Technics Turntables, R.I.P.

Technics 1200 turntable

It’s been one year since Panasonic announced that the classic DJ turntable was dead – when it killed off Technics:

After more than 35 years as a leading manufacturer of analogue turntables, Panasonic has regretfully taken the decision to leave this market.

Panasonic hopes that retailers and consumers will understand that its product range has to reflect the accelerating transformation of the entire audio market from analogue to digital.

In addition, the number of component suppliers serving the analogue market has dwindled in recent years and the decision to leave the market, rather than risk being unable to fulfil future orders because of a lack of parts, has been brought forward.

Panasonic employees who have been working on the analogue turntable range have been redeployed elsewhere within Panasonic – many of them continuing to work in Panasonic’s Audio Video Business Unit.

While there are other manufacturers still making turntables, none are as iconic as Technics’. In fact, DJ/music journalist Tom Terrell called the Technics 1200 SL direct-drive turntable “the most important musical instrument of the last two-and-a-half decades.”

If you’ve got a Technics SL-1200 or SL1210 turntable, you’ve got a classic.

Any readers still DJing with vinyl?

13 thoughts on “Technics Turntables, R.I.P.

  1. I’m still rocking the vinyl… though… i’ve been having trouble getting to sleep at night lately…

    sold my technics 1210s to help buy more studio gear… a shift in priorities… :/

    Sellers Remorse

  2. Oh yeah, I still use vinyls, I have about 300 of them. But of course I play digital too.. Ánd I have 2 technics 1200 turnables and a crapy numark mixer..

  3. they might be alive and kicking in people’s bedrooms and basements. but let’s be realistic and look at the place of business, the clubs. they have moved towards digital and if they purchase new gear it’s heading that direction. vinyls to be honest had their time to shine, just like the 8 track, cassette tape, cds. it’s better to come to grips with the fact that even though the fidelity might be a little better, in a club that slight difference is lost with the shaking of glasses and asses anyways. maybe if you hold onto the technics for another 40 years maybe the guys from american pickers will offer you a few hundred dollars then.

  4. I work in a big music shop, and our vinyl sales continue to rise and rise. I think vinyl has a lot of life in it. If you’re going to own music in a physical format, it’s the way to go (graphics, liner notes, inserts, etc.) plus it sounds better than digital to lots of people.

    But please folks, saying you own lots of “vinyls” is like saying you look at “porns” on the “internets.”

  5. That’s real sad news. I got may pair since 97 and still spin ’em everyday. Maybe that’s the reason why Panasonic took ’em off manufacture – once you buy them, it’s for a lifetime, while digital products life cycle is getting shorter and shorter. I hope that at some point Panasonic will be making them again as soon as there will be more demand. There other manufactures, of course, but they are nothing like the 1200’s and doesn’t give the right image and feel.

    As for vinyls – I see more and more teenagers buying records, new and old. Digital technology doesn’t come instead of the real thing. It’s got it’s advantages, but also filled the speakers in bars and clubs with real crappy MP3 sounds. I just don’t understand why people are still using this format, when internet speed and storage are no longer a problem.

    MP3 is history.
    Long live the vinyl!

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