SL1200 - respect!

I have, this last week or so, been tidying the old SL1200 that sits with some other salvaged kit in my office. 

Some disassembly revealed that it was apparently designed and built by the same firm that did Stonehenge.  Similarly, the engineering of arm tower and VTA adjustment should cause many 'high end' manufacturers to hang their heads in shame. 

Anyway, rebuilt, cleaned up and lubed up (actually Walter our 74 y/o engineer did the hard bits) and with decent RCA plugs and arm lead on it: it started to sound pretty good.  Then I took off the AT110e and stuck the much mentioned G1042 in it.  This brought out more detail but even with the fannying about the 1042 needs to get the best from it, it didn’t really sound that exciting.  Yesterday though, I stuck the Ringmat XLR that used to sit on my LP12 on it, re-set what must be the best VTA adjuster ever (better than on my new Encounter), then had a listen.  It sounded great, really lively, forward, vocally present and musical.  I’d always thought that the Ringmat did a slightly better job than the felt mat on the LP12 but using it instead of the standard slab of rubber that’s on the SL1200, really lights things up.

We have over the years installed loads of SL1200' (latterly 1210’s) but this is the first time I have ever properly set one up and listened to it.  In fact, if I’m honest, I’d looked down my nose at them a bit because they had too many knobs, sliders and buttons and I associated them with DJ’s.   DJ's (in our world) are the people who break our lovely installs and who use cartridges that look like lathe tools, which track at such force, that I am always surprised not to see spirals of vinyl coming from the stylus.  My apologies in advance to all DJ’s!

Anyway, this little project just goes to show how wrong ones assumptions can be.  The SL1200 (and I assume the 1210) is a proper hi-fi record player and I can’t think of anything else, around the price, that is engineered to such a high standard.  Respect!