I love all the great features. The model number is clearly an homage to the Technics SL1200 vinyl turntables with the pitch fader used by DJs to beat match their mixes.
Its no coincidence its named after the Technics SL-1200 series of direct-drive turntables originally manufactured from October 1972 until 2010. Built to last and give perfect precise playback. Thank you Technics.
@Geoffrey Mills im not sure which model you have because mine is direct drive with red LED for speed control. if you had it that long im wondering how often you change the needle. i do it after about 500 discs. u?
@Echelon Rank exactly, I've been spinning albums on mine for 20+ years and I have no complaints yet, adjustable tracking, anti-skate control, adjustable weight balance, neon speed control and belt drive,,, what's not to like
@Echelon Rank Okay. At least I was close. I remember DJ's even having 12 inch records custom pressed to get the most dynamic range from specific music pieces by not cramming too many of them on a side, while still being able to manipulate the record with their hands. It was of upmost importance to them. An ordinary CD player didn't lend itself to this, and these purpose built CD players were probably awkward at best.
@Sparky close, but youre talking about the technics sl-dz1200 CD turntable which is a completely different product. I just cant believe someone like Techmoan has missed this entirely.
I also remember when CD’s launched - I was a young teenager at the time in Australia. My Dad came home with a Teac all in one system with dual cassette decks, with a basic CD player below (also had a radio & turntable) Thing you need to know is that Australian Teac is like Goodmans, in other words the polar opposite of Teac in the UK. (It was so basic you could only advance forward or back by the whole track, not seek mid track it didn’t remember it’s last position if you turned it off and there was no play time displayed only track numbers) Anyhoo, for several years after buying the system the only CD’s that we’re bought had to have on their label that they were either a ADD or DDD recording and if it wasn’t listed then it wasn’t purchased. Oh, and I was banned from using it, so even if I bought my own CD’s I wasn’t allowed to play them, only the “special” CD’s were played. This was more than infuriating to a kid who had discovered the joys of music and was consuming as much of it as possible, discovering 60’s as well as the current charts of the mid eighties at the time. All ended well when I bought my own Sony player almost a year later having saved like crazy from my paper round. Dad wasn’t jealous in the slightest 🤢🤢😂😇
@Mikey Mine liked classical music too (me as well) but no question "Brothers in Arms" i neither had to buy he bought it it was a brand new thing to have a must have. Guess we had one CD rack in our record shop a single rack at the time "BiA" was released and sure yes most was classical music. ppl spreaded a lot of crazy things about CD at this time. And now it became obsolete, this i didn't expected back then and my young friends look at me strange if they see my collection "what for?..." "should i throw them away makes that sense? and do you know a second with a collection like mine? No certainly not it's like you say
@Droz Company Dad had/bought a fair number of classical CD’s (more than 10 less than 20) that were ADD, especially Philips Mastered ones that I seem to remember. He too had Brothers in Arms once he realised what Dire Straits was all about and that it was DDD - I think he thought Dire Straits was “young people’s” music and thus initially was disinterested.
ADD discs were rare. I only have one or two in my collection. Most were AAD or DDD. First all-digital recording I bought was Brothers in Arms in like 1985 or 6. It was amazing compared to the AAD discs in there was no hiss at all.
This is Grade A certified pure uncut techmoan. One of your best in my opinion, Matt. The only thing that could make it better is some belts to replace.
@Hank Jonkman the laser on this (and other early technics) was on a linear sled. Not even any gears to wear out. A devil to set up when the lasers failed though
Never occurred to me that I needed to see the CD spinning and get excited. Interesting thought for sure. I guess it has more to do with space saving and being stackable as you mentioned. Perhaps spinning the CD vertically creates more wobble also. As a side note, Esoteric X-05 has a little window at the top if I recollect.
torchwood They we’re fairly low rated from an audiophile point of view! Never made it into serious hi-fi reviews anywhere either! Just expensive Scandi pretence! Sorry to say! Cheers
One of my favorite Techmoan episodes! Yes, he has a point, there's really no soul or romanticism when it comes to interacting with a average-looking disk-drawer type of CD player. Gotta admit that CD player looks unique. Kinda looks like a typewriter or cash register of sorts.
Thank you Matt! For this unbridled, uninhibited - loving display of gadget enthusiasm! THIS IS Infotainment - Entertaining and inspiring information! I thoroughly enjoy your enthusiasm and attention to detail! Bloody well done sir! Cheers mate!
I can't believe it! Techmoan did a piece on the SL-P1200! I used 2 of these in 1987/88 at a North Carolina FM station when I was 21 years old (overnight DJ at 'elevator' music station). Those decks were heavy as trucks and looked like they came from the future, and the first player I saw that had auto cue and pitch control on a CD player. Thanks for the memories! EDIT: I love the metal buttons, too! It does look like some sci-fi/Federation/Empire console standing by to fire the photon lasers or quad beams or whatever.
Matt, great vid thank you! As I was a 23-year employee of DENON, you may not have known that their 1983 "DN-3000F" model was the first professional CD player to market. US Retail Price: $8,500.00 Features like, Auto Cue, Cue to Music, 1/75 Frame Search, Pitch, Fader Start, Pro Outputs and so much more were all developed by DENON. The SL-P1200 is based off the DN-3000F and nice job they did.
Commodore adopted the top loading see through lid on the Amiga CD32 😊👍 The amount of equipment that gets thrown out all because a belt has perished is astonishing! I've repaired many electronics that have been thrown out by others. Older equipment is built to last, & to know how to service them is a bonus. I just love having some equipment that you can repair yourself over & over throughout the years. I rescued a Sanyo G3003 with 2 VU meters & an orange digital display which is in remarkable condition for its age.
Yes, back when I was on radio those functions were essential. We had later technics drawer loaders but they had all the same features. One handy function was the "peak search" which very quickly scanned the disc then cued it up at the highest volume on the track so you could PFL the peaks and set the channel output accordingly. This was important because of the limiters at the transmitter site that would maintain an output volume. If the peak was too high the limiter would pull the gain right down but then as soon as a queter bit followed it would then be too quite and take a second to go back up. Setting the levels correctly stopped this from happening. Whenever the engineer was in the building he could tell instantly if the levels were too high and would often run down to the studio, poke his head around the door and just say "LEVELS!" With a raised disapproving eye brow!!
@MotoDevCam Broadcast vinyl was on 16" records at one point. Great way to ensure those records don't get stolen. No one other than a radio station has the equipment to play it!
@Marcus Damberger yes, this was early 90s ams from memory ot was quite a rack of hear, including compressors and processing etc. When it was introducided to peak it would crash way down so of course any lower gain audio would almost disappear. It's was quite noticeable. The studio monitors and cans were actually taking the broadcast feed from the transmitter (we were line of sight to the TX site so no delay) so at least you could hear it dip if you hadn't been paying attention. Worked in more modern stations since using automated play out systems etc but it really felt tangible using CDs, Carts, Mini Disc etc. I'm too young for broadcast vinyl however!!
I am always looking forward to watching a new episode of your content. Beautifully researched, filmed and narrated.... what else can be said? Simply said, one of the best channels out there!
A "modern" (circa 2020) CD boombox that I like the best is the Jensen CD-565 with a VERTICAL CD display. This shows that the CD is spinning/playing through a half window (I wish it displayed the entire CD). Another wish I would have liked better is if it had a CD text display instead of stupid track numbers. One great added feature is a Bluetooth receiver that "lives in the now!"
I was looking into buying a small stereo system for my home, and I remember going to the electronics store as a child and seeing row upon row of ever so slightly different cd stereo systems, so I was expecting a similar experience. (I was under no illusions that I would get to see the dozens of styles of the early 00s, but I expected four or five at least.) Unfortunately, I was given exactly one opinion, and it wasn’t one I was crazy about, so I went home empty handed. I totally agree with you about most CD players being bland as anything, and this one is quite exciting! I may do some searching on the internet for something along these lines. I’ve been enjoying your videos for a few months and I cannot wait to see more.
The early models didn't have XLRs or infra-red remote control: instead, they had two 5-pin DIN sockets: one for data and the other for a wired remote control - as was common in studio usage. You didn't mention the disc-clamp stabilizer, common to this and many high-end players. It was the CD equivalent of weights and clamps on vinyl record players.
The really cool ones offer serial and "parallel" remote control. The "parallel" remote is really just GPIO, it usually provides contact closure inputs for play, cue, track select, skip forward/back, as well as outpits for status lights. If you have it wired to a mixer or audio console with fader start, you can use the fader start contact to trigger the play input on that jack so a cued track rolls when you pot it up.
Wow! That is a beautiful machine. The radio station I worked for in the 90s had all of the same features but was a rack unit. But the tabletop model is just gorgeous.
