I did spend some time emailing VPI customer service, Sales, and Cust. I have not posted the question to the Vinyl Asylum and maybe I should. BTW, the Technics SL1300 MSRP in 1976 was $299.95, with the MSRP of the SL1200 being $279.95.alot of money in those days, but still alot cheaper than the top of the line Thorens belt-drive model TD-125AB MarkII at $410.00 or the belt-drive Empire Troubadour III 598 at $399.95, and the two Technics' specs placed them between the two.(BTW, the Empire was the "King".had better specs.BUT had to be returned often for repairs in those days, whereas the Technics models just kept playing and playing and playing.) ahead of the dustcover instead of under it).It is also not the same as ones which had numbers following the "13" in their designations, instead of a pair of zeros!!!!!.the easy way to tell?.pick em up!!!.The SL1300 is a heavyweight just like its twin brother the SL1200.
I did realize you weren't "knocking" ALL of the turntables from that era.but I was trying to give a hint to the savvy reader on this forum.if one notices that the Technics SL1200 turntables (greatly loved by DJ's for many years) are going for a small fortune in excellent used condition (yes, they are still considered one helluva turntable, or else people wouldn't be paying so damned much for em), one may also note that the SL1300 of that era in excellent condition goes for a song!!!!.For the life of me I can't understand why!!!! Even new, it was IDENTICAL to the SL1200, in design and quality.even specs, but it had the added feature of automatic tonearm return in the manual mode (and one could use the automatic start lever, which I never did).and new, it cost more than the SL1200 due to the addition of these features!!! WARNING: The SL1300 is NOT the same as the later lightweight 1300 "series" models that had letter suffixes(most of which had adjustments for speed pitch, etc. (I write this as I sit here listening to CD-4 vinyl recording of Jethro Tull, Aqualung playing on my Technics SL 1300 turntable bought in 1975, with JVC CD-4 cartridge with shibata nude stylus running the signal through the CD-4 demodulator in my Harman Kardon 900+ receiver and coming out of my Heresys) Let's not be too hasty in our judgements of the quality of turntables from that time period, please. The race was on!!!!!, and the cartridge manufacturers jumped onboard.with a healthy shove by the advent of the short-lived CD-4/Discrete era which pushed cartridge technology to its limits.
Technics introduced its SL110, a direct-drive designed to be a giant killer, with half the wow and flutter of the standards of the day, 3-8 dB less rumble, and precison speed control and signed to accept the audiophile Micro, Ortofon, and SME tone arms of the time.this was followed within a few months by its bigger brother SL120, then a few months later were introduced the first of Technics' complete models based on these.the SL1100, the SL1200, and the SL1300. Enter the direct-drive heavyweights from Japanese and other manufacturers firmly establishing a reputation for reliability and shaking the foundations of the industry, with a burning desire to steel a crown for themselves and a sizeable chunk of sales with their lower prices. economy (trust me, we were the world's largest consumer of home electronics back then too), the advent of CD's, the tendency of manufacturers to cut quality in order to cut costs so a product would move, etc.īUT, for a short period during the five or six years prior to that, some of the very best turntables ever made were produced" Empire Troubadour, Thorens TD 125, and others from the aging belt-driven fleet were still high tech standards striving to survive against the new tech arrivals into the marketplace that were not only promising to improve upon the performance of the established "Kings of the Hill," but living up to those promises. there were fewer and fewer turntables being offered with high quality for a variety of reasons: the bad U.S. Re: "Admittedly, most twenty five year old turntables would be crap now just because they were crap when they left the factory"Ģ5 years ago was 1977, and admittedly, from that time FORWARD.