Have your say & ask the experts

Hideous.

Back in the real world, these look quite nice.....

Chebby - baby's teat is the Funk Firm V - a relatively new deck on the market (maybe only 12-18 months?).

And that Bluemotion is a rather nice piece of work. Seems like blue is the colour (ho ho) this year - I think Thorens introduced a high end deck which was available in such a finish.

Yes I have a soft spot for blue turntables. My last Rega Planar 3 was blue. (Oh sorry, I already said that earlier.)

Agreed, that Bluemotion (or the red one, or black one, or see-through one) is fabulous...........

I am so glad seeing some of these monstrosities, that vinyl is the equivalent of VHS for me ;)

Enjoy the Betamax ;-)

So I can buy the 'latest/greatest' SL-1210 Mk 5 version for a steal from the internet.....

a) From Amazon £365

b) Superfi £399

Or...

c) From a local DJ equipent supplier at full retail (£449) BUT they have a fully equipped workshop and many 'man-years' experience of servicing and repairing SL-12xx with fully trained technicians, AND of course they are local so I can dem the unit at home and return it if I do not like it (or if something is wrong).

Needless to say, my local Hifi outlet (Audio-T) just wince when I ask if they can order one in brand-new for me (cash up front). They will, but it will cost £499 (£50 more than Technics RRP I think) and will not offer any guarantee whatsoever!

If I wanted a Rega or a Linn, I could take it away with me for no cost at all, pay when I have finished demoing it and get a 3 year guarantee. The same goes for an Onkyo or Rotel item or anything else they approve of (even if they had to order it in especially for me). The irony is that the same Audio T sell Panasonic items (Plasma televisions etc) and the SL-1210 would come via the same supplier but a Plasma screen would get cover and the turntable would get none. Crazy!

Audio T are talking a load of bull if they tell you that you have no guarantee. They're bound by the sale of goods act and you of course have your rights as a consumer. 28 day guarantee applies across the board - no gurantee, what a load of old cack!! LOL.

Report them to trading standards, or check with the manager and see if there's maybe been a little 'misunderstanding'...!

Hello all, strangely enough I've just come from having an SL1210 to a Rega p2. Here are my finding's. The Technics is a great deck but i was not convinced by it's sound, i changed the headshell to the sumiko, no difference, had it set up correctly with a Denon DL110, great cartridge but felt let down by the Technic's sound stage. Bass is solid and deep and the treble is clear but on the whole it does not have that three dimensional sound stage, anyway i just was not convinced and felt the left channel was a bit down so took it back to the shop, the manager agreed it seemed a bit down and offered me an exchange which i was happy to accept, only to be told 5 minutes later that they had none in stock and would be at least 2 to 3 weeks before they had any more in so offered me a refund, then was told they didn't have enough cash and i didn't have my card on me but the manager gave it to me from his own pocket, now that's what i call customer service. So armed with £320.00 which was the cost of the deck i set off to TCR to source a different deck. Well if you do this yourself you wont find many if any doing a discount for cash so disappointed i went to Grahams bought myself a p2 fitted the Denon and have not looked back, i have a grin as wide as the cheshire cat every time i put a record on, now maybe if the Technics was working right i may have kept it and that 3d sound stage may have been there but with the left channel low it just wasn't going to happen but the Rega is great so i recommend it highly. The shop i bought the Technics from is West End DJ again highly recommended.