Technics SP-25 in the house

gary7

gary7

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Yesterday I picked up this Technics SP-25 with Audio Technica ATP-12T tonearm with Stanton 681 EEE Cart on a trade. He has had it for sale for several months, so I bit. Fellow also had a 1200 for $100 more but it had a lot of wear spots all over the plinth. Cleaned up nice. I was pleasantly suprised how quiet it was between tracks and in the dead wax. Now I need to have a cover made. Any thoughts on any upgrades or better carts to add.
 

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A 1200 for $100 MORE? Reputation trumps quality again. You have chosen wisely. Congrats! BTW, I would put an AT440MLa on that AT arm.
 
One thing I was concerned about is no anti skate adjustment. But playing a few albums now, I did not notice any distorting on any of the ones I played.
 
markshan said:
A 1200 for $100 MORE? Reputation trumps quality again. You have chosen wisely. Congrats! BTW, I would put an AT440MLa on that AT arm.
Click to expand...

yeah, I have a SL 1200MK 5, certainly not bad, if you can't find a clean SP series, but that one looks to be in great shape. I also have two SP 15's and a SP 25, ironicly right now you not only have the same arm on your sp 25 that I have on mine, it also appears to be a Stanton 681EEE like mine as well.


The SP series is in fact better than the 1200 series, I have owned both, like both too, but my choice is SP series,

SIde note, I once tlaked to a guy who LOVED his Thorens TD 124. then one day he got an SP 10 MKII. His quote to me was "this thing runs circles around my thorens". Not kidding. To the thorens people reading this, no offense meant, just echoing what someone who had experienced both has said to me.
 
jdwk said:
yeah, I have a SL 1200MK 5, certainly not bad, if you can't find a clean SP series, but that one looks to be in great shape. I also have two SP 15's and a SP 25, ironicly right now you not only have the same arm on your sp 25 that I have on mine, it also appears to be a Stanton 681EEE like mine as well.
QUOTE]

It does not have a brush, but the stylus has Stanton EEE on it. What stylus is it?
Click to expand...
 
gary7 said:
jdwk said:
yeah, I have a SL 1200MK 5, certainly not bad, if you can't find a clean SP series, but that one looks to be in great shape. I also have two SP 15's and a SP 25, ironicly right now you not only have the same arm on your sp 25 that I have on mine, it also appears to be a Stanton 681EEE like mine as well.
QUOTE]

It does not have a brush, but the stylus has Stanton EEE on it. What stylus is it?
Click to expand...

there are no genuine stanton replacement styli available anymore as far as I know, so it's an aftermarket, not bad at all but not as good as a geniune stanton. sure wish exact replicas could be made of those. I think STanton pretty much aced the art of the phono cartridge in the 80's.
Click to expand...
 
jdwk said:
gary7 said:
there are no genuine stanton replacement styli available anymore as far as I know, so it's an aftermarket, not bad at all but not as good as a geniune stanton. sure wish exact replicas could be made of those. I think STanton pretty much aced the art of the phono cartridge in the 80's.
Click to expand...

It could be genuine but with the brush removed. I have one on which the brush won't stay in place as one of the plastic nibs inside is broken.
Click to expand...
 
Genuine new Stanton stylus do show up occasionally but not always cheap or the other option is a retip of the one you have, the best is by Expert Stylus in the UK for about $150 which is supposed to be the closest to the original Stanton NY stylus. I also have an SP-25 with the ATP12T tonearm, the lack of antiskate isn't anything to worry about since the tonearm is on the heavier side of medium. I believe that the SP-25 preceeded the SL-1200Mk2 and both share many electrical and mechanical components along with accessories and upgrades available from KAB and other aftermarket vendors. Along with the SL-1200Mk2 the SP-25 IMO is one of the most reliable turntables Technics mfg. Choosing the SP-25 over the $100 more SL-1200Mk2 was a wise move on the OPs part. About the only thing I would recommend if it hasn't been done recently by the prior owner is to clean and oil the bearing and as a side note I'm not a big fan of turntable weights unless the mfg made it part of the design of the turntable which Technics didn't. I'd recommend a clamp of no more than 250 grams instead of a weight, to be honest I hear little to no sonic benefit with either other than being audio eye candy.
 
gary7 said:
Yesterday I picked up this Technics SP-25 with Audio Technica ATP-12T tonearm with Stanton 681 EEE Cart on a trade. He has had it for sale for several months, so I bit. Fellow also had a 1200 for $100 more but it had a lot of wear spots all over the plinth. Cleaned up nice. I was pleasantly suprised how quiet it was between tracks and in the dead wax. Now I need to have a cover made. Any thoughts on any upgrades or better carts to add.
Click to expand...