I was going to say that this would have been a common-ish sight in a radio station with extremely fast TOC read, queueing it to the right time stamp, and the eventual addition of XLR out. IIRC, Technics/Teac still makes a variation of this machine in a single rack unit and iPod/MP3 integration. Not as nifty as this guy tho.
I've had the SL-P1300 since early 2003. Been used in a DJ/live music environment for some time. Very solid machine. Also near impossible to make it skip which is important if its not far from a stack of Bassmaxx Trips with Skooter pounding at 135dB! Thank goodness for earplugs! ;-D
Mat, any chance you could get a picture of the Technics SL-P1200 next to an Atari 2600? Preferable a heavy sixer or one of the black "Vader" models. But literally any model other than the Jr. would work. I can't be the only one that wants to see that.
Used to have several of those. It is a miracle you have a working sample. Ours were in a constant repair rotation. They were indeed build like a tank but extremely temperamental.
1:20 YES! I've always loved the kinetics (or animated quality) of physical media moving and progressing on their specific devices (records, reel-to-reel, compact cassette, etc.) and that was most often missing when it came to CD's and certainly laserdiscs, DVD's, and Blu-rays.
Found a technics 5 way cd "changer" carousel at a local thrift store. You can change/reload/reorder the discs while still playing a disc. Got a bit more features like the multi disc shuffle, playlist queue, and live pitch adjustment with bypass (the fun one) 😀
I used to repair these things back in the 90s. Technics was my favorite brand and I had one of their first CD players back in the 80s; the SLP105 (I think). It lasted almost a solid three decades and needed only a cleaning of the loading belt in all that time. Who knows, it might still be in my mother's house somewhere.
Terrific video sir. I had one of these up until it started to not spin up the disc when the lid was closed. Had it repaired and all was well again until something else failed. I wasn't too surprised though, these players probably had a LOT of hard use and for something that was over 30 years old it's understandable. Great review Matt, it's what you excel at.
You hit on a point, keeping the media out of sight. I didnt care about this at the time, at all. But now, there is something I like about seeing the media, or maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better about being about to spend an inordinate amount on a TEAC reel to reel four track :)
@DRFInPerson People playing video formats were usually watching the video. If anything, you probably wanted the rest of the system to disappear in the darkened living room and not distract. Playing audio media is different, especially today, when using physical media at all is an aesthetic choice. The sight of a spinning disc, a turning reel, a bouncing meter needle, whatever, all support the feeling that goes with handling physical media and physical controls - the feeling that we are _doing_ something, something is _happening,_ more than passively receiving a data stream. Maybe that doesn't mean anythimg to you, which is fine, but some people enjoy it and find it heightens engagement with the music. If watching Techmoan has led some folks to recognize this for themselves, I think that's great.
Do you rip open your VCRs to watch old movies? Hiding the media wasn't uncommon at all, in fact almost every type of player did this besides some of the audio formats. CD was based on laserdisc and I don't know of any laserdisc players that let you see the disc. It's spinning so fast that you wouldn't be seeing much of anything, anyway.
When comparing the reading of the TOC of a disk in different players it would be nice to hear the seeking sound... It might give some ideas for speculation in how it is done - Optimized reading order? Or just faster processing? Or is it skipping some of the usual processing which is different on some burned CDs, a reason why it can not read them?
Reminds me of the dual cd sets I used to use in the clubs in the 90s, similar control of the tracks. Also, thinking about viewable spinning discs, I had an all in one dual cd set up with no cover on the cds, the players were just level with the equipment box and just placed each cd on its relevant player, then with finished you just took it off, no flip lid, no draw
Great video, I was always curious about this unit. It was built with the same dimensions and feet of the Technic 1200 turntable to fit into club dj booths
I really like how you combine your personal taste with interesting information on various technological devices and create video essays like this one. They are really enjoyable to watch, and for that, thank you! :)
Very cool, interesting to see this functionality on a machine from the 80s, I thought this didn't appear until the pioneer CDJ players in the 90s! You would love the technics sl-dz1200 Mat it's a ridiculous hybrid of a CDJ and an Sl1200 turntable...
As an owner of several CDJ500s, I can definitely say that I’d love to see techmoan review one. Hell, if I could I’d probably send him one if I had one to send in proper working order 😅
This is SO COOL, I LOOOOVE watching my cds spin ( I have a 1990s AIWA system that shows thru the top, a 3 disc carousel ), and I LOVE watching my records turn on the turntable! Your setup is awesome, I DIG your videos, thank you!!
You caught my attention at "Technics". I've always loved technics. I'm currently using a twenty +year amplifier and it still sounds fab. I absolutely love their multistage noise shaping (MASH) system on their CD players. Everything sounds so clear, almost like a highend cd player. Technics is highly underated.
In addition to its cool quirkiness and unusual capabilities, I find something very appealing about the SL-P1200's user interface. It looks and sounds very tactile, in a way that these things usually weren't by that time. The number pad buttons, in particular, sound like they must be _intensely_ satisfying to press. Also, this brings back two early-CD memories: 1) My first CD deck was one of the boring black drawer models (if memory serves, it was a Garrard), but a short while into its life, it developed a weird fault: it wouldn't work with the top shell of the cabinet installed. We found this out when it stopped working and my father took the top off to investigate, at which point it worked fine until he put it back together. To solve this problem, he built a replacement top shell out of plexiglas, making it possibly the only drawer-loader you _could_ see the disc inside. 2) A friend in college had a multi-disc changer back when that was still gee-whiz moon-rocket tech, but it had the weirdest shuffle function I've ever seen. It appeared to be absolutely, truly, 100% random. It didn't check off played tracks or prevent itself from playing two adjacent tracks in a row; it just chose a random track from the pool of all that were loaded every time. I think it did force a disc change each time, but if it only had one CD in it, it would occasionally get into streaks where its RNG just kept rolling the same track number over and over.
I felt the same way about my first CD player. We lost the visual enjoyment of the moving media. I had to laugh a little when I watched this because I thought I was the only one who felt that way! Lol 😆 My favorite CD player that I still own is my Technics SL-PC503 top loading 5 disc carousel CD changer with dust cover. I always loved the random play feature. It has more mechanics to it.
Early CD players may have been well built, and expensive, but the internal DAC were only 4 times over sampling and resulted in a harsh sound which led audiophiles to write off the technology. This issue was only resolved with the arrival of Bitstream or 1 Bit players. My first was the £900 Meridian 206B, with its glass fronted turntable loading drawer.
True. There were a handful of outliers who managed to make it sound decent tho. Then you have the fans of NOS dacs. I own a couple and find the sound quite pleasing. Also own a Prism Lyra 1 which is a totally different beast. And tube buffered dacs. So many ways of getting unique pleasing sound. IMO one of the best bang for the $ are the MOTU M series A/D D/A boxes. Got a used M4 for under $200. Real shame no one makes an affordable belt driven CD transport these days. Just not enough of us hold outs to justify the effort it seems.
I have a similar era, tray load consumer technics player and it is also awesome. Well built, felt lined tray, and also reads the TOC fast. Excellent, rich sound too.
Passionate tribute to a beautiful piece of equipment. I remember having used a Technics front loader CD player class AA (forgot the model number) that had very similar options, including the jog-shuttle play, as this machine. Nice video!
Having owned one is a beautiful machine, it started giving me issues I changed it for a TOSHIBA SD-9200 full copper chassis and a very nice loading mechanism
Great video thanks! The Technics 777 and 999 cd players are also AA class and have the jog feature, small window to see the cd spin and digital VU meters.
Reminded me of the portable CD player I had as a kid in the early 2000s, it had a tiny window through which I loved seeing the disc spin. Just something nice about seeing physical movement that results it music.
@DRFInPerson if it has a track at the same position it would just continue playing, possibly with a bit of data garbage/earrape in between. At least that's what my Sony D-E301 did
Most portable CD players had that. I even modified one of mine, to test the anti-skip feature, so I could open the lid while it was playing and stop the disc from spinning, and count how long until the audio stopped. Those 60-second buffers really worked!
Another fascinating video. Like you I used to love looking through manufacturers catalogues and then looking in the hi fi press to see how much it cost. It was really frustrating when the ad said "POA" (price on application) and you had to phone them. Keep up the good work.
The quick TOC loading has been an enigma for me for some time. I have a Numark rack CD player that loads quick just like that... maybe what ever it is got licensed.
Used to maintain those players at the BBC World service. I remember the weight. Take a trolly was the advice. The headphone socket and the power switch were the main things to go wrong. But they were built like tanks . All of those buttons meant the first thing the SM (Studio Manager) would do when they came in was to ensure it was in their prefered mode. Can't rely on the previous person to have left it so. Thanks for bringing back memories . Studer A80 Or Revox PR99 next?
