The SL-1300G arrives equipped with a lightweight, rigid aluminum tube arm. It measures 9 inches long and is the standard statically balanced S-shape that Technics has long favored. It uses high-precision gimbal suspension and bearings, and includes a multi-stage counterweight, user-adjustable anti-skate mechanism, lift, and arm lock.
The RCA jacks you’ll use to connect your SL-1300G to an amplifier are a) gold-plated and b) buried deep under the body of the deck. It seems pretty stingy of Technics to supply an expensive, lavishly specified turntable like this with the kind of drab, run-of-the-mill stereo interconnects that comes with your $50 CD player, but at least there are connections in the box. , along with a cable for the electrical network. What you won’t find is a cartridge and this, I would suggest, comes close to being “unforgivable” as an omission.
Photography: Simón Lucas
Without cartridge
For this money, I not only hope that the manufacturer has done the research and identified the cartridge that they believe is most appropriate for use with their turntable, but that they have also pre-installed it in their head for my convenience. As it stands, you’re looking at around $500 (minimum) for a cartridge capable of doing the SL-1300G justice, and who knows how long it would take to install and balance; Cartridge assembly is a notoriously complicated manual labor task that one does not look forward to. Honestly, I think your customers would be better served if Technics supplied and installed a decent cartridge and then added the cost to the selling price.
Still, when it comes to the Technics SL-1300G’s sound, there’s only one aspect in which it’s not simply excellent. This isn’t a cheap turntable and it gets even more expensive when it’s actually ready to go, but the way it works goes a long way in making the outlay seem pretty fair.
Great sound
Both in terms of the way it does things sonically and the type of music it’s comfortable with, the SL-1300G has what athletes like to call “an all-court game.” It doesn’t matter if you ask him to play a copy of Orff’s “Carmina Burana” performed by the Cleveland Orchestra, Chorus and Children’s Choir under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas or a James Holden record. Imagine that this is a high-dimensional space with all the possibilitiesThe Technics don’t care. In all circumstances, it is a brilliantly balanced listen, endlessly musical, deeply analytical and simply entertaining.
On the analysis side, the SL-1300G approaches forensics. At every point in the frequency range, you can identify and contextualize even the most transient, fleeting, and/or minor events in a recording, give them appropriate weighting, and confidently place them in your wide, spacious soundstage. Even when it comes to the most insignificant harmonic variations in a voice or instrument, the Technics pounces on them as if their life depended on it. This is not at the expense of the overall image, but when you get closer to it, you discover that it is full of fine details that create a compelling and coherent whole.
