SL1200 upgrade tonearm or replace cartridge?

Original arm.

I read somewhere, and maybe someone else can speak more definitively, that the servo circuit within the SL motor is constantly hunting for the proper rpm. While looking at the strobe it appears to be visually stable but the motor is continuously compensating.

I believe this function was accomplished with regulation independent and outboard of the motor in the SP-10 whose subsequent versions improved on those electronic controls and its power supply.

Back in the day most of the radio stations my wife worked at as well as others I visited the SP-10 and 15 became the mainstay in the last days of vinyl. The arm most often used was an older Ortofon RMG 309 (I think), with an Ortofon SP cartridge. I'm sure there is a newer more elegant and expensive version.

These things were a very long dog leg and were also used in conjunction with the older idler tables. With the table off the disc jockey would spin and queue the track, hold the queued record while he turned the table on and the felt topped plater would spin under the queued record then let go.

Concerning the Benz I would strongly suggest replacement with the new S-Class cartridge. I've read some time back that Benz suspended the re-tip and upgrade for a period of time.

I have an original version of the SL 1200. I also was loaned a much older Thorens 124 with an Ortofon SP which seems like a clanky deck but it simply out classed the Technics.

I've since purchased a trashed Well Tempered for $250. Brought it back to life and running a Benz Ruby Z (upgraded from an L Wood). I mounted the Ruby on the SL 1200 and that deck seems to suck the life out of the presentation. I'm not knowledgable enough to explain the shortcoming but I wouldn't gamble on upgrading a Technics unless it was an SP-10 III.

There are simply too many other choices out there.

Johnnyb, thanks for your information regarding the effects of the servo circuit used on the SL1200s and pardon my layman's knowledge of this subject.

I still find it questionable though.

As I understand it a servo circuit reads some method of feedback so many times a second and when there is fluctuation error the circuit makes a correction.

The process of the error, the sensing of the error, and the correction of the error, however quickly its done simply must create some stepping. Almost digital in nature.

Consider, back in the day when these circuits were first developed the reading rate was, say, 100 times second. Today that technology can read thousands of times a second.

I'm not sure how one would measure this but obviously the Panasonic engineers had a method which led them to change and/or improve this function on the SP decks. Using outboard processing and power supply to drive the far more robust SP motor they made two more versions of these functions in the SP controllers. Did any of these updates make it to the drive of the SLs?

That said, I would be skeptical of claims made by anybody marketing products for the SL.

On the broader picture of the SL1200 my experiences are like Zenblaster's. It didn't take a great deal of money to find a deck that takes LP playback to another level altogether. I learned this lesson the hard way with poor speaker choices and expecting better electronics to remedy a fundamental shortcomings of the speakers.

Still, when I brought my brand new SL home, punched that start button for the first time and that platter came up to speed so damn fast, that turntable endeared itself to me and I will not sell it.

After reading your tweaks I think I'm going to give them a shot. Thank you very much.