Happy owner of an X edition here. The one thing Ive been dealing with, is the open button becoming physically finicky. Feels as if its in need of some lube to keep it from hanging up upon its guide rail. Would love to know if you also encountered this and had any advice for me on how to remedy this? Techs from the hey day of these devices with first hand knowledge are so in need these days. Thanks much.
Technics SL-P10, shown at 5:08 in this video, had many of the cool controls of the Larger Pro series as well (except the large dial adjustment) for a much cheaper price….
I had one of these in my AVID edit bay during the early 2000s. I used the pitch controls a lot. Mine definitely had a digital out as well. Not sure if that was a U.S. option but I definitely ingested digitally from mine at 44.1. Wish I'd kept it now. Loved this episode as always.
Great video! You should look at the Technics SL-DZ1200, it’s a direct drive “digital turntable” that has a number of similar features with a turntable aesthetic. I use it as a regular home CD player, but have also enjoyed it in my home studio as well.
I absolutely loved the CD format until I got my first one and traded in my vinyl for the CD versions. Biggest music mistake I ever made. Vinyl and even Tape have a warmth and richness that CD’s just don’t reproduce. All digital for that matter.
Lovely bit of kit! I never understood how out of all possible options, Intro Scan was deemed so important as to include in practically every device 🤷♂️
Beautiful player. One to cherish really. I am amazed that the VFD display hasn't gone dim in all those years. My Technics CD player from 1991 has lost half the brightness.
I once came across an impressive Marantz CD player. This must’ve been 25 years ago give or take. A top loader with a beautiful tinted glass lid which also had these tiny joysticks that controlled playback and other functions. I’ve wanted one ever since but never found one again.
as a frequent CD collector, I can vouch for this. Many CD players even back then looked kinda plane. Don't get me wrong, looking at the CD tray crawling in and out is often a stratifying moment like I am activating something bug but after that it is just awkward silence as the CD spins in the player. Hell I actually don't like the top loader design as it often looked like "cheap" to me. So it was interesting to see what Sony originally intended a CD player to look like and honestly, I kinda wish that was the default design. I still like the CD tray mechanism but I think the horizontal loading type was the best one. Welp what can I do, CD is on its support syst3em now and I can only watch as it slowly dies to progress. At least the journey up until that point was good.
I'd love to have one of those professional Technics CD machines, although I'd not be willing to pay the price of admission unless I had won the lottery. It seems really weird to think of a radio personality using a remote control, though. I doubt that would ever happen, so Technics must've had some inkling that prosummers would also be buyers. I enjoyed this video!
When I got my first wage I 1996 I bought a Sanyo hifi from Dixons and it was a triple cd changer and you could watch the whole mechanism and cd spinning. What a machine. Loved it.
As for track access time...some CD players, especially early ones (later ones were automated) had, on the laser assembly, screwdriver adjustable pots that controlled Tracking Gain and Focus Gain. These would drift over time; that is, the resistance would change slightly due to oxidation, and not maintain the setting that was adjusted at the factory. Mark the pot with a felt pen before you start fiddling, and adjust the Tracking Gain, and you should be able to improve the track access time. Also, dribbling a little cleaner into the pot can restore its functionality. If the Focus Gain is out, it can be responsible for a CD player that only displays, "No Disc" when a disc is inserted (tries to read the disc but fails). I learned this stuff in college in 1991 -- glad if it's useful to someone!
The base of that thing looks exactly like the SL-1210 turntables - the standard for club DJs and incredibly hefty to help minimise vibrations/skipping. What a beast.
@Reno51 They have USB ports on the back to use them as MIDI controllers, which I assume would work with Serato or Traktor, or whatever, but can't say I've ever tried. I just ethernet them together, and share usb sticks between decks. I prefer the simplicity of being able to chuck em in a coffin box with a mixer (old skool style!) and not have to faff if I'm taking them anywhere. The sticks need to be made through a crappy, earlier version of Denons Engine software to be able to navigate through them properly on the decks though, and to build a BPM database, but it's a price I'm willing to pay, once it's done it's done.
@Mentski Was thinking of picking up a pair of sc3900s. Have you tried it with DVS nd does it work? The SL-DZ1200 would be sick in a hifi, would look great in the booth but there buggy fuckers haha! I’m happy with my CDJ-1000s for digital playback, but I miss the rotating platter! Like keeping the 1210s clear for real vinyl as well. Bun having to swap over cables mid set to change from digital to analogue😂
@ssjaken Denon were more Pioneers competitor than Technics ever were. They actually beat Technics to making a CD DJ player with a spinning platter, barely anybody speaks about that. I still use a pair of the later DN-SC3900s to this day. Technics pretty much bowed out of the CDDJ market quite early on due to Denon and Pioneer having the market covered, and the SL-DZ1200 never quite working the way it should (in fact, it took a hacker to modify the firmware to make them accurate.)
@lol atu Nice... I remember there was quite a stigma around CD-based DJ'ing here in the UK during the 90s, at least for club DJs. It was quite snobby, looking back.
This player was one of (if not the) first club CDJ decks. They were pretty common in NYC DJ booths back in the 90s. I had a few DJ gigs where these machines were in the booth and used them. I preferred turntables, but really enjoyed some of its features, and actually used the cue effect (like in the video "pump up the volume") in sets. It sounded pretty cool with the right samples. "Pump up the volume" is perfect!
One of my best friends back in the day had a JVC 5 disc changer. You loaded the discs on top like you would a record on a turn table. It was pretty cool being able to watch the disc spin and, after the first disc finished playing, seeing the carousel rotate to the next disc. Cool video.
I remember in the late 80's early 90's they've hearkened back to the window to the disc style with the portable players. I still think the idea of the CD player with the open look is fantastic. The techniques machines was certainly set up for pros Broadcast/DJ world.
What an amazing demonstration.. first time I see this kind of cd player since I played as a DJ but the first CD players for DJ was not like this one you demonstrate .. good work thanks
Pitch control was an aspect for CD players I always sought out, as when playing popular songs from CDs of 1960s, I want the tempo of the songs to be the same as they sounded on the US Top 40 radio formats of that era; as they invariably slightly sped up the vinyl record turntables when playing the songs. In addition, the first record turntable I got with my component stereo system in 1975, I discovered later-on that the turntable ran slightly fast when measured with a strobe light/'disc; so my ears got accustomed to that tempo sound. When I got my first CD player in the late 1980s; which did not have pitch control, those 1960s songs by the Rolling Stones sounded sluggish in tempo because then were being played at the true playback speed.
@Prizm There are urban legends from the 1960s/70s about (US) Contemporary Hit radio stations (aka Top 40) being subtle with speeding up record playback. But, there are also anecdotal accounts of (US) radio stations in the 1980s that sped up songs. When I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1970s, I recall radio station KLIV (1590 AM, San Jose) hearing contemporary songs played on that station where the 45 rpm discs were sped up to around 3 percent or more; the tempo of the songs were noticeably faster than what was heard on KFRC and KYA of that era.
@Prizm Certain radio stations time-compress (read: speed up) talk shows in realtime by recording the audio stream then starting playback 60 seconds later (after two commercials) and airing the compressed recording. At the end of the segment, the compressed recording ends at the same time as the actual stream. Atlanta GA's WSB was notorious for this, using it to sell more ad spots on a very popular afternoon talk show.
Were they speeding up the tracks intentionally? I thought that was a more modern underhanded tactic to fit more songs in, or fit in more advertisements. Once or twice I’ve heard a song on the radio that has definitely been pitch shifted. I also seem to remember reading something about some record companies intentionally slowing down the track before giving a copy to the radio station to compensate for speed up.
As a kid/young adult, the CD/DVD tray always attracted my attention. Seemed futuristic. And pressing the open button followed by a small delay before opening always made me smile. Plus that sound...oh yeah!
Nice piece of gear! What I love about it is large keys, a jog wheel, pitch control and very quick CD change. And a balanced output - I'm definitely a huge fan of these. Definitely made for DJing in a fast-paced studio... or maybe in clubs too? On the other hand, I'd rather have it in a metal rackmount case, but that's just me. I don't really like too much clutter on tables in a control room.
What a great looking machine. I know Rega did toploaders. Pity more manufacturers didn't. Maybe as it becomes more of a nitch market, we'll get more interesting looking machines in the future... albeit probably expensive.
I used to have one of these! I purchased a broken unit for $20 from a junk store, managed to fix it, then sold it off for about $300. This was about 5 years ago. I have some regret getting rid of it, but it was what started the hobby of fixing electronics for me. Thanks for reminding me of this beast :)
I'm surprised he didn't mention it, this is one of the few CD players made where the time display shows the time down to 1/10th of a second. There are other professional CD players that replace the 1/10th of a second counter with a frame counter to allow you to see each audio frame of the track. This was all so that you could queue the CD as close to the point you wanted it as possible.
