Technics SL-100C
- Thread starter AdlerW
- Start date
A few comments about the sound - FWIW, YMMV, IMO, etc ;-)
First - If your system already plays with a good sonic image - nice spread from left to right, solid center focus, and decent layering - the Technics SL-100c and Audio Technica cartridge will fit right in. The Technics/AT combination does not add colorations or distortions that I could detect.
Out of the box, the AT95VMC (Conical) cartridge sounds nicely balanced - nothing in the frequency range jumps out or falls off oddly. The left/right and front/back spread is stable and sizeable. The conical stylus sounds fluid and captures the flow of music well. While it might be surprising to pair a $ 39 cartridge with a $1,000 turntable, it's a fun thing to listen to.
Switching the stylus to an AT microline brought more detail in vocals and upper frequencies, and it also outlines all the musical elements more sharply. If the conical is organic, the microline trends to the analytical end of the spectrum. Neither profile sounds bad, but they definitely sound different from each other. Pick your pleasure.
I did notice immediately that the sound from the Technics was not the same as I'm used to hearing from my main table (a SOTA Star Sapphire with an SME 309 arm). My initial reaction was that the Technics had moved me a step back from the performance. Granted there's a big price difference in the two tables, but I wanted to put my finger on what was going on.
To sort this out, I mounted a spare VM95 body on the SOTA. From there it was an easy thing to move the stylus (I used the microline mostly) from the Technics to the SOTA and compare. Over the course of a dozen or so album sides a few things became clear.
The first thing I noticed is that the front to back image from the SOTA/SME semed bigger and more enveloping than the image from the Technics. Next, the SOTA/SME allowed sounds to decay longer than the Technics. Room ambience, the "thrum" from a bass string, or the shimmer from a cymbal strike faded away longer with the SOTA than they did with the Technics. Vocals and acoustic guitars had a more realistic resonance from the SOTA. Put all those things together and the SOTA/SME delivered more musical drama and a higher sense of realism than the Technics. More than once I caught myself thinking of the Technics as being polite or soft compared to the SOTA.
Does that mean I think the Technics sounds bad? Not at all. Even with the supplied AT 95 cartridge I think it's a capable and fine sounding component.
One last thing I tried was to mount a different cartridge to the Technics. I had a Vessel R3SM on hand ($649, ruby cantilever, moving magnet). The Vessel brought the sound of the Technics much closer to what I'm used to hearing. The sound image moved forward, resonances and decays extended, and it was easier to become absorbed in the performance and forget for the moment that I was listening to a stereo. That's the thing I aim for when listening to things and the Technics/Vessel combination started to put me there.
First - If your system already plays with a good sonic image - nice spread from left to right, solid center focus, and decent layering - the Technics SL-100c and Audio Technica cartridge will fit right in. The Technics/AT combination does not add colorations or distortions that I could detect.
Out of the box, the AT95VMC (Conical) cartridge sounds nicely balanced - nothing in the frequency range jumps out or falls off oddly. The left/right and front/back spread is stable and sizeable. The conical stylus sounds fluid and captures the flow of music well. While it might be surprising to pair a $ 39 cartridge with a $1,000 turntable, it's a fun thing to listen to.
Switching the stylus to an AT microline brought more detail in vocals and upper frequencies, and it also outlines all the musical elements more sharply. If the conical is organic, the microline trends to the analytical end of the spectrum. Neither profile sounds bad, but they definitely sound different from each other. Pick your pleasure.
I did notice immediately that the sound from the Technics was not the same as I'm used to hearing from my main table (a SOTA Star Sapphire with an SME 309 arm). My initial reaction was that the Technics had moved me a step back from the performance. Granted there's a big price difference in the two tables, but I wanted to put my finger on what was going on.
To sort this out, I mounted a spare VM95 body on the SOTA. From there it was an easy thing to move the stylus (I used the microline mostly) from the Technics to the SOTA and compare. Over the course of a dozen or so album sides a few things became clear.
The first thing I noticed is that the front to back image from the SOTA/SME semed bigger and more enveloping than the image from the Technics. Next, the SOTA/SME allowed sounds to decay longer than the Technics. Room ambience, the "thrum" from a bass string, or the shimmer from a cymbal strike faded away longer with the SOTA than they did with the Technics. Vocals and acoustic guitars had a more realistic resonance from the SOTA. Put all those things together and the SOTA/SME delivered more musical drama and a higher sense of realism than the Technics. More than once I caught myself thinking of the Technics as being polite or soft compared to the SOTA.
Does that mean I think the Technics sounds bad? Not at all. Even with the supplied AT 95 cartridge I think it's a capable and fine sounding component.
One last thing I tried was to mount a different cartridge to the Technics. I had a Vessel R3SM on hand ($649, ruby cantilever, moving magnet). The Vessel brought the sound of the Technics much closer to what I'm used to hearing. The sound image moved forward, resonances and decays extended, and it was easier to become absorbed in the performance and forget for the moment that I was listening to a stereo. That's the thing I aim for when listening to things and the Technics/Vessel combination started to put me there.
Yes, thanks for that review. I often find direct comparisons between turntables lacking, or at least a comparison will be made when the turntables are using different cartridges, which, for obvious reasons, is not a fair comparison. A new Sota Sapphire costs $4000. It should sound better than this Technics! But it sounds like the Technics is quite good for its price class.
Frank Sol
Lunatic Member
20 yrs ago who would've thunk Mikey would be writing positively about a Technics TT much-less using an Ortofon Concorde
Frank Sol
Lunatic Member
Mikey likes...
Ortofon Concorde ELITE
https://www.amazon.com/Ortofon-Concorde-Single-Moving-Cartridge/dp/B0B5BB89PS
Ortofon Concorde ELITE
https://www.amazon.com/Ortofon-Concorde-Single-Moving-Cartridge/dp/B0B5BB89PS