I almost bought that one last month from Andy when he marked it down. I wasn't familiar with the tonearm. I was going to go back and look at it again tomorrow. That is a great score. Congrats!

Dave
 
Any secret to getting the platter off? This one doesn't seem to want to budge.
 
Decibel_116 said:
I almost bought that one last month from Andy when he marked it down. I wasn't familiar with the tonearm. I was going to go back and look at it again tomorrow. That is a great score. Congrats!

Dave
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'd been looking at it, too. When I missed getting another table off the bay, I decided to go for the 25.
 
Welcome to the club. A bit of warning -- once you get the time-sense part of your brain adjusted to the rock solid presentation of the upper-level Technics units, there's no going back to anything else.
 
You did great. A superb combination you now own. And every good SL-1200 thing, and even better with more refinement and tweak options. What you have will be difficult to beat at any price. And you'll never let this out of your sight. Your platter is on there with a morse taper. A little bit of gently pulling on it will eventually get the platter off. Do remember not to do so while powered up. And yes, we both rock the same combo. Mine has the 12" tonearm.
 
majick47 said:
Genuine new Stanton stylus do show up occasionally but not always cheap or the other option is a retip of the one you have, the best is by Expert Stylus in the UK for about $150 which is supposed to be the closest to the original Stanton NY stylus. I also have an SP-25 with the ATP12T tonearm, the lack of antiskate isn't anything to worry about since the tonearm is on the heavier side of medium. I believe that the SP-25 preceeded the SL-1200Mk2 and both share many electrical and mechanical components along with accessories and upgrades available from KAB and other aftermarket vendors. Along with the SL-1200Mk2 the SP-25 IMO is one of the most reliable turntables Technics mfg. Choosing the SP-25 over the $100 more SL-1200Mk2 was a wise move on the OPs part. About the only thing I would recommend if it hasn't been done recently by the prior owner is to clean and oil the bearing and as a side note I'm not a big fan of turntable weights unless the mfg made it part of the design of the turntable which Technics didn't. I'd recommend a clamp of no more than 250 grams instead of a weight, to be honest I hear little to no sonic benefit with either other than being audio eye candy.
Click to expand...

What oil would you recommend considering the one mentioned in the manual is probably not available.
 
Awesome TT sir. I have added mods to my sl-1200 mk5 and there is no way even modded it competes with my new sp-25 table.

The only way I think you could get a sl-1200 to sound as good as my sp-25 table is to put the fr-54 arm my sp-25 table has and considering it came with a premium fr headshell, audioquset leads and tigers eye bead plus the original antiskate weight that's easy $450, another $139 for the frugal tonearm cable, another $50 for an armboard, and another hour of your time or $50 to have it installed. That comes to $689 if you have it installed by someone else and I only paid $865 for my sp25 table shipped leaving only $176 for sl-1200 shipped. Not saying it can't happen but I def. think the sp route is the way to go over the sl route. Here's mine. :yes:
 

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Looks like you found a fine table, and the price was probably pretty darn good for what you got. With a higher mass arm like that one, a good quality moving coil cartridge could be in your future.

I have owned a SP15 and a SP25, and I always did appreciate the fit and finish of the tables. Hope you have many an enjoyable evening playing your vinyl on that pretty table.

Regards
Mister Pig
 
i also have had difficulties removing platters from spindles. most of them have a tapered shaft into which it fits the reversely tapered hole and centers itself. it makes a VERY intimate mating.

what needs to be done is to hold vertical force on the platter with your fingers through the (finger) holes in the platter while tapping gently on the spindle with a plastic faced hammer or as i do, a piece of lead (so as not to deface the top of the spindle).

it should be a two person job once the platter is that tenacious. one person lifting and the other tapping. it's the impact that releases the grip.
 
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