technics sl 1200 gae

@atmasphere

The arm tower allows adjustment of the VTA on the fly. The concept has been copied by VPI, Durand and others so it must work :)

I like this concept on my Reed, but smooth and precision VTA on the fly available with many nice vintage tonearms like Victor UA-7045/7082, Sony PUA-7, Lustre GST-801, Technics EPA series just to name a few which i like a lot.

I designed an arm board that allows you to mount longer arms, and while the dust cover can’t be used, longer arms like the Reed can.

Everyone can get a ruler to measure pivot to spindle mounting distange and realize how limited is the SL1200 series compared to the SP-10 series which i prefer.

You can always say that everyone can use a custom arm pod near the SL1200 turntable with tonearm of any size (even "16 inch long), but this is not for the people who cares about aesthetics and desing of the equipment.

If your TriPlanar is not covered by the dust cover of the Technics then fluid damper collect dust everyday. I knew it because i’ve been using fluid dampers with my Technics for a long time, this is very bad idea without dust cover (imo).

Honestly i don’t like the idea of having open fluid damper, but it’s just me. I’m pretty sure TriPlanar is a great arm and i was considering one myself along with Kuzma 4 Point, but ended up with Reed 3p "12 Cocobolo with no regret (the most beautiful arm ever in my opinion, and fully adjustable like no other tonearms that i know, even azimuth of the fly).

I must admit that your TriPlanar looks nice on your custom armboard on the SL1200GAE

Honestly i don't like the idea of having open fluid damper, but it's just me.

I don't use it and have removed it on my arm at home. We don't use it at the shop either but its still on the arm.

chakster,

I am happy that you have Both modern (expensive) and tons of vintage. 
You recently chastised one member for not helping the poor and down trodden.  So, you help budding audiophiles ? Is this your contribution ? Until recent health issues, I volunteered at the VA hospital. Being a Combat Veteran, This is where my heart goes out to. You can continue to help budding audiophiles from your keyboard. Who do you Help, with your time and effort,  that Really Needs Help ?

@nkonor

Well, i don’t have a "tons of vintage" as you might think, i only have selected top quality vintage cartridges and i already traded my few expensive modern carts for my belowed vintage carts long time ago when i discovered the quality of the more expensive carts is not as good as the quality of the selected vintage ones. Also i could not live with $5 cartridges for practical reason, but i bought them, tried them to remember what they can do in my system with my records. At that time i was influenced by reviewers, dealers and the common opinion in high-end world. But personal experiecne is much more important, so i changed my mind. I only have two turntables in use in my main system (Luxman PD-444). And the cost of both turntables for me was less than your single new Technics GAE. Band for the buck in action.

You recently chastised one member for not helping the poor and down trodden.

No, My original post about luxury life of the very rich audiophiles was deleted by moderator because of one word, so i’m not sure did you get the message before it was deleted. It was not addressed to one member, it was addressed to luxury life that someone described as normal, but it’s not normal, it’s luxury. In the circle of friends no one can afford $15k cartridge or $30k tonearm and $200k turntable and so on. I’m definitely from another world, i don’t think it’s normal to spend that much on audio. This is an attribute of the luxury life described by one of the member. I only hope that charity is a part of that life too.

You can continue to help budding audiophiles from your keyboard. Who do you Help, with your time and effort, that Really Needs Help ?

In the modern world people of my age searching for information online. Contributors of this forum helped me a lot to expand my knowledge in theory first and then in practice. Basically the famous MM thread with tons of information from the members that no longer active on audiogon and some members that still active too. I want to pay back with my contribution. I see all this as the audiophile’s diary.

We have no probem to find reviews of the modern high-end equipment, but unfortunately we can’t find reviews of the vintage equipment, especially in comparison to the modenr equipment. And yes, bang for the buck is very important factor when normal people looking for an equipment that highly competitive to the overpriced stuff. What is overpriced for me may not be overpriced for people living their luxury life. But even relatively cheap vintage audio gear is overpriced for some people, many people spend more on records than on equipment.

I have never seen these so called deals on vintage tables.  After you factor in the arm and the plinth and so on, you are getting up there.  The thing is, look at a sp10 M2 or the Luxman, add the lets say Low mass technics 10 inch arm, and your way over 4K.  with the 1200GAE, you get the new arm, which is probably not as good as the Boron/titanium arm but you get the new motor and, well a new table with new motor.  Many of them offer no return, so what if something is not right, now lets say you have to put another grand into it, well, you get my idea.  The same thing with these older arms.  unless you can actually see the arm for yourself, make sure the bearing are ok, its a crapshoot.  Your never really sure of what you are getting.