Panasonic Brings Back the Technics 1200 Turntable

Many of you are aficionados of the Technics 1200 series turntable.

Made since 1972, Panasonic ended production in 2010. The 1200 was a god among DJs. It featured a magnetic direct drive design, high torque and low wow and flutter among many other capabilities that made beatmatching, pushbutton cueing and scratching smooth and easy for DJs.

Sadly, in 2010 Panasonic announced the end of the 1200s on the DMC World DJ Championships website. The company wrote, “We are sure that retailers and consumers will understand that our proudct range has to reflect the accelerating transformation of the entire audio market from analogue to digital.”

There’s good news, though. Thanks to the growing popularity of vinyl, Panasonic is re-releasing the Technics SL 1200/SL 1210 series turntables.

The newest incarnation is the Grand Class Technics SL-1200G and the limited edition Grand Class SL-1200 GAE (available this summer).

Early reviews are positive. But, there seems to be some discontent over the fact that “vibrations in the motor, which cause subtle speed fluctuations, do take away from the vinyl listening experience” (Gizmodo).

Let us know if you’ve tried it, and what you think about it.