Good insights upon the overlooked aesthetics of CD players. I once had a cheap Phillips multi system with a vertical playing cd. Something about watching a spinning cd inside a box that makes it unique.
I found a perfect condition Cambridge audio CD player at goodwill for $6. Sounded great. After several years it went back to goodwill. Why? It was so boring and serious!
In terms of visually interesting CD players, I have a Sony CMT-EX1 that is very much not a "hide the CD" player. It saw me through my university student days, though in the era of digital music I don't use the CD function all that much anymore.
Wow never knew that a device like this ever came to market! Congrats to this unit and thanks for presenting. Amazing how fast it reads the TOC. Not an optic-only phony but a technically sophisticated machine! (Ok, I think Technics did have something to lose ...)
One thing I liked about Technics is they put a hundred percent behind everything they did. If you had anything made by them, it was going to last for a very long time.
When we test vintage cdp's, our general rule, the longer it takes to read, the higher the chance, the optics are suspect, or on their way out. I have a nice X77 ES, it still reads in under 3 seconds
Matt, I never really took you as one with quite the artistic eye for design... You're a fantastic fellow 👍🏻 Great video, extremely interesting points made in my opinion
Let's not forget the Technics turntable is/was the standard for many radio stations/DJs. Some models come up to speed in 1/3 of a turn. Perfect for a radio DJ.
My favorite ever CD player was the Pioneer 6-disc changer models. They even went so far as to have multiple changers in one unit, so you could load up 6 CDs and then stack 6 more into another disc changer and keep right on rocking! Wish I still had that, but it did give me trouble when it eventually wore out. At least I never lost a disc in it! Peace!
I’d imagine the reason designs all changed (apart from for space saving) was because lasers and clear windows don’t mix. Health and safety probably ruled here.
This was a particularly good cdp which I heard maybe 7 years ago and was able to compare it against several newer models. It was ahead of the pack back when released, pretty complex and designed for pro/broadcast use. It's complexity I think is part of its downfall today making it expensive to repair if you can get the parts. It's still quite expensive for a pretty old machine, especially the broadcast spec pro model and values seem to hold between £800 and £1250 for these. Reviewed against various other models, the improved version (pro version) was the better sounding machine to me and compared well with the later Musical Fidelity A5, Consonance Mini Droplet, and even bettered the entry level Accuphase cdp. That was some feat as the aforementioned machines were the best mid priced models I've heard. You had to spend bigger money to really better these and there were a few that bettered them for reliability as well as sound including the Teac VRDS 10 and 25, Wadia (top models) and mid level Rega models of the last 10 years as well as older machines such as the Opus 21. To considerably better the Technics professional machines you have to spend considerably more on models such as the Opus, Wadias and stepping up to the AR Ref 7 cdp, that machine blows the technics out of the water quite comprehensively making it sound decidedly inferior. It says something though when you really need to step up to an £8K machine to considerably better the Technics which is quite remarkable for an 80's cdp! It also has some really useful features that most others don't. Its well made, has a great transport and if you find a good one, won't dissappoint today but its downfall like many other machines is that unless spending big money, a good transport and cheap stand alone dac competes or betters one today. Who cares though right? There's very much a place for stand alone machines of this calibre and many doing the seperate dac route still ignore the fact that you have to have a really good transport to better any good stand alone player. The technics has a really good transport and the handful of few macines I'd happily own that share the build quality rarely found today. The list is quite short but as well as this machine I'd happily own the Primare machines (any if them...built like tanks and sound great), the earlier top tier arcam macines much overlooked but using great quality parts and Wolfson dacs, the Teac VRDS 25 and top of the pack, the Acoustic Research Cd7 Ref or the Cd9....the latter two machines needing you to sell a kidney to buy but once heard, forever smitten! That says a lot for the Technics. It's a classic and ranks up there as one of the better designed, better made and great sounding macines of the last 40 years even if it can't compete with esoterica like the AR machines which sonically I rate as the best ever made. Thankyou for sharing your review and congrats on owning this technics classic. I hope it stays healthy for many more years for you ☺ They are still available today but caveat emptor as any machine of that era will be a huge risk as transports and laser pick ups will wear out/pack up and spares are hard to come by for these.
Nice presentation! On a similar subject, you could present the first "drawer type" turntables. In my opinion, in North america, the Bing Crosby turntable made by Philco in 1946 (Model 46-1201) was the first to introduce such a device. There were a couple of other Philco radio/turntables in wich you could insert a 78rpm and hide it... for 5 minutes! Hence, the drawer type CD players are not a modern invention but a replica of an old mecanism!
Our first CD player was an SL-P111, as seen at 6:02 at the bottom. My parents won it at some mystery dinner theater thing they went to. It lasted quite a long time and was part of my hi-fi in college up until 2006 or so, when it stopped recognizing discs. It was very basic, but it was simple to operate and did its job well.
The 111 used the same laser as the 1200. and that very same laser probably went bad. The early range is notorious for their lasers going bad. But 20+ years is more than anyone would have dreamed of them lasting, I suppose.
I remember the first single speed Computer CD reader being a vertical machine with the cd on full display. Any nerd would proudly show off something like this, so *of course* it had to be like this.
Loved this! I was in the DJ Booth in the USA club Called FIZZ when the DJ got 2 of these. I was in awe! Now, compare that with the Denon DN-2000f which became a standard for DJs back in 1992? I had the Denon DN-2000F MKII.Thanks for this, gave me great memories.
I remember my brother was the first one I knew who got a CD player (saved up that paper route money) and his system had a player that was vertical and had a window on the front so you could see the CD in there. We always used to look at CD's with art on them and think "wow, I bet that'll look cool as it spins". Now that I've seen this vid I suddenly realized just how rare that CD player was as I never really saw any others that I can recall with that sort of a mechanism. They were always the pop-up top loaders or the drawer type units from that point on. If you were lucky one of those top loaders would have a small window.
Good to see this player again. I used the BBC ones extensively when I was a studio manager and Radio One used them before buying Studers. The Studers were better as they remembered the cue points set by the operator/DJ on discs even if they were removed and replaced. Also worth mentioning that the Technics design mirrored the SL1200 turntable (same feet and pitch control layout). By the way the Technics had the ability to access index points using the Index button but I don’t think this was ever used on a commercial CD unless anyone knows different?
I have a few early CDs with index points. Two that come to mind are DG Karajan Strauss Eine Alpensinfonie with one track and Rush 2112. I think Fly by Night and Caress of Steel also had index points in the longer tracks. My first CD player was made by Proton and could use index points.
Until you open the tray, the disc is both in there, and.not in there.
@Life Not that i think your expression is wrong, but where is the connection to the topic of the original comment?
Yes/No, i guess they stated "loaded" or "ready" pretty soon - if powered of course.
Schrödinger's CD
@Maxx B. a day late and an umlaut short
@DrQuadrivium Schrodigers CD wow that is deep
I love all the great features. The model number is clearly an homage to the Technics SL1200 vinyl turntables with the pitch fader used by DJs to beat match their mixes.
Same feet, too. Noticed that right away.
Its no coincidence its named after the Technics SL-1200 series of direct-drive turntables originally manufactured from October 1972 until 2010. Built to last and give perfect precise playback. Thank you Technics.
@Geoffrey Mills im not sure which model you have because mine is direct drive with red LED for speed control. if you had it that long im wondering how often you change the needle. i do it after about 500 discs. u?
@Echelon Rank exactly, I've been spinning albums on mine for 20+ years and I have no complaints yet, adjustable tracking, anti-skate control, adjustable weight balance, neon speed control and belt drive,,, what's not to like
Lol, that's what I play my albums on
@Echelon Rank Okay. At least I was close. I remember DJ's even having 12 inch records custom pressed to get the most dynamic range from specific music pieces by not cramming too many of them on a side, while still being able to manipulate the record with their hands. It was of upmost importance to them. An ordinary CD player didn't lend itself to this, and these purpose built CD players were probably awkward at best.
@Sparky close, but youre talking about the technics sl-dz1200 CD turntable which is a completely different product. I just cant believe someone like Techmoan has missed this entirely.
I also remember when CD’s launched - I was a young teenager at the time in Australia. My Dad came home with a Teac all in one system with dual cassette decks, with a basic CD player below (also had a radio & turntable) Thing you need to know is that Australian Teac is like Goodmans, in other words the polar opposite of Teac in the UK. (It was so basic you could only advance forward or back by the whole track, not seek mid track it didn’t remember it’s last position if you turned it off and there was no play time displayed only track numbers) Anyhoo, for several years after buying the system the only CD’s that we’re bought had to have on their label that they were either a ADD or DDD recording and if it wasn’t listed then it wasn’t purchased. Oh, and I was banned from using it, so even if I bought my own CD’s I wasn’t allowed to play them, only the “special” CD’s were played. This was more than infuriating to a kid who had discovered the joys of music and was consuming as much of it as possible, discovering 60’s as well as the current charts of the mid eighties at the time. All ended well when I bought my own Sony player almost a year later having saved like crazy from my paper round. Dad wasn’t jealous in the slightest 🤢🤢😂😇
@Mikey Mine liked classical music too (me as well) but no question "Brothers in Arms" i neither had to buy he bought it it was a brand new thing to have a must have. Guess we had one CD rack in our record shop a single rack at the time "BiA" was released and sure yes most was classical music. ppl spreaded a lot of crazy things about CD at this time.
