Turntable manufacturer, Technics, recently unveiled a new model at CES 2016, the upgraded SL-1200G. The new sleek piece of equipment was met with excitement since their prior model, the SL-1200 had become the club standard, but was discontinued in 2010. However the new turntable came with an eye-watering price tag of nearly $4,000.
This tempered the excitement for the SL-1200G and its rarer model, the SL-1200GAE as it put the new turntable out of the range for regular individuals and working DJs who don't make a big salary.
Now the company is on the defensive to try and justify the price for consumers. Speaking to What Hi-Fi? At the Bristol Sound & Vision show, Technics CTO Tetsuya Itani explained why the new piece of gear is going to be so pricey.
He explains that they had to rebuild their manufacturing capabilities and the SL-1200G is a totally new piece of gear, except for the dust cover.
"The cost was the biggest problem for us, from the start of the project. Because the original 1210 turntables were manufactured for so many years, the manufacturing process had got to a very low cost. Now we need to invest in all the tools again, and the price now is much higher than the 1970s," Itani explains.
"We began to study just a few months prior to IFA, maybe summer 2014, for the new SL-1200. We learned that it was impossible [to make the same deck], as almost all the tools for manufacturing were gone or heavily damaged - only one "die" remained, and that was for the dust cover."
According to Itani, the SL-1200GAE is still on schedule to be released this summer, but the regular model, the SL-1200G is being delayed until the winter. There are still some changes to be made, so the final product "will get better."
He acknowledges that it is a bit prices for some average users and says a cheaper option could be on the way.
"Right now, we start thinking [about a more affordable model]. But not definitely right now. We need to study."
