Technics Tech Tips

DO NOT “INTERNAL GROUND MOD” YOUR TURNTABLES .

It’s a bad idea, don’t do it!

To put it basically, it introduces the possibility of ground loop issues depending on your set-up and also makes your equipment less safe to use. If your Technics turntable has been ‘internally grounded’ and then has a major electrical fault (from drink spills and other misuses), you can destroy other equipment in the chain such as an amplifier. There are other technical issues that can arise too. The engineers at Technics designed their turntables to have a separate ground wire for a reason.

But my RCA cable is grounded when it gets to the mixer, so why should it matter?

The chassis ground and the audio ground must not be connected UNTIL it reaches the mixer (or any other phono pre-amp). The fact that the audio and chassis grounds are connected within the mixer/pre-amp does not mean they should be connected outside of it. There are capacitance and inductance effects which result from doing an “internal ground mod” which can cause interference and reduced audio quality (mostly a reduction of high frequencies).

For more information download the article about the issues with internal grounding from Richies Technics 1200/1210 Servicing here: Internal Grounding Info

We re-install missing or broken ground wires on every Technics turntable service at no extra fee.

USE A SURGE PROTECTOR FOR YOUR PRECIOUS TECHNICS TURNTABLES

Voltage spikes and surges can damage the major IC (Integrated Circuit) components on your turntables. These parts have been discontinued for the SL-1200MK2 etc. (also found on some other models such as SL-1600MK2 and SL-1800MK2) and supplies are diminishing. Spares for other models that use different IC’s are not available at all.

Make sure that you use a good quality power board with surge and spike protection for your turntable, this will greatly reduce the chance of these components inside your precious Technics turntables failing.
If you’re on a budget, name brands like HPM and Belkin are fine. Just look for a surge board with the highest Surge Protection rating (in joules). A good example is the HPM D105TVAV8BL 8 outlet board with a 3,150J rating (approx. $60).
If you’ve got a higher budget you can go for a higher quality surge board such as the THOR A12BF SMART BOARD 8 (approx. $330).

Should I buy an older Technics 1200 turntable (MK2 etc.) or should I buy a shiny new SL-1200MK7?

In short, it is not recommended to buy a MK7. Here are some known issues with the MK7:

  • Soldering is poor quality by comparison to older Technics turntables and the solder is lead-free which is known to be less reliable. You can expect about 6 years of life out of it before the solder joints can start to break. By comparison, the leaded solder on older Technics turntables can easily last 15 to 30 years before any issues arise.
  • Issues with the platter not being level, too much wobble
  • The tonearm mechanism has issues with being wobbly at the back
  • The pitch range has issues, such as there being no change in pitch when moving from +6 to +8 on the pitch slider.
  • Digital pitch control which is not as good to mix with as the old analogue pitch control. With the analogue pitch control in older Technics turntables (apart from the M5G) you will get much finer control over pitch. Depending on your style of DJ’ing this may or may not be an issue for you.