And now it became obsolete, this i didn't expected back then and my young friends look at me strange if they see my collection "what for?..." "should i throw them away makes that sense? and do you know a second with a collection like mine? No certainly not it's like you say
@Droz Company Me too 😄 I bought Brothers in Arms because it was DDD, my first DDD 😄
Goodmans, if there was irony in a brand name, that was it
@Droz Company Dad had/bought a fair number of classical CD’s (more than 10 less than 20) that were ADD, especially Philips Mastered ones that I seem to remember. He too had Brothers in Arms once he realised what Dire Straits was all about and that it was DDD - I think he thought Dire Straits was “young people’s” music and thus initially was disinterested.
ADD discs were rare. I only have one or two in my collection. Most were AAD or DDD. First all-digital recording I bought was Brothers in Arms in like 1985 or 6. It was amazing compared to the AAD discs in there was no hiss at all.
Always nice to learn about hi-fi gear that I've never have seen or read about. Thanks for taking the time to procure and demonstrate such items.
This is Grade A certified pure uncut techmoan. One of your best in my opinion, Matt. The only thing that could make it better is some belts to replace.
Or some tube rolling possibilities... :)
Weapon.
This is a Technics. There is none of that rubber rubbish here!
Want belts? Visible disc? Check out the CEC belt drive CD transports from Japan...
@Hank Jonkman the laser on this (and other early technics) was on a linear sled. Not even any gears to wear out. A devil to set up when the lasers failed though
Never occurred to me that I needed to see the CD spinning and get excited. Interesting thought for sure. I guess it has more to do with space saving and being stackable as you mentioned. Perhaps spinning the CD vertically creates more wobble also. As a side note, Esoteric X-05 has a little window at the top if I recollect.
The B&O CD players hit the swap meets for like $10 each a few years ago. Those were also pretty nice see-through units.
torchwood They we’re fairly low rated from an audiophile point of view! Never made it into serious hi-fi reviews anywhere either! Just expensive Scandi pretence! Sorry to say! Cheers
So @teachmoan get an B&O
One of my favorite Techmoan episodes! Yes, he has a point, there's really no soul or romanticism when it comes to interacting with a average-looking disk-drawer type of CD player. Gotta admit that CD player looks unique. Kinda looks like a typewriter or cash register of sorts.
Thank you Matt! For this unbridled, uninhibited - loving display of gadget enthusiasm! THIS IS Infotainment - Entertaining and inspiring information!
I thoroughly enjoy your enthusiasm and attention to detail!
Bloody well done sir!
Cheers mate!
I can't believe it! Techmoan did a piece on the SL-P1200! I used 2 of these in 1987/88 at a North Carolina FM station when I was 21 years old (overnight DJ at 'elevator' music station). Those decks were heavy as trucks and looked like they came from the future, and the first player I saw that had auto cue and pitch control on a CD player. Thanks for the memories! EDIT: I love the metal buttons, too! It does look like some sci-fi/Federation/Empire console standing by to fire the photon lasers or quad beams or whatever.
if you say so 😐
who were you? darth fader?
PEW PEW PEW 😁
Hello neighbor, I'm from NC as well.
Matt, great vid thank you!
As I was a 23-year employee of DENON, you may not have known that their 1983 "DN-3000F" model was the first professional CD player to market. US Retail Price: $8,500.00
Features like, Auto Cue, Cue to Music, 1/75 Frame Search, Pitch, Fader Start, Pro Outputs and so much more were all developed by DENON. The SL-P1200 is based off the DN-3000F and nice job they did.
wow that's a hefty price tag for a CD player.
This is the dopest CD player I've ever seen in my life. I'd love to have one.
Great review, as usual! … and I’ve been loving my P1200 since the late 80’… and it’s still going strong 😉
Commodore adopted the top loading see through lid on the Amiga CD32 😊👍
The amount of equipment that gets thrown out all because a belt has perished is astonishing! I've repaired many electronics that have been thrown out by others. Older equipment is built to last, & to know how to service them is a bonus. I just love having some equipment that you can repair yourself over & over throughout the years. I rescued a Sanyo G3003 with 2 VU meters & an orange digital display which is in remarkable condition for its age.
Yes, back when I was on radio those functions were essential. We had later technics drawer loaders but they had all the same features. One handy function was the "peak search" which very quickly scanned the disc then cued it up at the highest volume on the track so you could PFL the peaks and set the channel output accordingly. This was important because of the limiters at the transmitter site that would maintain an output volume. If the peak was too high the limiter would pull the gain right down but then as soon as a queter bit followed it would then be too quite and take a second to go back up. Setting the levels correctly stopped this from happening. Whenever the engineer was in the building he could tell instantly if the levels were too high and would often run down to the studio, poke his head around the door and just say "LEVELS!" With a raised disapproving eye brow!!
@MotoDevCam Broadcast vinyl was on 16" records at one point. Great way to ensure those records don't get stolen. No one other than a radio station has the equipment to play it!
@Marcus Damberger yes, this was early 90s ams from memory ot was quite a rack of hear, including compressors and processing etc. When it was introducided to peak it would crash way down so of course any lower gain audio would almost disappear. It's was quite noticeable. The studio monitors and cans were actually taking the broadcast feed from the transmitter (we were line of sight to the TX site so no delay) so at least you could hear it dip if you hadn't been paying attention. Worked in more modern stations since using automated play out systems etc but it really felt tangible using CDs, Carts, Mini Disc etc. I'm too young for broadcast vinyl however!!
@Nicholas Alves I don't know what that means but I'll be sure to pass it in to him 30 years ago when I was in radio 👍
@Marcus Damberger i need one of those for my station someday. Its AM
@Charles Bunnell "42"
I am always looking forward to watching a new episode of your content. Beautifully researched, filmed and narrated.... what else can be said? Simply said, one of the best channels out there!
A "modern" (circa 2020) CD boombox that I like the best is the Jensen CD-565 with a VERTICAL CD display. This shows that the CD is spinning/playing through a half window (I wish it displayed the entire CD). Another wish I would have liked better is if it had a CD text display instead of stupid track numbers. One great added feature is a Bluetooth receiver that "lives in the now!"
I was looking into buying a small stereo system for my home, and I remember going to the electronics store as a child and seeing row upon row of ever so slightly different cd stereo systems, so I was expecting a similar experience. (I was under no illusions that I would get to see the dozens of styles of the early 00s, but I expected four or five at least.) Unfortunately, I was given exactly one opinion, and it wasn’t one I was crazy about, so I went home empty handed. I totally agree with you about most CD players being bland as anything, and this one is quite exciting! I may do some searching on the internet for something along these lines. I’ve been enjoying your videos for a few months and I cannot wait to see more.
The early models didn't have XLRs or infra-red remote control: instead, they had two 5-pin DIN sockets: one for data and the other for a wired remote control - as was common in studio usage.
You didn't mention the disc-clamp stabilizer, common to this and many high-end players. It was the CD equivalent of weights and clamps on vinyl record players.
The really cool ones offer serial and "parallel" remote control. The "parallel" remote is really just GPIO, it usually provides contact closure inputs for play, cue, track select, skip forward/back, as well as outpits for status lights.
If you have it wired to a mixer or audio console with fader start, you can use the fader start contact to trigger the play input on that jack so a cued track rolls when you pot it up.
Wow! That is a beautiful machine. The radio station I worked for in the 90s had all of the same features but was a rack unit. But the tabletop model is just gorgeous.
@James Halfhorse I'd love to see one of those reviewed.
I was going to say that this would have been a common-ish sight in a radio station with extremely fast TOC read, queueing it to the right time stamp, and the eventual addition of XLR out. IIRC, Technics/Teac still makes a variation of this machine in a single rack unit and iPod/MP3 integration. Not as nifty as this guy tho.
I've had the SL-P1300 since early 2003. Been used in a DJ/live music environment for some time. Very solid machine. Also near impossible to make it skip which is important if its not far from a stack of Bassmaxx Trips with Skooter pounding at 135dB! Thank goodness for earplugs! ;-D
Mat, any chance you could get a picture of the Technics SL-P1200 next to an Atari 2600? Preferable a heavy sixer or one of the black "Vader" models. But literally any model other than the Jr. would work. I can't be the only one that wants to see that.
