Seeking advice from the SL1200 fan s

I would suggest talking to Kevin about cartridges. One of the advantages of having a removable headshell is that you can swap cartridges at the drop of a hat. As such, you can use one for 33's / 45's and another for 78's. The arm would have to be optimized for one cartridge or the other though. Honestly, i can't remember if the 1200 has adjustable VTA or not.

As to fluid damping, it has it's ups and downs. It is a good way of controlling resonance amplitude but supposedly also "slows down" transient response. Can't say as i've never experimented with it first-hand.

The one thing that intrigues me about the 1200 is that Kevin is "kind of" working on a custom phono cartridge that would be optimized just for this table. After talking to him on the phone about it, i was more than interested as to how it would work IF he is able to get it into production. Sean
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SL1200's have easily adjustable and repeatable VTA control. Overhead is set at the headshell, so cart swaps are fairly simple. BTW, in theory, fluid damping should improve transient response in particular, by keeping steep amplitude impulses from being dissapated in exciting the arm, so the energy is directed into moving the cantilever where it belongs. The viscous fluid permits the arm low frequency movement, such as following the record groove or a warped surface, but progressively attenuates higher frequency arm movements, where transients live. (Yes, I have a 1200, and am on the verge of trying the damper for myself, and am considering the 78 rpm mod down the road.)

Thanks for the clarification Zaikesman. As stated, i am not directly familiar with fluid damping. I took that bit of info from George Merrill's TT booklet. Sean
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Sorry, second sentence, first word should have been "overhang", of course. Sean, when I get the damper, I'll post my experience. My own theory about Merrill's observation would be that damping may attenuate some tonearm ringing, which might seem (like many resonances do unless you get used to their absence) to in some way add "excitement" to the presentation. But this is only my theory; what do I know yet, since I haven't tried it?

Search the Asylum and read what Thorsten says about the 1200 with a top notch cartridge...

I use an Ortofon X5 high output MC--output is close to the V15's. Cartridge selection depends on your music tastes more than anything else.

The damper is a *major* improvement.