little gem. I gotta say that is a nicely machined solid headshell. Nice leads as well. I've been reading up on upgraded tonearm wiring and all reviews are consistent. They all sing it's praises. Hopefully with the tube liner and the end plug it will get rid of the slight hollow sound of the background. I would have liked to see the cotton included in the rewire kit. That way I know how much to use. Haven't found a video. Did download the instructions from KAB. Interested to see how much of an improvement the Delrin bearing thrust plate makes. As well as the wax to solidify the bearing to the turntable.
View attachment 1202903
Yeah, that tonearm cap is cool. Glad ya dig the Headshell too. You really only need a tiny amount of cotton on each side of the tonearm, and it’s only to keep any kind of resonance to go back and forth within it. Just shove a tiny piece in there, but make sure the wire doesn’t get pushed back into the tonearm tube. And the cotton in conjunction with the tubing and the end cap definitely dampens the arm. I actually have 2 extra “proper” cotton strips from my rewire kit if you want em. And as I’m sure you already know, you’ve gotta use a hairdryer to soften up the wax and kinda wiggle the thrust plate into it, attached to the full bearing of course. I’m also very interested in finding out about the delrin plate too. I may even buy one tomorrow. Haha!
 
Good morning Nick... I am starting to install the upgrades to My sl 1200 and the first thing that I noticed is the new bearing thrust plate pushes the spindle further up toward the top of the platter. Because this bearing is the type with the plastic gear instead of just the snap ring, as the spindle is pushed up so there is not enough room for the thrust plate to fully seat against the bottom of the bearing housing. ( Squeezing the gear against the housing) I'm heading to the local Hardware to see if I can find a snap ring. My concern because I used a kab clamp, is when I going to pull off the platter, it's sometimes hangs up on the brass collar. And the spindle gets pulled up along with the platter.. of course a light tap with a plastic tool will unseat the platter from the collar. I'm going to see if I can find some type of plastic washer or spacer that I can drill to the same size as the spindle and then put a snap ring underneath.
Wish me luck I will post my findings
 

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Good morning Nick... I am starting to install the upgrades to My sl 1200 and the first thing that I noticed is the new bearing thrust plate pushes the spindle further up toward the top of the platter. Because this bearing is the type with the plastic gear instead of just the snap ring, as the spindle is pushed up so there is not enough room for the thrust plate to fully seat against the bottom of the bearing housing. ( Squeezing the gear against the housing) I'm heading to the local Hardware to see if I can find a snap ring. My concern because I used a kab clamp, is when I going to pull off the platter, it's sometimes hangs up on the brass collar. And the spindle gets pulled up along with the platter.. of course a light tap with a plastic tool will unseat the platter from the collar. I'm going to see if I can find some type of plastic washer or spacer that I can drill to the same size as the spindle and then put a snap ring underneath.
Wish me luck I will post my findings
...update... I can't find a snap ring big enough to fit the spindle and small enough to fit inside of the recess in the new thrust plate. Upon further inspection of the kab website, it seems there is a note hidden in the more information area that you can click on in the description. I got to tell you that something this important, in my opinion, should be right in the main description of the part. Now being someone who has limited time to address my hobbies, I am put off by kab at the moment. Of course I tried to call them with the number they provide and I get the tones of a fax machine. I guess I have to wait until tomorrow to try to contact them. In the meantime I hope that the other products that I have purchased from kab to upgrade my TT, have no other disappointing surprises for my Sunday afternoon.
 
...update... I can't find a snap ring big enough to fit the spindle and small enough to fit inside of the recess in the new thrust plate. Upon further inspection of the kab website, it seems there is a note hidden in the more information area that you can click on in the description. I got to tell you that something this important, in my opinion, should be right in the main description of the part. Now being someone who has limited time to address my hobbies, I am put off by kab at the moment. Of course I tried to call them with the number they provide and I get the tones of a fax machine. I guess I have to wait until tomorrow to try to contact them. In the meantime I hope that the other products that I have purchased from kab to upgrade my TT, have no other disappointing surprises for my Sunday afternoon.
Call or email them during business hours, you will get a reply from Kevin.
 
Good morning Nick... I am starting to install the upgrades to My sl 1200 and the first thing that I noticed is the new bearing thrust plate pushes the spindle further up toward the top of the platter. Because this bearing is the type with the plastic gear instead of just the snap ring, as the spindle is pushed up so there is not enough room for the thrust plate to fully seat against the bottom of the bearing housing. ( Squeezing the gear against the housing) I'm heading to the local Hardware to see if I can find a snap ring. My concern because I used a kab clamp, is when I going to pull off the platter, it's sometimes hangs up on the brass collar. And the spindle gets pulled up along with the platter.. of course a light tap with a plastic tool will unseat the platter from the collar. I'm going to see if I can find some type of plastic washer or spacer that I can drill to the same size as the spindle and then put a snap ring underneath.
Wish me luck I will post my findings
How old is your deck? You read the thing about the thrust plate only working on decks made after 1990, right?
It also couldn’t hurt to shoot Kevin an email explaining what’s up. He’d definitely know what to do, but it seems like you probably already have it figured out.
I really hope it works out for you. There’s nothing worse than being all pumped to get a mod done and hitting a snag like that.
I just hope this all works out for you. Some mods can be a total pain in the butt. Wait until ya do the rewire. That’s a mod I never want to do again, but we’ll worth it.
Best of luck, dude!
 
...update... I can't find a snap ring big enough to fit the spindle and small enough to fit inside of the recess in the new thrust plate. Upon further inspection of the kab website, it seems there is a note hidden in the more information area that you can click on in the description. I got to tell you that something this important, in my opinion, should be right in the main description of the part. Now being someone who has limited time to address my hobbies, I am put off by kab at the moment. Of course I tried to call them with the number they provide and I get the tones of a fax machine. I guess I have to wait until tomorrow to try to contact them. In the meantime I hope that the other products that I have purchased from kab to upgrade my TT, have no other disappointing surprises for my Sunday afternoon.
Oops, sorry. I didn’t see your other post until after I sent my last one. I can honestly say that I’ve never emailed kevin without a response within 24 hrs, but usually much more quickly. Even at like 9:00pm a couple of times. He’s definitely passionate about what he does, and backs up everything with awesome customer service. He’s just a good dude.
I'm glad you can appreciate the all pumped up part of it. I put the bearing aside for now and here is where I'm at.View attachment 1203429
Ooo, you’re doing the hard part now, but it looks like you’ve got everything that’s necessary to do the rewire correctly. Making sure that the collar of the Headshell sits straight is very important to setting the azimuth. Otherwise it’ll be near impossible to get the cantilever straight, like we chatted about before. Here’s a vid about setting the azimuth. This guy took it too far though. You don’t need to remove the entire base of the tonearm.
 
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