Used to have several of those. It is a miracle you have a working sample. Ours were in a constant repair rotation. They were indeed build like a tank but extremely temperamental.
I don't even own many CD's anymore and yet I sitll would love one of these to use. Every feature just seems so fast, useful and important.
1:20 YES! I've always loved the kinetics (or animated quality) of physical media moving and progressing on their specific devices (records, reel-to-reel, compact cassette, etc.) and that was most often missing when it came to CD's and certainly laserdiscs, DVD's, and Blu-rays.
Found a technics 5 way cd "changer" carousel at a local thrift store. You can change/reload/reorder the discs while still playing a disc. Got a bit more features like the multi disc shuffle, playlist queue, and live pitch adjustment with bypass (the fun one) 😀
My Technics 5 cd changer still going strong many years on. In a stack, can only be on top. But the cd swap out while playing feature is cool.
I used to repair these things back in the 90s. Technics was my favorite brand and I had one of their first CD players back in the 80s; the SLP105 (I think). It lasted almost a solid three decades and needed only a cleaning of the loading belt in all that time. Who knows, it might still be in my mother's house somewhere.
Terrific video sir. I had one of these up until it started to not spin up the disc when the lid was closed. Had it repaired and all was well again until something else failed. I wasn't too surprised though, these players probably had a LOT of hard use and for something that was over 30 years old it's understandable.
Great review Matt, it's what you excel at.
My experience of professional CD players were the two-part Sony machines, where the control surface was remote from the mechanism - the CDP-3000.
You hit on a point, keeping the media out of sight. I didnt care about this at the time, at all. But now, there is something I like about seeing the media, or maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better about being about to spend an inordinate amount on a TEAC reel to reel four track :)
@DRFInPerson People playing video formats were usually watching the video. If anything, you probably wanted the rest of the system to disappear in the darkened living room and not distract.
Playing audio media is different, especially today, when using physical media at all is an aesthetic choice. The sight of a spinning disc, a turning reel, a bouncing meter needle, whatever, all support the feeling that goes with handling physical media and physical controls - the feeling that we are _doing_ something, something is _happening,_ more than passively receiving a data stream.
Maybe that doesn't mean anythimg to you, which is fine, but some people enjoy it and find it heightens engagement with the music. If watching Techmoan has led some folks to recognize this for themselves, I think that's great.
Do you rip open your VCRs to watch old movies?
Hiding the media wasn't uncommon at all, in fact almost every type of player did this besides some of the audio formats.
CD was based on laserdisc and I don't know of any laserdisc players that let you see the disc.
It's spinning so fast that you wouldn't be seeing much of anything, anyway.
@Kernel Troutman Pretty much.
You didn't care about that until Techmoan told you you did.
When comparing the reading of the TOC of a disk in different players it would be nice to hear the seeking sound... It might give some ideas for speculation in how it is done -
Optimized reading order?
Or just faster processing?
Or is it skipping some of the usual processing which is different on some burned CDs, a reason why it can not read them?
Reminds me of the dual cd sets I used to use in the clubs in the 90s, similar control of the tracks. Also, thinking about viewable spinning discs, I had an all in one dual cd set up with no cover on the cds, the players were just level with the equipment box and just placed each cd on its relevant player, then with finished you just took it off, no flip lid, no draw
Great video, I was always curious about this unit. It was built with the same dimensions and feet of the Technic 1200 turntable to fit into club dj booths
I really like how you combine your personal taste with interesting information on various technological devices and create video essays like this one. They are really enjoyable to watch, and for that, thank you! :)
Very cool, interesting to see this functionality on a machine from the 80s, I thought this didn't appear until the pioneer CDJ players in the 90s! You would love the technics sl-dz1200 Mat it's a ridiculous hybrid of a CDJ and an Sl1200 turntable...
As an owner of several CDJ500s, I can definitely say that I’d love to see techmoan review one. Hell, if I could I’d probably send him one if I had one to send in proper working order 😅
Yeah I was just thinking if you had a pair of these you could probably do some crappy DJing on the haha
Gotta try it.
This is SO COOL, I LOOOOVE watching my cds spin ( I have a 1990s AIWA system that shows thru the top, a 3 disc carousel ), and I LOVE watching my records turn on the turntable! Your setup is awesome, I DIG your videos, thank you!!
I've still got a Technics SL-P770, which has very similar features, from the same era. I think the only major feature missing is the pitch control.
I for one love the kinetic performance aspects of analog physical media and I’m totally adopting that phrase!
You caught my attention at "Technics". I've always loved technics. I'm currently using a twenty +year amplifier and it still sounds fab. I absolutely love their multistage noise shaping (MASH) system on their CD players. Everything sounds so clear, almost like a highend cd player. Technics is highly underated.
In addition to its cool quirkiness and unusual capabilities, I find something very appealing about the SL-P1200's user interface. It looks and sounds very tactile, in a way that these things usually weren't by that time. The number pad buttons, in particular, sound like they must be _intensely_ satisfying to press.
Also, this brings back two early-CD memories:
1) My first CD deck was one of the boring black drawer models (if memory serves, it was a Garrard), but a short while into its life, it developed a weird fault: it wouldn't work with the top shell of the cabinet installed. We found this out when it stopped working and my father took the top off to investigate, at which point it worked fine until he put it back together. To solve this problem, he built a replacement top shell out of plexiglas, making it possibly the only drawer-loader you _could_ see the disc inside.
2) A friend in college had a multi-disc changer back when that was still gee-whiz moon-rocket tech, but it had the weirdest shuffle function I've ever seen. It appeared to be absolutely, truly, 100% random. It didn't check off played tracks or prevent itself from playing two adjacent tracks in a row; it just chose a random track from the pool of all that were loaded every time. I think it did force a disc change each time, but if it only had one CD in it, it would occasionally get into streaks where its RNG just kept rolling the same track number over and over.
Wonderful! I want one too. I love machines with quirks and gadgets and this has loads!
Thanks! I once bought one of these for $1 from a radio station's garage sale in 2011. It was still in working condition.
I felt the same way about my first CD player. We lost the visual enjoyment of the moving media. I had to laugh a little when I watched this because I thought I was the only one who felt that way! Lol 😆 My favorite CD player that I still own is my Technics SL-PC503 top loading 5 disc carousel CD changer with dust cover. I always loved the random play feature. It has more mechanics to it.
Wow, that is so cool! I love the function of being able to queue up the tracks in a certain order! 😱😍
Early CD players may have been well built, and expensive, but the internal DAC were only 4 times over sampling and resulted in a harsh sound which led audiophiles to write off the technology. This issue was only resolved with the arrival of Bitstream or 1 Bit players. My first was the £900 Meridian 206B, with its glass fronted turntable loading drawer.
True. There were a handful of outliers who managed to make it sound decent tho. Then you have the fans of NOS dacs. I own a couple and find the sound quite pleasing. Also own a Prism Lyra 1 which is a totally different beast. And tube buffered dacs. So many ways of getting unique pleasing sound. IMO one of the best bang for the $ are the MOTU M series A/D D/A boxes. Got a used M4 for under $200. Real shame no one makes an affordable belt driven CD transport these days. Just not enough of us hold outs to justify the effort it seems.
I have a similar era, tray load consumer technics player and it is also awesome. Well built, felt lined tray, and also reads the TOC fast. Excellent, rich sound too.
Passionate tribute to a beautiful piece of equipment. I remember having used a Technics front loader CD player class AA (forgot the model number) that had very similar options, including the jog-shuttle play, as this machine. Nice video!
Having owned one is a beautiful machine, it started giving me issues I changed it for a TOSHIBA SD-9200 full copper chassis and a very nice loading mechanism
Great video thanks! The Technics 777 and 999 cd players are also AA class and have the jog feature, small window to see the cd spin and digital VU meters.
Reminded me of the portable CD player I had as a kid in the early 2000s, it had a tiny window through which I loved seeing the disc spin. Just something nice about seeing physical movement that results it music.
@DRFInPerson if it has a track at the same position it would just continue playing, possibly with a bit of data garbage/earrape in between. At least that's what my Sony D-E301 did
@Knaeckebrotsaege I never thought to try that! Would it actually start playing the same position on the new disc?
@DRFInPerson if you bypassed the lid sensor and had antiskip on, you could even switch the disk whilst playing. completely useless party trick
Most portable CD players had that. I even modified one of mine, to test the anti-skip feature, so I could open the lid while it was playing and stop the disc from spinning, and count how long until the audio stopped. Those 60-second buffers really worked!
I absolutely adore watching the analog formats spin and move, it's part of the experience c:
Another fascinating video. Like you I used to love looking through manufacturers catalogues and then looking in the hi fi press to see how much it cost. It was really frustrating when the ad said "POA" (price on application) and you had to phone them. Keep up the good work.
