Tables Have Turned

The Technics SL1200 MK3D

MUSIC 2 September 2026 01:00 Bainbridge Island, WA

Spinning the first record: Blade Runner LTD Red Vinyl, of course.

Finally, the Grail of turntables, arrives for use in the studio, and it’s a shiny hunk of metal that’s thirty years old. It glows like a precision spinning June bug, and plays hundreds of platters like a concert dream.

So, this is my “okay, that’s enough, no more” turntable, which I purchased used from a reseller in Yokosuka a few years ago, and it was just what the doctor ordered. This isn’t exactly the best model of the various SL1200s out there, nor is it the latest and greatest, but I have wanted this one for so long. So I looked for one I could afford. Matched with the Ortofon Concorde Arkiv needle cartridge, and a stable record weight, we’re set.

And I now have a proper phonograph in the studio.

The SL-1200 in its opened shipping carton, platter lifted out to show the motor and the tonearm taped down for the trip — Received! Hooooo-boy it’s heavy! It even came in the original 30-year old box.

Setup complete

After finally getting the one turntable I’d wanted forever, I gave away all of my other turntables to family and friends, excited that they wanted to use them!

Close-up of the white Ortofon cartridge and headshell newly fitted to the tonearm, the reset button beside it — Found a really low priced quality needle that’d work with this one. Ortofon.

The silver SL-1200MK3D set up with a tan Sub Pop slipmat on the platter and the tonearm resting in its clip — All setup and the SubPop slipmat added for good measure.

Analog

With this new record player, I watch the player at all times and return everything better than before, hopefully. I love it. Wait, there’s an app for scribbling your vinyl music to Last.fm?

I’m not an audiophile by any stretch, and I don’t have much advice at all, but I’ve tinkered with a few phonographs over my few years. In a nutsehll, my advise for those wanting to get into playing records, is simply to get one that’s easy for you to use, which means: the automatic, built-in preamp, 'does everything record players' that are out there, and they’re not usually expensive at all. But if you have questions, I hope to have some answers from my perspective on the low end. Let me know what you’re looking for.

Leaving the needle spinning on a record all night will ruin the record, AND the needle. So make it easy on yourself, get the Automatic. …like this one we have in the living room:

Closing

I hope you will find playing physical music instruments enjoyable, be it a cassette player, a minidisc player, the simplest of harmonicas or the nicest of double bass cellos (now we’re talkin’!).

Enjoy music any way you can. It’s in you. I’m sure it is. Even a humble kazoo will bring a smile to someone’s face.

Reference

But you’re interested in this turntable? This link will help explain the differences over the years with the SL1200 models, which are many: