Technics SL5200 turntable

In the long story of what will become "Technics" as the flagship brand from National Panasonic, the mothership model of the insane success of their turntables was of course the SL1200 (MkI and MkII). End of the seventies, while all major names (Thorens, Lenco, Garrard…) were still relying on straight tube arms and belt drives, the innovation of the Technics turntable blew the competition.

The heavy stable damped alloy body. The direct drive with massive torque motor. The heavy aluminium platter. The antiskating. The balanced s-arm. The pitch control with the strobe marks on the platter.

Domestic models based on the SL1200 - the SL1300, 1500, 1800 were developed but their foundations of "dj turntable" delimited them to be "manual" turntables. Yep, you have to operate the arm at the start of the record and you have to quit your couch when the needle is screetching at the end of the last track.

So Technics derived their star product, on a slightly different design, to models embarking comfort features like the automatic cueing and the return of the arm when the record was finished. In others words: an automatic turntable. This SL 5200 is a nice example, a good choice if you want to play records at home with reliability and comfort.