The vibes you get from listening to a great piece of vinyl are one thing, but the vibrations from record and platter are something entirely different. Simply put, they can go from making a listening experience pleasurable to wondering why that song you love doesn’t sound like it normally does.
Vibrations can be a problem with some technologies, and while digital media doesn’t have it, and neither do CDs, an analogue mechanism with needle to record definitely can. And that’s a problem.
However, Technics might have a solution ready, provided you don’t mind spending on it.
The company has built a new version of its SL-1500 record player, delivering a generation of its Direct Drive technology sounds a little like a college fraternity, but aims to fix errors from excess vibration and distortion.
The technology is called the “Delta Sigma Drive”, and is basically an extension of the Technics Direct Drive Motor, using digital control conversion to cut back on calculation errors, essentially quelling distortions in the drive signal to improve accuracy.
Technics’ Delta Sigma isn’t entirely new, having been introduced back in 2023, but the latest generation sees improvements to the motor control and design to improve the playback.
Once you interpret the jargon there, it essentially means the Technics system is using a combination of improved motor and player design for improved playback, with this new model, the SL-1500CS, getting a combination of aluminium, glass, and ABS (plastic/polymer) to dampen vibrations, while the tone arm is made from aluminium to keep things light and durable.
The hardware is fairly high-end, and the price made to match. Set for release in Australia at $2499, the SL-1500CS comes with a Moving Magnet (MM) pickup cartridge and an Ortofon 2M MM Red cartridge at the head shell for the needle.
Specialist retailers will get this one, with availability seeing the record player in select stores across the country.
