Panasonic Announces Plans To Bring Back Technics Turntable, Leaves Off Tone Arm & Needle

new-technics-turntable

In the years since Panasonic killed off the Technics SL-1200 turntable – and the Technics brand – demand for vinyl has grown. And along with that growth in interest in vinyl has come demands for a successor to the Technics’ classic.

Now Panasonic has announced that it is reviving Technics turntables, and at its IFA press conference, it displayed a prototype turntable, shown above. Inexplicably, the prototype doesn’t have a tone arm or needle.

The new turntable, which is expected to be released in 2016, will offer a new direct-drive motor design that features:

  • Spindle motor control technology that switches the stator winding drive mode according to operating conditions, to provide both high starting torque and high rotational stability
  • Adaptive rotational control technology that achieves optimized compensation according to precision rotational position detection and load fluctuation factors

Details on pricing and tonearm/needle support are to be announced.

13 thoughts on “Panasonic Announces Plans To Bring Back Technics Turntable, Leaves Off Tone Arm & Needle

  1. To make them money this will be a modern SP10. Price it high and then build 1200 Mk6. The prototype looks like an SP10. Plinth cut out for your arm of choice, 9″ or 12″. Should be good as long as it isn’t the cheap and nasty pseudo-1200s type of build

  2. Didn’t I see Panasonic filing a patent for quantum groove reading – playing music by spooky action at a distance? Must be that.

    Just kidding! It’s a prototype – they’re probably making sure to get things like torque and vibrational isolation right. Relax guys. It looks like a machine shop work-up they decided to display, I’m sure the tone-arm will come.

  3. Would be more interesting if it’s not actually missing anything and it’s a totally new design. Why expose the needle and tone arm? Just put it under the surface and use a couple of sensors to apply the right pressure. Could even detect skips and temporarily apply a little more pressure in hopes of getting past it (like we all do with our finger). Screwed if you want to skip to your favorite song (or the skip detect doesn’t work!).

  4. In the 60’s and 70’s many high-end turntables came sans tonearm. You were supposed to add one from a third party that specialized in such. Panasonic, may also be thinking of a variety of options, such as S-shaped, straight, tangential, or even laser read. You just never know…

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