Turntables, Arms & Cartridges

The flagship SP-10 motor unit was launched in 1969 and was one of the first direct-drive decks to be offered by the giant, Osaka-based Matsushita Corporation. Branded 'Technics, by National' or 'Panasonic', or a combination thereof, the deck made its UK debut in 1974 - two years after the first SL-1200 model in 1972 - later going through MKII and MKIII guises before disappearing in the mid to late '80s. The earliest model could be purchased with a wooden plywood plinth, a solid wood chassis or in matt black plastic. The deck was also available as a complete turntable system called the SL-1000, comprising the motor unit and EPA-100 tonearm, with its ruby bearing, sunk into a hybrid rosewood and obsidian glass plinth - the SH10B3. The brushless direct-drive motor sat within a thin-walled alloy casting and was truly innovative. The 20pole rotor was fashioned from a manganese/aluminium alloy while the stator windings were fed from a novel control circuit. Extra coils on the motor stators were employed to derive an error voltage, fed back to the speed control circuit and locking the platter to a precise rotation. Fast forward 50 years, and the speed stability of today's Technics direct-drives is governed digitally. PM