Record Player Revelations

Like romance or car racing, the act of playing records is tactile by design. Like drifting through curves or making out, spinning vinyl is a learned skill that requires users to touch everything with practiced assurance.

To play a disc with Technics' new SL-1300G record player means pushing its round On button, then touching one or more of its rectangular speed selector buttons, then pushing the big square [Start:Stop] button, then unclamping the tonearm and using its cue lever to raise it up.

Next comes the part where my heart beats a little faster: using the headshell's fingerlift to position the arm over the disc and lower it into a groove.

When the needle contacts the groove, the whole system kicks in and sound comes out. Every time I repeat this pulse-raising arm-cueing ritual, which I've been practicing since 1956, I can feel in my hands the material and engineering quality of the whole recordplaying machine. I'm 75, so 68 years playing as many as 500 records per year results in my having experienced at least 34,000 intimate turntable encounters. That's what I call a friend with benefits. And a long-term relationship.

Speaking of long-term relationships, I've owned multiple Technics SL-1200s, using one for more than a decade. I still had it when I reviewed the Technics SL-1200GAE in 2016, and I am currently living with Technics' SL-1300G ($3299) and it's begging to move in. The direct drive SL-1300G is the latest addition to what Technics calls its fourth-generation record players.