I always loved Technics products. That CD player is awesome.
The quick TOC loading has been an enigma for me for some time. I have a Numark rack CD player that loads quick just like that... maybe what ever it is got licensed.
Used to maintain those players at the BBC World service. I remember the weight. Take a trolly was the advice. The headphone socket and the power switch were the main things to go wrong. But they were built like tanks . All of those buttons meant the first thing the SM (Studio Manager) would do when they came in was to ensure it was in their prefered mode. Can't rely on the previous person to have left it so. Thanks for bringing back memories . Studer A80 Or Revox PR99 next?
Happy owner of an X edition here. The one thing Ive been dealing with, is the open button becoming physically finicky. Feels as if its in need of some lube to keep it from hanging up upon its guide rail. Would love to know if you also encountered this and had any advice for me on how to remedy this? Techs from the hey day of these devices with first hand knowledge are so in need these days. Thanks much.
Technics SL-P10, shown at 5:08 in this video, had many of the cool controls of the Larger Pro series as well (except the large dial adjustment) for a much cheaper price….
I had one of these in my AVID edit bay during the early 2000s. I used the pitch controls a lot. Mine definitely had a digital out as well. Not sure if that was a U.S. option but I definitely ingested digitally from mine at 44.1. Wish I'd kept it now.
Loved this episode as always.
Great video! You should look at the Technics SL-DZ1200, it’s a direct drive “digital turntable” that has a number of similar features with a turntable aesthetic. I use it as a regular home CD player, but have also enjoyed it in my home studio as well.
I absolutely loved the CD format
until I got my first one and traded in my vinyl for the CD versions.
Biggest music mistake I ever made. Vinyl and even Tape have a warmth and richness that CD’s just don’t reproduce. All digital for that matter.
Lovely bit of kit!
I never understood how out of all possible options, Intro Scan was deemed so important as to include in practically every device 🤷♂️
Beautiful player. One to cherish really. I am amazed that the VFD display hasn't gone dim in all those years. My Technics CD player from 1991 has lost half the brightness.
I once came across an impressive Marantz CD player. This must’ve been 25 years ago give or take. A top loader with a beautiful tinted glass lid which also had these tiny joysticks that controlled playback and other functions. I’ve wanted one ever since but never found one again.
as a frequent CD collector, I can vouch for this. Many CD players even back then looked kinda plane. Don't get me wrong, looking at the CD tray crawling in and out is often a stratifying moment like I am activating something bug but after that it is just awkward silence as the CD spins in the player. Hell I actually don't like the top loader design as it often looked like "cheap" to me. So it was interesting to see what Sony originally intended a CD player to look like and honestly, I kinda wish that was the default design. I still like the CD tray mechanism but I think the horizontal loading type was the best one. Welp what can I do, CD is on its support syst3em now and I can only watch as it slowly dies to progress. At least the journey up until that point was good.
I'd love to have one of those professional Technics CD machines, although I'd not be willing to pay the price of admission unless I had won the lottery. It seems really weird to think of a radio personality using a remote control, though. I doubt that would ever happen, so Technics must've had some inkling that prosummers would also be buyers.
I enjoyed this video!
When I got my first wage I 1996 I bought a Sanyo hifi from Dixons and it was a triple cd changer and you could watch the whole mechanism and cd spinning. What a machine. Loved it.
I have "High End" CD players, but I think the new mini flat wall mounted Blu-Ray players with pull-cord could cause a huge CD revival.
Excellent review as usual. Informative and well edited.
As for track access time...some CD players, especially early ones (later ones were automated) had, on the laser assembly, screwdriver adjustable pots that controlled Tracking Gain and Focus Gain. These would drift over time; that is, the resistance would change slightly due to oxidation, and not maintain the setting that was adjusted at the factory. Mark the pot with a felt pen before you start fiddling, and adjust the Tracking Gain, and you should be able to improve the track access time. Also, dribbling a little cleaner into the pot can restore its functionality. If the Focus Gain is out, it can be responsible for a CD player that only displays, "No Disc" when a disc is inserted (tries to read the disc but fails). I learned this stuff in college in 1991 -- glad if it's useful to someone!
The base of that thing looks exactly like the SL-1210 turntables - the standard for club DJs and incredibly hefty to help minimise vibrations/skipping. What a beast.
@Reno51 They have USB ports on the back to use them as MIDI controllers, which I assume would work with Serato or Traktor, or whatever, but can't say I've ever tried.
I just ethernet them together, and share usb sticks between decks. I prefer the simplicity of being able to chuck em in a coffin box with a mixer (old skool style!) and not have to faff if I'm taking them anywhere.
The sticks need to be made through a crappy, earlier version of Denons Engine software to be able to navigate through them properly on the decks though, and to build a BPM database, but it's a price I'm willing to pay, once it's done it's done.
@Mentski Was thinking of picking up a pair of sc3900s. Have you tried it with DVS nd does it work? The SL-DZ1200 would be sick in a hifi, would look great in the booth but there buggy fuckers haha! I’m happy with my CDJ-1000s for digital playback, but I miss the rotating platter! Like keeping the 1210s clear for real vinyl as well. Bun having to swap over cables mid set to change from digital to analogue😂
@ssjaken Denon were more Pioneers competitor than Technics ever were. They actually beat Technics to making a CD DJ player with a spinning platter, barely anybody speaks about that. I still use a pair of the later DN-SC3900s to this day.
Technics pretty much bowed out of the CDDJ market quite early on due to Denon and Pioneer having the market covered, and the SL-DZ1200 never quite working the way it should (in fact, it took a hacker to modify the firmware to make them accurate.)
@lol atu Nice... I remember there was quite a stigma around CD-based DJ'ing here in the UK during the 90s, at least for club DJs. It was quite snobby, looking back.
This player was one of (if not the) first club CDJ decks. They were pretty common in NYC DJ booths back in the 90s. I had a few DJ gigs where these machines were in the booth and used them. I preferred turntables, but really enjoyed some of its features, and actually used the cue effect (like in the video "pump up the volume") in sets. It sounded pretty cool with the right samples. "Pump up the volume" is perfect!
One of my best friends back in the day had a JVC 5 disc changer. You loaded the discs on top like you would a record on a turn table.
It was pretty cool being able to watch the disc spin and, after the first disc finished playing, seeing the carousel rotate to the next disc.
Cool video.
I remember in the late 80's early 90's they've hearkened back to the window to the disc style with the portable players. I still think the idea of the CD player with the open look is fantastic. The techniques machines was certainly set up for pros Broadcast/DJ world.
What an amazing demonstration.. first time I see this kind of cd player since I played as a DJ but the first CD players for DJ was not like this one you demonstrate .. good work thanks
I want it! 🤗
My first cd-player had a window on it. I remember stairing at the spinning disc for hours 😋
Pitch control was an aspect for CD players I always sought out, as when playing popular songs from CDs of 1960s, I want the tempo of the songs to be the same as they sounded on the US Top 40 radio formats of that era; as they invariably slightly sped up the vinyl record turntables when playing the songs.
In addition, the first record turntable I got with my component stereo system in 1975, I discovered later-on that the turntable ran slightly fast when measured with a strobe light/'disc; so my ears got accustomed to that tempo sound.
When I got my first CD player in the late 1980s; which did not have pitch control, those 1960s songs by the Rolling Stones sounded sluggish in tempo because then were being played at the true playback speed.
@Darrell I laughed at this in a Bee Gees high pitched voice "Ha Ha Ha Ha (staying aliiiiiive)"
@Prizm There are urban legends from the 1960s/70s about (US) Contemporary Hit radio stations (aka Top 40) being subtle with speeding up record playback. But, there are also anecdotal accounts of (US) radio stations in the 1980s that sped up songs.
When I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1970s, I recall radio station KLIV (1590 AM, San Jose) hearing contemporary songs played on that station where the 45 rpm discs were sped up to around 3 percent or more; the tempo of the songs were noticeably faster than what was heard on KFRC and KYA of that era.
@Prizm Certain radio stations time-compress (read: speed up) talk shows in realtime by recording the audio stream then starting playback 60 seconds later (after two commercials) and airing the compressed recording. At the end of the segment, the compressed recording ends at the same time as the actual stream. Atlanta GA's WSB was notorious for this, using it to sell more ad spots on a very popular afternoon talk show.
Were they speeding up the tracks intentionally? I thought that was a more modern underhanded tactic to fit more songs in, or fit in more advertisements. Once or twice I’ve heard a song on the radio that has definitely been pitch shifted. I also seem to remember reading something about some record companies intentionally slowing down the track before giving a copy to the radio station to compensate for speed up.
I wonder if my Bee Gees records played too fast. I tried real hard to keep up with their voices, the pitch was just too high, but I was stayin alive.
