TECHNICS 1200's SAVED MY LIFE.

[heBAY]

Fully aware of the DJ's topic...but this is more for the vinyl spinning, cutting, beat juggling, mixing, blending, and audiophile'ing types who swear by the 1200 (whatever model) out there. Let's get technical. Show your monstrous customized 1200. Prove that the anti-skate and counter weight HAS to be set to the same number...or prove otherwise.

I just got my 2nd 1200 today...my 3rd 1200...sold one when I got the producer's bug and wanted an effects unit for my MPC2000 back in '99...now I want to spin again...need to replace the pop-up light's bulb. Also want to replace the motor and tonearm later on down the line.

What's with that anti-skate function...I never tested it on a blank-sided record...but I was always a firm believer that after you balanced your tonearm, you'd set the weight and match the anti-skate to that number. I never had problems (that I know of) with uneven stereo sound or bad tracking when doing heavy scratching (if anything skipped, I always put it towards the record (warped or the hole wasn't tight enough, pause), the stylus (pre-shure m-447 days), or me being too rough with the cut).

Seriously...Technics made something monumental with the 1200...those shits last forever and take a beating before anything needs a fix up. After starting on ever-so wobbily Gemini's that were slow to start/return to normal playspeed due to the belt-driven mechanism, had shitty tonearms, plastic bodies, etc...I spent about 4 hours losing my mind the night I set up my first pair of 1200's.

[kert]

how you set your anti-skate and weight up is based off of what type of needles you use. i use shure m447s. with the needles it will tell you how to set it up. throw those instructions away.

take the needle off. balance the tonearm so it's flat (level with the tables). set the anti-skate to zero. take the weight off and flip it backwards. the numbers will be facing out. push it to the front. put the needle back on. test it out by scratching back and forth on your scratch record.

i've had my 1200's for over 12 years now. never had a problem until last year. the screw on the base of the tonearm started to come lose. i had to mess with it to get it to work again and stop skipping on my records. i refused to take it to a shop. i didn't want anyone else messing with them.

[heBAY]

how you set your anti-skate and weight up is based off of what type of needles you use. i use shure m447s. with the needles it will tell you how to set it up. throw those instructions away.

take the needle off. balance the tonearm so it's flat (level with the tables). set the anti-skate to zero. take the weight off and flip it backwards. the numbers will be facing out. push it to the front. put the needle back on. test it out by scratching back and forth on your scratch record.

i've had my 1200's for over 12 years now. never had a problem until last year. the screw on the base of the tonearm started to come lose. i had to mess with it to get it to work again and stop skipping on my records. i refused to take it to a shop. i didn't want anyone else messing with them.

Wait wait...so you balance your tonearm without the cartridge on there as well...or just the cartridge but no needle? Why flip the weight so the numbers are on the outside?

[kert]

Wait wait...so you balance your tonearm without the cartridge on there as well...or just the cartridge but no needle? Why flip the weight so the numbers are on the outside?

actually, what did i say? leave the needle and cartridge on. i flip the weight the other way because the weight is heavier on the opposite side of the numbers. therefore, more weight will be distributed towards the tonearm.

another way to do it, is to put the weight on normally. numbers facing you. push it all the way forward. the tonearm will go up. as you move it back slowly the tonearm will start to go down. once it gets level, push it to the front, then change the number to zero. then set the anti-skate to zero also.

both ways work. but, if you scratch a lot, i prefer flipping the weight the other way.

[arem]

I love my 1200's, but you know that they are far from audiophile quality, right? If you care about sound quality first then you need a belt drive table, direct drives vibrate and the rumble is pretty audible if you compare the two on a decent stereo.

That said, I've had my 12's for 11 years now, never had a problem with them and hope I never will.

[heBAY]

actually, what did i say? leave the needle and cartridge on. i flip the weight the other way because the weight is heavier on the opposite side of the numbers. therefore, more weight will be distributed towards the tonearm.

another way to do it, is to put the weight on normally. numbers facing you. push it all the way forward. the tonearm will go up. as you move it back slowly the tonearm will start to go down. once it gets level, push it to the front, then change the number to zero. then set the anti-skate to zero also.

both ways work. but, if you scratch a lot, i prefer flipping the weight the other way.

