The SL-1200 was launched in 1972 as a popular direct drive turntable. The combination of powerful torque, ease of use, and high durability has made it widely favoured by audiophiles and DJs, unleashing DJ culture in fields such as electronic dance music. This series is still highly rated by DJs around the world. The Technics SL-1210MK7 still features its heritage design, maintaining the same ease of use, reliability and unmatched durability, while adding a coreless direct drive motor and other sound-enhancing technologies. It also provides new DJ play functions.
The direct drive system uses a slow-rotating motor to directly drive the platter. This system has various advantages. It offers high performance, such as rotation accuracy and powerful torque, does not require replacement of parts and maintains high reliability over a long period of time. However, the direct drive system was said to occasionally produce a rotation irregularity called cogging. For the SL-1200MK7, a new direct drive motor was developed, employing a coreless stator. The removal of the iron core from the stator eliminated the root cause of cogging. Furthermore, the magnetic force of the rotor magnets was improved to the highest possible level, and the gap between the coreless stator and rotor magnets was optimised, thus achieving high torque performance equalling that of the SL-1200MK5. Boasting smooth rotation and powerful torque, this motor accurately and faithfully reproduces sound from the groove on an analogue record. The platter also now rotates in the reverse direction when the speed selector button and Start/Stop button are pressed simultaneously, expanding the breadth of possibility for DJ play styles.
The SL-1200MK7 employs the newest motor control technology. Utilising a microcomputer, this advanced motor control technology ensures high performance in normal rotation and also responds accurately to a wide range of DJ play styles, such as scratching. The starting torque and brake speed can be adjusted individually to suit the user’s preference.
The tonearm tube is made of lightweight, high-rigidity aluminium. The bearing section of the gimbal suspension construction tonearm consists of a machined housing and high-precision bearing to assure excellent tracking performance with minimum stylus jumping, even in harsh playing conditions such as scratching. The stylus illuminator features a new push-type structure and employs a high-brightness and long-life white LED. The illumination area and intensity were reviewed to provide improved visibility of the stylus tip compared to previous models, even in a dark environment.
The platter on which a vinyl record is placed features a two-layer structure with deadening rubber on the entire back surface to eliminate unwanted resonance in the aluminium die-cast platter. The platter offers high rigidity and outstanding vibration-damping characteristics to prevent harmful vibration from being transmitted to the record and delivers clear sound.
The chassis, an essential part for reducing external vibrations, inherits the audio quality enhancement technology fostered through the development of high-end turntables. The aluminium die-cast chassis is rigidly integrated with a special material consisting of ABS mixed with glass fibre to achieve a two-layer construction. The combination of this special high-rigidity material and a metal chassis raised the rigidity and vibration-damping performance to higher levels, realising a robust cabinet for beautiful sound reproduction. This not only assures high sound quality and superb howling resistance but also effectively shuts out external vibrations under high sound level conditions.
The power and phono cable terminals allow detachment of the cables. They are gold-plated to minimise sound quality degradation.
The rotation speed can be set to 33-1/3 rpm, 45 rpm or 78 rpm . The pitch control function allows fine adjustment of the rotation speed within ±8%/±16%. This function achieves accurate and stable pitch control thanks to full digital control with improved tracking performance and accuracy.
Features
- Coreless Direct Drive motor achieving stable rotation
- Diverse new functions adapt to various playing styles
- Reverse play function
- High sensitive S-shape tonearm
- Stylus illuminator with high-brightness, long-life white LED
- Detachable Power / Phono Cable cables
- Gold-plated Phono terminals
- High-rigidity cabinet and high-damping insulator
- 33-1/3, 45 rpm speeds (with switch 78 rpm)
- 0.18 N·m / 1.8 kg?cm starting torque
- Dimensions (W x H x D): 453 x 169 x 353 mm
- Weight: Approx. 9.6 kg