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RE: There's a lot of competition at this price point....

Posted by flood2 on January 10, 2017 at 16:08:19:
It doesn't matter how expensive the deck is...the issue is whether the design is "sound" (pun intended!) and whether the package offered at the price (arm + motor unit) gives a combined value/performance score that puts it at least on par if not higher than the similarly priced competition. A poorly aligned turntable and/or badly matched arm/cartridge will always sound like s#$@ no matter the cost.
The SL1200 is now taken much more seriously in the press as a viable audiophile deck so I don't see your concern as being too serious anymore compared to the early 80s when Rega Planars and LP12s were the weapons of choice for the budget and well-heeled audiophiles respectively.

Rotational accuracy, w/f, low rumble are the fundamentals required of a motor unit. Technics have superb engineers and the original 1200 readily smashes similarly priced belt drive decks in all those metrics. In fact a vintage SL-150 measured very similarly to an SME15 in an issue of HFNRR. So why would one pay the premium for an SME15 if one attended to the basics of alignment and arm/cartridge match and the primary objective was good sound? If it was based on a prejudice that the SME MUST be better because it costs several times the Technics and is a belt drive, then more power to the marketing and accounting divisions! The purchaser is clearly putting ego and image ahead of the sound quality.

Now if you want to look at the arm, the Technics arm does have its limitations. The detachable headshell (whilst a wonderful convenience that I love), does affect the resonances (of which a significant one appears around 230Hz) and the arm mounting in the gimbal is not the most rigid. Then again, you could put your own choice of 9" arm in its place in which case you get the best of both worlds albeit at a new higher price point - a superior motor unit and the arm of your choice!
What's not to like? The only question is whether at the new elevated price, the combination still matches or exceeds the similarly priced competition.
I don't have the inclination or the money to do this experiment.... but I think THAT would be the test of success. If an SME309/1200GR combination (at the new price point) is a winner on the bench and in the press, I could see that making the 1200GR (original package) a successful product that could strike fear in the smaller firms who don't have the economy of scale and access to resources that a bigger corporation like Panasonic has.