As a kid/young adult, the CD/DVD tray always attracted my attention. Seemed futuristic. And pressing the open button followed by a small delay before opening always made me smile. Plus that sound...oh yeah!
Nice piece of gear! What I love about it is large keys, a jog wheel, pitch control and very quick CD change. And a balanced output - I'm definitely a huge fan of these. Definitely made for DJing in a fast-paced studio... or maybe in clubs too?
On the other hand, I'd rather have it in a metal rackmount case, but that's just me. I don't really like too much clutter on tables in a control room.
What a great looking machine.
I know Rega did toploaders. Pity more manufacturers didn't. Maybe as it becomes more of a nitch market, we'll get more interesting looking machines in the future... albeit probably expensive.
The first CD player I ever saw was the Technics SL-P10 seen at 5.03. I thought it was beautiful compared to the other players on the market
I used to have one of these! I purchased a broken unit for $20 from a junk store, managed to fix it, then sold it off for about $300. This was about 5 years ago. I have some regret getting rid of it, but it was what started the hobby of fixing electronics for me. Thanks for reminding me of this beast :)
I'm surprised he didn't mention it, this is one of the few CD players made where the time display shows the time down to 1/10th of a second. There are other professional CD players that replace the 1/10th of a second counter with a frame counter to allow you to see each audio frame of the track.
This was all so that you could queue the CD as close to the point you wanted it as possible.
Good insights upon the overlooked aesthetics of CD players. I once had a cheap Phillips multi system with a vertical playing cd. Something about watching a spinning cd inside a box that makes it unique.
I found a perfect condition Cambridge audio CD player at goodwill for $6. Sounded great. After several years it went back to goodwill. Why? It was so boring and serious!
In terms of visually interesting CD players, I have a Sony CMT-EX1 that is very much not a "hide the CD" player. It saw me through my university student days, though in the era of digital music I don't use the CD function all that much anymore.
Wow never knew that a device like this ever came to market! Congrats to this unit and thanks for presenting. Amazing how fast it reads the TOC. Not an optic-only phony but a technically sophisticated machine! (Ok, I think Technics did have something to lose ...)
My Pioneer stable platter player also reads the TOC within 2 seconds.
One thing I liked about Technics is they put a hundred percent behind everything they did. If you had anything made by them, it was going to last for a very long time.
When we test vintage cdp's, our general rule, the longer it takes to read, the higher the chance, the optics are suspect, or on their way out. I have a nice X77 ES, it still reads in under 3 seconds
My first CD player was the mentioned SL-1200. Great player. As a Broadcast Engineer my favorite was the Dennon Professional units, with a wired IFB.
Impressive, so much history around this CD player.
Used one in the eighties, similar feeling of using of a Studer tapedeck, solid and precise.
Matt, I never really took you as one with quite the artistic eye for design... You're a fantastic fellow 👍🏻 Great video, extremely interesting points made in my opinion
The Technics brand has tried some original things...I really like their devices.
Let's not forget the Technics turntable is/was the standard for many radio stations/DJs. Some models come up to speed in 1/3 of a turn. Perfect for a radio DJ.
My favorite ever CD player was the Pioneer 6-disc changer models. They even went so far as to have multiple changers in one unit, so you could load up 6 CDs and then stack 6 more into another disc changer and keep right on rocking! Wish I still had that, but it did give me trouble when it eventually wore out. At least I never lost a disc in it! Peace!
I’d imagine the reason designs all changed (apart from for space saving) was because lasers and clear windows don’t mix. Health and safety probably ruled here.
This was a particularly good cdp which I heard maybe 7 years ago and was able to compare it against several newer models. It was ahead of the pack back when released, pretty complex and designed for pro/broadcast use. It's complexity I think is part of its downfall today making it expensive to repair if you can get the parts. It's still quite expensive for a pretty old machine, especially the broadcast spec pro model and values seem to hold between £800 and £1250 for these.
Reviewed against various other models, the improved version (pro version) was the better sounding machine to me and compared well with the later Musical Fidelity A5, Consonance Mini Droplet, and even bettered the entry level Accuphase cdp. That was some feat as the aforementioned machines were the best mid priced models I've heard. You had to spend bigger money to really better these and there were a few that bettered them for reliability as well as sound including the Teac VRDS 10 and 25, Wadia (top models) and mid level Rega models of the last 10 years as well as older machines such as the Opus 21.
To considerably better the Technics professional machines you have to spend considerably more on models such as the Opus, Wadias and stepping up to the AR Ref 7 cdp, that machine blows the technics out of the water quite comprehensively making it sound decidedly inferior. It says something though when you really need to step up to an £8K machine to considerably better the Technics which is quite remarkable for an 80's cdp! It also has some really useful features that most others don't. Its well made, has a great transport and if you find a good one, won't dissappoint today but its downfall like many other machines is that unless spending big money, a good transport and cheap stand alone dac competes or betters one today. Who cares though right? There's very much a place for stand alone machines of this calibre and many doing the seperate dac route still ignore the fact that you have to have a really good transport to better any good stand alone player. The technics has a really good transport and the handful of few macines I'd happily own that share the build quality rarely found today. The list is quite short but as well as this machine I'd happily own the Primare machines (any if them...built like tanks and sound great), the earlier top tier arcam macines much overlooked but using great quality parts and Wolfson dacs, the Teac VRDS 25 and top of the pack, the Acoustic Research Cd7 Ref or the Cd9....the latter two machines needing you to sell a kidney to buy but once heard, forever smitten! That says a lot for the Technics. It's a classic and ranks up there as one of the better designed, better made and great sounding macines of the last 40 years even if it can't compete with esoterica like the AR machines which sonically I rate as the best ever made. Thankyou for sharing your review and congrats on owning this technics classic. I hope it stays healthy for many more years for you ☺
They are still available today but caveat emptor as any machine of that era will be a huge risk as transports and laser pick ups will wear out/pack up and spares are hard to come by for these.
Nice presentation! On a similar subject, you could present the first "drawer type" turntables. In my opinion, in North america, the Bing Crosby turntable made by Philco in 1946 (Model 46-1201) was the first to introduce such a device. There were a couple of other Philco radio/turntables in wich you could insert a 78rpm and hide it... for 5 minutes! Hence, the drawer type CD players are not a modern invention but a replica of an old mecanism!
Our first CD player was an SL-P111, as seen at 6:02 at the bottom. My parents won it at some mystery dinner theater thing they went to. It lasted quite a long time and was part of my hi-fi in college up until 2006 or so, when it stopped recognizing discs. It was very basic, but it was simple to operate and did its job well.
Similarly, I stopped recognising music from after 2006.
Maybe it is repairable.
The 111 used the same laser as the 1200. and that very same laser probably went bad. The early range is notorious for their lasers going bad. But 20+ years is more than anyone would have dreamed of them lasting, I suppose.
I remember the first single speed Computer CD reader being a vertical machine with the cd on full display. Any nerd would proudly show off something like this, so *of course* it had to be like this.
Loved this! I was in the DJ Booth in the USA club Called FIZZ when the DJ got 2 of these. I was in awe! Now, compare that with the Denon DN-2000f which became a standard for DJs back in 1992? I had the Denon DN-2000F MKII.Thanks for this, gave me great memories.
I love your videos. That Technics CD player is an exceptional unit.
I remember my brother was the first one I knew who got a CD player (saved up that paper route money) and his system had a player that was vertical and had a window on the front so you could see the CD in there. We always used to look at CD's with art on them and think "wow, I bet that'll look cool as it spins". Now that I've seen this vid I suddenly realized just how rare that CD player was as I never really saw any others that I can recall with that sort of a mechanism. They were always the pop-up top loaders or the drawer type units from that point on. If you were lucky one of those top loaders would have a small window.
Good to see this player again. I used the BBC ones extensively when I was a studio manager and Radio One used them before buying Studers. The Studers were better as they remembered the cue points set by the operator/DJ on discs even if they were removed and replaced. Also worth mentioning that the Technics design mirrored the SL1200 turntable (same feet and pitch control layout).
By the way the Technics had the ability to access index points using the Index button but I don’t think this was ever used on a commercial CD unless anyone knows different?
@Rob Sayer i have no idea why they did it that way but it's annoying! sounded like 3-+4% ish too!
I have a few early CDs with index points. Two that come to mind are DG Karajan Strauss Eine Alpensinfonie with one track and Rush 2112. I think Fly by Night and Caress of Steel also had index points in the longer tracks.
My first CD player was made by Proton and could use index points.
Atom heart mother by Pink Floyd had index points on the first track, atom heart mother. My old Sony boombox was able to see and use them.
I have two CDs with indexes: Andrew Poppy's The Beating Of Wings and Jean-Michel Jarre's Cities In Concert: Houston/Lyon.
Pretty certain there are index points on atom heart mother, though it’s been years since I’ve heard it on cd