technics sl 1200 gae

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.

@tzh21y if you post addressed to me then i know that you're happy with GAE, so personally you don't need anything else. I have no idea when you discovered Technics DD for yourself, i did it back in 1995 and bought my first Technics SL1210mkII between 1995-1998 (later upgraded them with some mods). For me this design is not attractive anymore at all, no matter which motor has been installed in the brand new GAE. I don't want to use one design for all my life. I want to move on.  

In the last 5 years i've been with my SP-10 mkII with Reed 3p "12inch in a custom plinth (and with EPA-100 before the upgrade). I paid $1200 for my SP-10mkII in MINT condition and never had any problem with this turntable. I paid another $1200 for EPA-100 and about $700 for custom teak wood plinth, so you can count a total. 

I have more that 7 tonearms now and SP-10 mkII is no longer a good option for me. Luxman PD-444 is way better to swap the arms, the plinth is superb, two arms can be used. Amazing DD turntable. Ask @knollbrent  for how much did he paid for it (with free shipping from Japan on ebay). It was in mint- condition with spare armboards for different tonearms. It was a bargain, about $2k ? 

People from Zu Audio always use PD-444 on High-End shows, so you can check them out.  

Technics tonearm is not a lighweight arm, it's not ideal for very high compliance cartridges. I have Denon DA-401 at the moment as an alternative on my Luxman 444. Beautiful low mass tonearm for high-compliance cartridges. 

As a collector i do not buy damaged garbage, only mint- condition (top class gear). I've never had a problem with vintage tonearms, cartridges, turntables (except for the Victor TT-101 which is notorious for its problems that can be fixed only by professionals for high price). So in general don't know what you're talking about. I can always compare them to the new modern gear to make sure they are fine.    

 

My GAE is fitted with an Ortofon Per Windfeld and it is superb.  It recently was fitted with a KAB fluid damper that does no harm.  The headshell makes a difference too, I have settled on the Yamamoto HS-2S carbon.  I also changed arm wire, but went back to stock believe it or not.  I also have a VPI Prime with two arms a 3D and a Metal both fitted with the dual pivot mod and a Eagle/Roadrunner and triple belts for speed stability.  The two decks are very close performance wise.

I have never seen those kind of deals with plinth and all.  maybe if you purchased a while ago, deals could be had. 

i do not doubt the quality, just the price I have not seen the Luxman for 2k