Two classics, reborn.

Technics is continuing its drive to bring back its most important turntables, with the classic SP-10 and SL-1000 decks set to be given a high-end reboot.

Previewed in August 2017, the Technics SP-10R turntable was described as Technics’ “most premium turntable ever”, and with further details emerging at Panasonic’s CES 2018 press conference, we now know why.



Living up to the reputation of the original SP-10 – the world’s first direct drive turntable – this new model is powered by a coreless direct drive motor, with the rubber-dampened aluminium platter stabilised by a 10mmm brass weight, giving it a mass of 7.9kg.

Reducing wow and flutter rate to 0.015 percent, it promises to limit background noise while increasing and clarifying the audio signal in the process.

With that in mind, the SP-10R’s control unit is separated from the main turntable unit, using what Panasonic calls an “unwanted noise reduction circuit.”

While this won’t come as a surprise to fans of the classic SP-10, which also required additional components – like the tonearm – to be purchased alongside the deck, Panasonic have designed the new SP-10R to be backwards compatible, meaning that the new system is interchangeable with previous models.

That said, any savings made from integrating the SP-10R into your original set-up will be somewhat off-set by the price-tag, which What Hi-Fi expects to be in the region of $10,000.



The second turntable announced at CES 2018 is the SL-1000R, which adds a base and S-shaped tonearm for a more complete and recognisable turntable set-up. These components are expected to raise the price of the SL-1000R to around $20,000.

It remains to be seen whether Technics will follow-up these new Reference Class decks with more affordable variations, as was the case with the stunning and, somewhat controversial Technics SL-1200G, and subsequent cheaper SL-1200GR model. [via What Hi-Fi / Verge]