Yeah I always did it the second way you cited. I usually then added weight onto the arm and then matched the anti-skate to the number on the weight. Some people say keep the antiskate at 0...which I can't see working.

I love my 1200's, but you know that they are far from audiophile quality, right? If you care about sound quality first then you need a belt drive table, direct drives vibrate and the rumble is pretty audible if you compare the two on a decent stereo.

That said, I've had my 12's for 11 years now, never had a problem with them and hope I never will.

Yeah I did know that about the 1200's...I've had my 12 for the same amount of time as you (I just stopped cuttin' by '99). My boy practically gutted his, got a sick needle and new wiring...plus i think something was done to the motor or circuitry.

BUT...I did NOT know that belt drives actually had a use on this planet. So that's why all of those USB tables are like that. You learn something new everyday.

[xcoldricex]

i recently got a pair of 1200m5g's (always wanted black 12's and i got a killer deal on them)

going to sell a pair of modded m3d's

-straight arm mod (dj focus retrofit)

-internally grounded

-upgraded rca's (now with m5g rca's)

-blue leds (except the pitch - retangle led's were hard to find back in the day)

i started with those battle style vestax tables... they were ok, but naturally technics were better.

[readytoignite]

re: anti-skate - from an audiophile perspective you actually have to do a listen test to get it set correctly. throw a test record on, listen for distortion in one channel vs the other and correct until it's even. though with real tables there is more variation in terms of cartridge alignment, they don't snap in like headshells do.

since nobody's ever going to do this everytime they mount the cartridge the "set at tracking weight" approach will probably work. the worst thing that will happen is the needle will wear irregularly and potentially damage your records after repeated plays but it's not like scratching / spilling beer / dropping them won't do that either.

[Guest youkinorn]

for djing applications, I've always heard that you should just leave anti-skate at 0. So I just leave mine at 0.

[heBAY]

re: anti-skate - from an audiophile perspective you actually have to do a listen test to get it set correctly. throw a test record on, listen for distortion in one channel vs the other and correct until it's even. though with real tables there is more variation in terms of cartridge alignment, they don't snap in like headshells do.

since nobody's ever going to do this everytime they mount the cartridge the "set at tracking weight" approach will probably work. the worst thing that will happen is the needle will wear irregularly and potentially damage your records after repeated plays but it's not like scratching / spilling beer / dropping them won't do that either.

Yeah exactly...I knew about the stereo test. I never really had a problem with any records or needles dying faster than what was perceived as normal...but yeah...good to hear the different ways you can deal with/utilize anti-skating.

[heBAY]

for djing applications, I've always heard that you should just leave anti-skate at 0. So I just leave mine at 0.

DJing applications meaning scratching? Or just playing records? Or software?

[arem]

I've always left mine at zero as well, with the weight reversed. Supposedly causes less cue burn. If I was scratching and having skip problems I might turn it up a bit, but I usually find that if I'm having a lot of skipping problems it means my stylus is either dirty or shot.

[Guest youkinorn]

DJing applications meaning scratching? Or just playing records? Or software?

Just in general, I believe. Although, I'm not claiming to be an expert on the mystery that is anti-skating. Basically, when you turn it on, it makes your tonearm drift outwards, which makes me think that it would increase skipping when you're manipulating the record in any way. I'm not sure, though.

[readytoignite]

it's not that mysterious. anti-skate is to counteract the centrifugal force created by the stylus being a fixed point in a rotating frame. otherwise the needle will be riding the outer wall of the groove, resulting in distortion in one channel, excessive wear to the vinyl and needle and tendency to pop the wall (skip).

theoretically it should be dependent on tonearm geometry since the tonearm is what attempts to keep tracking perpendicular to the radius of the platter, regardless of where the needle is on the record. i suspect that no tonearm manufacturer wants to specify since anti-skate implementations across various tables is not scientifically normalized.

hope this helps