Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

Every turntable I've ever heard has a character of some sort, but the better they get the more self-effacing they become. The SL-1000R is one of the most invisible and least intrusive sounding decks out there, underpinned by an almost supernatural speed stability from which everything else follows…

My dog-eared old copy of Rush's Archives [Mercury 7649 103] showed this to great effect. 'Fly By Night' is a short slice of early '70s rock delivered at a frenetic pace, with lashings of electric guitars, drum rolls and fills between the crashing cymbals. This particular 40-year-old vinyl specimen is particularly distressed, yet it was if the SL-1000R had beamed back in time to when it was young and fresh.

Micro Detailing
The music bubbled out of the groove, giving a wonderfully zesty sound that bristled with detail. There was a translucence here that I'd not previously heard, realised in the vast, wide open spaces between each beat of the music. I could both zero-in on microscopic details, and sit back and hear the whole song flow in a delightfully lucid way.

The SL-P1000R is one of very few high-end turntables I've heard that can perform this trick. Listening to its music is like jumping on a train – there's only one direction of travel as you sit there and watch the scenery fly by, yet you can still relish all sorts of weird and wonderful details as you speed along.

This brilliant rhythmic ability makes for an electrifying listen, ensuring the sound of Neil Peart's famously busy drumming was a joy. Everything was so secure and so well proportioned that the music might as well have been bolted deep into the earth's crust. The listening room becomes a sort of time capsule where you jaunt from one recording venue to the next, depending on which LP you choose to play.

Kate Bush's Hounds Of Love [EMI KAB1] was a dramatic transformation. Suddenly, editor PM and I were in a mid '80s recording studio with Fairlight CMI samplers instead of cranked-up Rickenbacker guitars, and Kate's icily perfect voice was now the virtuoso lead instrument. As the album's title track began, I found myself mesmerised by the intricately sequenced, sampled percussion, hearing it with a precision I'd never quite discerned before. Not only were the metronomic beats entrancing, but I discovered subtle accenting where almost all other turntables deliver a flat, opaque, woolly thump to the bass drum sound.

The percussive backing framed the soundstage, so when the vocal line came in I wasn't prepared for the size and expanse of the singer's voice. Most turntables drop Kate's vocals far further back in the mix, but the SL-1000R had them way forward, giving her an eerie, ghostly sound that was unexpectedly intimate.

Indeed, it was almost as if the vocal mike was in the diaphragm of her chest, so direct did it sound. I could hear every last inflection of her voice, including her breathing, as clear as if she were standing in front of me. I could also hear that what, on lesser turntables, sounds like a single vocal line was actually pieced together from different studio takes. Such soundstaging was breathtaking to behold.

Loud And Clear
No-one could justifiably describe the SL-1000R as 'another of those analytical Japanese direct drives'. In practice, it bristles with enthusiasm whatever it is asked to play. So much so that its combination of clarity, timing and dynamics is enough to make you question the rhythmic security of high-end digital audio. The way this vinyl-spinner can extract both subtle accenting and dramatic dynamic contrasts from middling LP pressings never ceased to amaze me.

Steve Jansen and Yukihiro Takahashi's 'Stay Close' [Rime Records RIME 1] is a beautiful mid '80s pop song but is compressed up to the eyeballs, and the dense layers of keyboards and synths set over a busy percussive backing mean it's a tough challenge for any turntable. Via this flagship Technics deck, it was if I'd just put on the remix!

The Digital Deck
The dynamic light and shade was profound, especially on the frenetic drum machine work. At the same time, the hi-hat cymbal – pretty much inaudible on most record players – eased out of the dense mix with utter insouciance. I duly sat transfixed as all the track's complex tiers of production unwrapped themselves before my ears. Despite the intensity of the sound, the strands effortlessly unravelled, with the clarinet solo towards the end of the song being far less strident than usual, yet possessed of a tangibility that I'd not previously experienced.

The deck's handling of frequency extremes is also exceptional. Those who have grown up with warmer, softer-sounding belt-drive turntables might initially think the SL-1000R sounds a little 'digital' at the bottom end. (If 'digital' means it has the ability to begin and end bass notes with the speed of an LED pulsing on and off.) So 4hero's 'Planetaria' [from Earth Pioneers; Talkin' Loud TLDJ 24], is dramatic to behold.

This is a superb late '90s analogue recording, with powerful double-bass played over metronomic snare drums and rim shots and intertwined with lush strings and soft backing synthesisers. The former sounded lightning-fast and highly expressive, giving a firm push to the song. At the opposite end of the scale, the timbre of the hi-hats was exquisite, shimmering like stars glinting out of the night sky. Between these two extremes, the strings possessed a richness and lustre that was frankly uncanny.

Hi-Fi News Verdict
A remarkable turntable package, and arguably the apex of vinyl playback. It's difficult to see how the SP-10R motor unit can be improved upon, and the matching plinth and tonearm are of very high calibre – even if audiophiles will surely experiment with other combinations. Technics' SL-1000R is a definitive statement of engineering prowess, and marks the return of direct drive to the top tier of turntables.