Used Technics

Technics is the hi-fi brand of Matsushita, the company now called Panasonic. It built its reputation on direct drive, applying the motor-in-the-platter idea to turntables from 1969 and later carrying it into tape decks. That lineage is the reason three of the five Technics models in this catalog are transport designs. The SL-1200MK2 (1979) is the quartz-locked manual deck that became the club DJ standard and remains a durable hi-fi turntable; more than three million SL-1200-series decks were sold before Panasonic ended Technics turntable production in 2010, and the line has since been revived. The SL-1700 is its earlier semi-automatic home sibling, and the RS-1500 open-reel deck applies quartz-locked direct drive to an unusual isolated-loop tape path. On the electronics side, the SA-5170 is an affordable 25-watt receiver from the 1977 range, and the SU-V8 is a 110-watt integrated amplifier built around Technics’ “New Class A” synchronous-bias output stage. Service needs are typical of the era: dirty switches and controls, lamps, tired electrolytics, and for the turntables and tape deck, careful checks of arms, brakes and rollers.

5 models in the catalog.