{"id":1295,"date":"2026-07-17T21:03:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T19:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.reeltoreel.nl\/blog\/?p=1295"},"modified":"2026-07-17T22:42:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T20:42:59","slug":"technics-sl-p1200-a-wonderful-studio-broadcast-cd-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reeltoreel.nl\/blog\/?p=1295","title":{"rendered":"Technics SL-P1200: A wonderful studio\/broadcast CD player"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In my youth (1986), there was the introduction of a CD player that caught my imagination. Being a Technics<\/strong> fan, I immediately liked it a lot. Because it was a professional player, it had features I could only dream about. Like cue-ing, fader start, jog shuttle, very fast start\/stop and track select, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I saw it mentioned in magazines and I knew I was never going to own one, and that I was probably never even going to get near one. It was a bit like I also thought I would never get near a Studer<\/strong> tape machine, let alone own one. But here we are, I have 4 Studers now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward to 2026, and I looking at interesting stuff on a Japanese<\/strong> auction site. There were actually a fair amount of these players being offered, and I decided to bid on one that was a little bit cheaper than the rest that were on sale. I’m Dutch, you know. The description said it would turn on, but wouldn’t play a CD. The display worked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So I took a gamble and my bid was accepted<\/strong>. From then it was about 1,5 week until it was delivered to me. Quite fast I think. Shipping (this is a heavy beast) and customs added a lot to the price, but that is to be expected when using this route to buy gear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I forgot to say that it, being a Japanese model, it was running on 100 Volt<\/strong>. But I am the lucky owner of a Variac, so making 100 V out of our 230 V is no problem and the device also supports 50 Hz! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I turned it on, the disc was moving a little bit, but not enough. But it seemed the motor was ok. I dismantled the mechanism and found 2 small SMD<\/strong> caps on the motor control board and one of them was bad. I replaced the caps with a ‘normal’ one and after that, the disc spun and the player could read the TOC! I also cleaned the lens and relubricated the rails for the laser pickup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I tested some electrolytic caps<\/strong> on the main board and on the audio board, but they are a kind of special type that apparently doesn’t go bad over time, because I didn’t find a bad one. So I decided to leave them alone. At least for now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I took apart the volume slider<\/strong> pot for the headphone, because it was crackly but after cleaning it is not crackly anymore. I also treated the jogshuttle potentiometer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I did however have a problem with the lid switch<\/strong>. It needs to make good contact when the lid is closed, otherwise the player stops playing. I did some tweaking and now it is working fine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Operating this device is a real pleasure. There is always something deeply satisfying when you are operating professional gear that is made for heavy use. The touch and feel <\/strong>of the buttons is extraordinary nice and it reacts instantly. I can absolutely see why it was so popular in broadcast studios.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This player has a double power supply<\/strong> and uses Technics Class AA <\/strong>technique to achieve the best sound possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it sound amazing too. Apparently these dual PCM54HP-M Burr-Brown DACs<\/strong> are very, very good! I need to listen to my entire CD collection again thought this player……<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the specs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Number of channels<\/td>2 (stereo)<\/td><\/tr>
Frequency response<\/td>4 ~ 20,000Hz, \u00b10.1dB<\/td><\/tr>
S\/N ratio<\/td>106dB<\/td><\/tr>
Dynamic range<\/td>96dB<\/td><\/tr>
Harmonic distortion<\/td>0.0012% (1kHz, 0dB)*<\/td><\/tr>
Total harmonic distortion<\/td>0.0025% (1kHz)<\/td><\/tr>
Channel separation<\/td>106dB (1kHz)<\/td><\/tr>
Wow & flutter<\/td>Unmeasurable<\/td><\/tr>
Low-pass filter<\/td>High Resolution Digital Filter<\/td><\/tr>
Pitch control<\/td>\u00b18%<\/td><\/tr>
Sampling frequency<\/td>44.1kHz<\/td><\/tr>
Error correction<\/td>Technics Super Decoding Algorithm<\/td><\/tr>
Decoding<\/td>16-bit linear<\/td><\/tr>
Type<\/td>FF1 (Fine Focus 1-beam)<\/td><\/tr>
Beam source<\/td>Semiconductor laser<\/td><\/tr>
Wavelength<\/td>780nm<\/td><\/tr>
Spindle motor<\/td>Brushless DD motor<\/td><\/tr>
System<\/td>High Speed Linear Motor Access System<\/td><\/tr>
Power supply<\/td>AC 220V, 50Hz (Cont. Europe); AC 240V, 50Hz (U.K.); **AC 110\/127\/220\/240V, 50\/60Hz (other)<\/td><\/tr>
Power consumption<\/td>32W<\/td><\/tr>
Output voltage<\/td>2.0V (0dB)<\/td><\/tr>
Output impedance<\/td>200\u03a9<\/td><\/tr>
Load impedance<\/td>20k\u03a9<\/td><\/tr>
Headphone output level<\/td>Max. 100mW (32\u03a9)<\/td><\/tr>
Dimensions (W x H x D)<\/td>430 x 168 x 380mm<\/td><\/tr>
Weight<\/td>14.5kg (32.0 lb)<\/td><\/tr>
Automatic play<\/td>Entire disc<\/td><\/tr>
Repeat<\/td>Entire disc, single track, programmed tracks<\/td><\/tr>
Program capability<\/td>Max. 20-selection random access programmability (track)<\/td><\/tr>
Cueing<\/td>Direct access (track, time, index). 2-speed manual search with cueing sound, track, skip, programmable music scan, auto cue<\/td><\/tr>
Display<\/td>Total number of tracks, total playing time, programmed tracks, track in play, elapsed track time, total elapsed time, remaining track time, total remaining playing time, index number, preset start point (time), output level attenuation<\/td><\/tr>
Control keys<\/td>Play, pause, stop, open, clear, memory, recall, repeat, 10 number, key, index, rocking\/search, skip, auto-space, auto-cue (on\/off), dial search (on\/off), search speed (slow\/fast), pitch control (on\/off), time mode, time recall, (remote control only: search, music scan, digital attenuator)<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my youth (1986), there was the introduction of a CD player that caught my imagination. Being a Technics fan, I immediately liked it a lot. Because it was a professional player, it had features I could only dream about. Like cue-ing, fader start, jog shuttle, very fast start\/stop and track select, etc. I saw […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":1297,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-audio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reeltoreel.nl\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reeltoreel.nl\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reeltoreel.nl\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reeltoreel.nl\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reeltoreel.nl\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1295"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.reeltoreel.nl\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1316,"href":"https:\/\/www.reeltoreel.nl\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1295\/revisions\/1316"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reeltoreel.nl\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reeltoreel.nl\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reeltoreel.nl\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reeltoreel.nl\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}