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When I was 18, I came across a SL-10 that had lived in a nightclub for a short time and made a trade for it (1983) it didn't have all the bells and whistles of the programable one but it was a fine little machine. Had good speed control, sound and durability. Great to see this one still working. Thanks for sharing.

My father had an SL10 for a while and then "upgraded" to one of the sharp vertical machines that had a cartridge on both sides and could play both sides of a record and also scan for tracks and do the programmable mumbo jumbo.

Now that I am back into Vinyl and he has gone digital (scary I know) I have all his records but lament the super manualness (meh, real words phooey) of turntables. Does anyone make more automated models? I can see the problems with Dad's old Sharp with the lack of mass of the platter (well THERE WAS NONE as it had to play both sides) but it would be nice to have something less manual as one of the tables in the house.

Thoughts?

...that I bought in 1986 with one of the last new Shure V15V cartridges I bought in 2010. I still sounds and operates great! A few years ago I bought on eBay for just $50 a Technics SL-6 that has a Shure V15V cartridge (the new V15V I bought in 2010 cost $400). Those Technics linear turntables all work quite well and are quiet.

By the way, the SL-15 and SL-10 had automobile-mounting options. Those two turntables will work in any position, not just being placed horizontally. They also had a moving-coil cartridge option.

I love these players and have both an SL-10 and SL-15. People always complain I'm not a "real audophile" because I use fully automated turntables, but they're superb to use and I would never replace them unless they were broken and couldn't be fixed. I even got the 45 degree stand for one of them - pretty cool! They've ssen weekly use now since the early 1980s and I have only recently chancged the pickups (I have original Technics T4Ps boght 20 years ago). They've never seen a tuneup or any maintenance. That's what I call durability!

Glad to see you writing about the SL-15. I'd love to know what you think of the sound.

I have an SL-7 that someone left out on garbage night a few years ago. It is the brother of the SL-15, without the preamp and the programmability. Finding a good p-mount cartridge was a challenge, but once it was up and running, I really grew to love it. I haven't used my Thorens much since. I especially like not having to adjust any tonearm geometry, anti-skating, etc.

When I told the salesman at a high end shop in Manhattan that I was using an SL-7, he waved me off.

Yes very cool. These Technics decks (SL15, 10 and 7) launched when I started in HiFi retail in the early 80s and like many impressionable teenagers I liked a gimmick or 2 to help sell things. One of mine was to demonstrate the SL10's ability to play upside down. By dint of its magnetically operated tracking force arrangement (as I recall at least) I'd lay the deck on its lid with the buttons hanging off the shelf and hit the play button. Customer jaw on the floor and a sale made!! Try it before you ship it off to Japan.

A 4lb glass ashtray on their direct-drive decks was another. Strobe still nice and stable. Oh boy those were the days. Much, much older and wiser now but is was fun back then.

T4P pickups are no problem. For anyone needing a SL-7, 10 or 15 pickup just contact the nice folks at lpgear.com and they'll help you out.

There is a fantastic guy you can find on Ebay who restores the Yamaha and Sony models. They can sound fantastic.

Very cool!

I'm very familiar with the Technics SL15. It was certainly a tour de force and built like the proverbial brick shit house. But the crowning achievement may actually have been the EPC 100 MK4 MM cartridge in it. It was only available in the US in the SL15 because they knew they couldn't sell a MM pickup with the Technics name for the $500 they thought it would go for, not in the day of MC pickups. But it had the lowest effective moving mass of anything at the time and was dead nuts flat to 80 KHz with a resonant peak at 100 KHz. And it sounded great. It was smooth and liquid and sounded like it was loafing until a transient came around and then you had the jump factor so important to JGH.

Please do more videos on historically interesting/unique products.