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The Technics SL-1200 is a series of turntables manufactured since October 1972 by Matsushita under the brand name of Technics. Originally released as a high fidelity consumer record player, it quickly became adopted among radio and club disc jockeys. Since its release in 1978, SL-1200MK2 and its successors have been the most common turntable for DJing and scratching. The MK2 presented several improvements, including to the motor and casing. Since 1972, more than 3 million units have been sold. It is widely regarded as one of the most durable and reliable turntables ever produced. Many of the models manufactured in the '70s are still in heavy use. Rappers have referred to the turntable as "1200", "Tee 12's", "Technics", "Tec 12" and "ones and twos".
Features
The features that set the SL-1200 apart are:
- A magnetic (no wear), direct drive (low slip) mechanism
- High torque (1.5 kgf·cm or 0.15 N·m), which means the platter will spin at the desired speed almost immediately (0.7 s to reach 33 ¹/3 RPM from standstill)
- Very low wow and flutter (0.01%), which means that the platter will stay within 1/100 of 1% of the desired speed
- Heavy base (12.5 kg), dramatically reducing the likelihood of feedback or stylus jumping
- Variable pitch control, allowing the rotational speed to be adjusted from -8% to +8% (for the purpose of beatmatching)
- High reliability: many examples of SL-1200's lasting well over 15 years of heavy use and withstanding physical shock without functional impairment
Models
- The original SL-1200, released in 1972, was marketed as a hi-fi turntable.
- The SL-1200MK2, released in 1978, has a silver finish. This was a continuing trend, as later 1200 models would be silver and 1210 models would be matte black. Technics improved the motor and shock resistance, added a ground wire, and changed the rotary pitch control to a slider style. This is now the base model and is the oldest still in production. The older version of this model which was sold in the 70's and 80's has a large 4 inch diameter plate where the RCA and ground wires enter the unit. The newer version has a smaller 2 inch diameter hole in the rubber where the RCA and ground enter.
- The SL-1200MK2PK is a USA-only piano-black (glossy) model.
- The SL-1210MK2 is the matte black version of SL-1200MK2. It used to be unavailable from official Panasonic dealers in the United States, until Technics released SL-1200MK2PK.
- The SL-1200MK3, released in 1989, has a matte-black finish like the 1210, gold RCA plugs, and a small gold-foil technics label on the back. It was destined only for the Asian market.
- The SL-1200M3D (1997) adds a quartz lock button which resets pitch to 0 immediately. The purpose of this button was to remove the detent/"click" at the 0 point of the fader to improve the accuracy of the pitch fader.
- The SL-1210M3D is the same as the SL-1200M3D except with a black finish.
- The SL-1200MK4 (1997) is only available for sale in Japan. This model is aimed at the hi-end audiophile market rather than for DJ's. This is the last model made with the detent in the middle of the pitch adjustment slider. It has a third button added for 78 RPM located to the right of the 33 RPM and 45 RPM buttons. It is also designed to be used with regular removable RCA cables (along with a removable ground/earth cable) rather than having hard wired RCA cables like all the other 1200 models.
- The SL-1200MK5 increases the range of anti-skate settings from 0–3 grams-force (0–30 mN) to 0–6 grams-force (0–60 mN). Also has a white LED target light (previous versions only had a globe and burnt out over time).
- The SL-1210MK5 is the black version of the SL-1200MK5.
- The SL-1210M5G was launched in Japan on 1 November 2002 (together with the MK5) and is a special 30th-anniversary edition of the SL-1200. The difference from the MK5 model is the ability to switch between ±8% and ±16% ranges for pitch adjustment. It also featured blue target lights and blue pitch-number illumination. The pitch control in this model is all digital.
- There are the limited edition gold finishings of the SL-1200LTD (1998) and SL-1200GLD (2004) models, the latter also having a blue instead of the usual white target light. The SL-1200LTD is based on the MK3D and the SL-1200GLD is based on the M5G.
- The SL-1200MK6 and SL-1200MK6K1 (black) released in 2007 have some minor improvements including: Improved tonearm mounting and oxygen-free copper wire being used for the signal, improved vibration damping in the body, improvements to the pitch control accuracy and better LEDs.
Determining the age of an SL-1200
It is possible to tell the year (and the month) when the SL-1200 was manufactured from the serial number on the back or bottom of the turntable. SL-1200 serial numbers are in two different formats, depending on the date of manufacture. It isn't exactly possible to determine the decade in which the SL-1200 in question was manufactured, as the serial number contains only the last digit of the year. If the year digit is 8, the turntable may have been manufactured in 1978, 1988, 1998 or 2008. If the year digit is 0, the turntable may have been manufactured in 1980, 1990 or 2000. One rule of thumb is that old-format serial numbers belong to SL-1200s manufactured during the 1970s and 1980s, while new-format serial numbers belong to SL-1200s manufactured during the 1990s and beyond.
Old-format serial number: NHOJF20765 (SL-1200 manufactured 1982)
The first digit shows the year when the SL-1200 was manufactured. These serial numbers contain no indication of the month of manufacture. It should be noted that serial numbers in this format contain no letters following digits.
New-format serial number: GE4FB001154 (SL-1200 manufactured June 2004)
The first digit shows the year when the SL-1200 was manufactured, while the month of manufacture is indicated by the letter following it. Months are coded as letters between A and L inclusive; A indicates January, B indicates February, and so on.
In addition to the above, all the SL-1200MK2s from the 70's and early 80's have a 4 inch diameter plate where the RCA and ground wires enter the chassis in the rubber base of the unit. The later models have a smaller hole through which the wires enter the unit.
The SL-1200 design strengths
The SL-1200 series was developed as a special project by Technics parent company Matsushita in an attempt to solve many of the problems related to the difficult task of turntable design. The task included minimizing acoustic feedback, unwanted resonances, wow & flutter and speed errors.
This was achieved by designing a remarkably heavy plinth made of a non-resonant composite sandwiched between a cast alloy top plate and a solid rubber base. In addition, the adjustable rubber damped feet ensure that the Technics SL-1200 series are well insulated against acoustic feedback, which can be a serious problem when operating a turntable in close proximity to PA loudspeakers (a common enough situation for DJ use).
The drive system designed by Matsushita is of the direct-drive variety rather than the more commonly found belt-drive type. This design was developed in order to virtually eliminate the problems of wow and flutter and produces a very quiet turntable which, for a direct drive turntable, has minimal motor and bearing noise, (although the bearing rumble does tend to become characteristic in well used turntables). The SL-1200 utilizes a Frequency Generator Servo Control Quartz Lock system that is claimed to produce the most accurate and consistent speed possible. The system is immune to static and dynamic stylus drag which would otherwise cause unwanted speed variances that change the pitch and tempo of the music. Due to these strengths the SL-1200 lends itself to both Hi-Fi reproduction and demanding DJ usage.
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