Yes, I’m acting like a 12 year old.
After making the biggest mistake in years by selling my 1210s in 2008, I finally put things right this week and picked up a pair of mint 1200 Mk5s at a not entirely unreasonable price.
Thanks to Xone, my personal buying consultant.
That is all. Carry on! 
Thank you sir
welcome back my friend, don’t ever sell them again.
Welcome back!
These are now officially a family heirloom to be handed down from one generation to the next so my great, great grandchildren can keep it real.
Haha nice.
Yeah I really have to make a rule to never sell my MK5s. They are just too nice the way they are and even when I have been tempted to sell them temporarily to fund other gear and buy other technics later I know I probably won’t find as nice a pair for what I paid for these.
Congrats!!! I have a set of MKII’s that my dad bought for me when I was 12/13 yrs old. I would never, ever, ever , EVER, get rid of them.
It’s just something that is completely priceless to me.
props man! congrats on the purchase!
Whooh \o/ Congrats! Everyone loves them some Technics. How’s the MK5s compared to the MK2s?
Welcome back… Don’t ever do it again!!!
Welcome back to the Technics group 
@Xone, i’v been trying to find that post or thread you did a while back on tips on purchasing Technics, could you maybe point me in that direction?
god i hated selling mine… i moved from pittsburgh to the uk and figured my 1210 had the wrong plug and were the wrong voltage so i sold em… and i wept… got sum pdx-2000’s now and while i like the features on em… I WANT MY 1200’S BACK ! ! ! !
lemme see…
It’s hard to really go wrong with technics unless they are really beat, i’ve bought, refurbished, and sold technics on craigslist quite a bit and going through around 50+ technics total I only encountered one I had to use for parts that had a bent tone arm not worth fixing and the side was real bent like it was dropped off a stage.
The biggest thing is overall appearance to get a sense of age and how it was used. This will also determine price, while sometimes on craigslist condition won’t affect price if you want pristine tables expect to pay more. Power it on, hit play and adjust the pitch paying attention to the strobe when the dots on the platter stay still looking at the led strobe which correspond to pitch increments. make sure the dots stay steady.
Put it on 33 and 45 rpm and slowly move the pitch fader through its range, if the pitch is dirty or worn out you will see the dots on the platter stutter in the led strobe showing the platter speed is inconsistent. you don’t want this unless you are good at DIY stuff since this is easy to fix if you take apart and clean the pitch fader, or just buy a new pitch fader for like $30.
Look at the numbers by the strobe and put it on 3.3%, 6%, and -3.3% and see if the corresponding dot is steady at that number. I usually skip this and just look for stutter since calibration is easy.
Make sure the tone arm is straight, if you can, see how a cartridge fits on the arm and if any of the contacts on the tone arm look pushed in or shot/corroded. play a vinyl record if possible and see if you get an output in both channels. if they have a mixer that shows left and right output levels make sure one isn’t significantly lower than the other (and if it is be mindful that could be a styli problem too). look at the rcas and the ground wire, check to see if the ground wire is close to original length and not chewed up or cut down. check to make sure all wire insulation is in good shape and check what the rca connectors look like and if they have a tight fit.
If it is appropriate remove the platter and look for any signs of anything being spilled (usually won’t cause permanent damage but i have cleaned some thick nasty goop out of tables). To remove the platter just take the slip mat off and put you thumb on the spindle and middle fingers through the holes and pull up.
Check the pop up light and see if it is out. I replace them with LEDs anyway so it doesn’t really matter. Check the 33/45 buttons and make sure they don’t stick. make sure all the leds stay steadily lit and don’t dim or flicker at all indicating a power problem. make sure the tone arm clip isn’t broken off and if it is you can get a new one for a few bucks but make him knock down his price a bit.
if it plays stereo fine and the pitch is good then it’s a solid table. i wouldnt pay more than $500 for a used pair of 1200s and going rate seems to be $500 a pair on craigslist. This may vary depending on area and for nicer tables you may expect to pay more.
Really if I were looking for myself I would look for M3Ds or MK5s. M3Ds are usually the best deal and are much improved over the MK2s with the reset button. M3Ds might as well be the same thing as MK5s the only difference you will notice is they have an incandescent pitch light where the MK5 has a white LED. This is an easy mod and you can throw all color LEDs on for $20-$40 and you pretty much have nicer tables than MK5s for much less. MK5s also have higher anti skate but you probably shouldn’t care about that.
A big thing I would look out for is if they have aftermarket RCA cables. Turn the table over and see if the original plastic rca clamp bracket is on there. This secured the cable in place and prevents pulling on the RCA from putting any pressure on the small board it is connected to. Sometimes people replace the RCAs with thicker ones then they can’t fit the RCA clamp on so the wires just kind of hang out through a metal hole in the bottom and this can put a lot of stress on the board if they pulled the RCAs and cause damage.
I’m not sure if I would buy tables that someone else internally grounded. If they did a bad job it could cause issues with timecode calibration and be a nightmare for you. If it did become a problem you could always fix it yourself or put a ground wire back on.
I think M3Ds/MK5s are a good investment if you plan on keeping your tables for a while and are worth the couple hundred bucks extra.
Welcome back
Hot.
I miss my black mk2s and my m5g. I sold that m5g for a (then) fair price of $350. Fuck.
I could see selling my silver mk2s (bought a couple weeks ago for…well…ouch) but only if m5gs were already there, in my room. And I plan on it as soon as I can. If my financial situation looks more optimistic than it does currently, I’m seriously considering saving up for a new pair…like…NOS, in a box, from a retailer. Why? If I don’t do it soon, I’ll never get the experience of opening a Technics box.
New in box M5Gs are $1300 each- that’s an expensive unboxing.
Yeah…it probably won’t happen, but I can dream, right?
So i finally got them setup last night and had a little play. First time with Technics in 10 years and I was right, and the others were right too, nothing else feels like them.
The one issue now is that with the Mk5s and the Innofader, I have no where left to go with excuses as to why my scratching still sounds like, well, me…
LOL!
Practice I guess.
But one thing is forsure…since installing the Inno…my scratching SOUNDS much better.
I also like to turn it up now…because of this.
So I am making progress for sure!
Did you get your Inno adjusted nicely? Mine is RAZOR dude.