Any advice from Technics TT users on here? Got a good deal on sl1200GR which will arrive a couple weeks. I have a olive 82 with internal MM boards + Supercap and 250.2 with shahinian Arc’s on the end. My question is what carts are recommended with this setup and should I consider a modest external phono stage or are the internal boards good enough? I play records roughly 20% of the time I listen to the system. Thanks in advance.
I would rate the internal boards as good as any external phono stage up to $1000. Careful matching with the cartridge specs necessary, though as the NAIM MM stages have a high loading capacitance.
High output MC Dynavector, AudioTechnica MM, Sumiko MM (I used the Moonstone) all play well to the SL1200GR strengths.
Naim MM phono isn’t a natural parter for either Ortofon or Rega carts.
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What @feeling_zen said. The internal boards are good and work well with (among others) AT.
If you want to go further, get a Dynavector P75 mk4. It’s small, adapts well to lots of cartridges and doesn’t much mind about where you put it.
It is also cheap (£400 on eBay, though noticeably more new) and sounds very good with a wide variety of cartridges. To do better than that, you would probably need to spend Naim Superline/ Rega Aura money - plus a similar bill for the cartridge.
The rest of your system is good enough to benefit from any of that.
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You’ll need a RCA/BNC low capacitance interconnect, Mogami, Blue Jeans, Klotz or others. I wouldn’t use RCA/BNC adapters and no more than 1M cable from deck to phonostage.
For external phonostage you can use DIN5 line inputs.
Depending on your cartridge budget, I’d start up with your internal MM cards or find some 523 cards if you like to run Moving Coil.
The cheapest but ok starter cartridge are likely AT VM95, surprisingly good value and nice to have as reserve. Also available pre-fitted to a headshell.
I have an AT33PTGII on my GR, great deck and sound, being a former LP12 and Rega user. Technics decks are so very different - but once getting used to them, there’s no going back really.
I do have a number of other cartridges available, most interested IMO are the Sumiko range Rainier and up to Amethyst, also for a little more cash… a rigB LNR integrated headshell/cartridge with Paratrace or finer tip.
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Thanks for the responses, very helpful.
Any comments or experience with Nagaoka carts?
Technics released the very first 1200G (in fact they were called GAE) with a dedicated and new JT-80 cartridge.
That cartridge is on my list along with MP500, that is when I win lottery.
I think you’ve mixed something up.
The Technics SL-1210GAE came (in Europe) with a special Nagaoka JT-1210 cartridge, which looks to be the same as the JT-80BK. There’s also a cheaper JT-80LB. The first being 595 EUR, the second 229.
The SL-1210GAE was not the first 1200G released. The 1200G & GAE were first released in 2016, the GR in 2017 and the 1210GAE in 2020. All previous ones came without a cart AFAIK.
Sorry for confusion
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