Hi-Fi World – September 2019

SOUND QUALITY
I connected the SL-1500C Line out
to Line in of our Creek Evolution
100A amplifier, feeding Martin
Logan ESL-X hybrid electrostatic
loudspeakers through Chord
Company cables.
The rhythmic confidence
and temporal progress of Hugh
Masekela’s Uptownship flagged up
Direct Drive straight away. Trumpet
and percussion were forward and
vivacious. With this fabulously well
recorded and dynamic track on
an Analogue Productions 180gm
LP (33rpm) that I use often and
know well, there was a flattening
of perspectives and a hardness of
tone that wasn’t too analogue like.
Very upfront, apparently clean and
clear but a little distant from silky or
relaxing – even as budget turntables
go.
Synthesiser based music becomes
more temporally solid with Direct-
Drive and I heard that clearly with
Alison Goldfrap’s Lovely to CU, from
the LP Supernature. Metronomic
percussion took hard form and had
an insistent quality that drove the
track along. No belt drive vagueness
here!
The easy going Brothers in
Arms LP from Mobile Fidelity, a
45rpm/180gm re-master from the
analogue tapes, had fairly obvious
bass lines due to raised bass in
the phono amplifier, but nothing
excessive. Otherwise this LP came
over as fulsome and laconic as always.
After spinning a host of LPs it
was Neil Young’s After the Goldrush
(180gm re-master from the analogue
tapes) that best showed there was
some treble glare and a slightly hard
quality in the sound. So I swapped
the Ortofon 2M Red for an Audio

Technica VM95ML (MicroLine stylus)

in Audio Technica headshell. This

brought a softer and easier sound,

free of glare, and with more internal

detail to strummed and plucked

strings from Neil Young’s acoustic

guitar. All round there was more

going on at high frequencies, although

the sound wasn’t so forcefully

explicit.

The arm is not pin-point in its

sound stage imaging, yet at the same

time it did put up a big wide stage

between our Martin Logan’s XStat

electrostatic panels. You get all the

wonder of vinyl if not in honed form.

I’m told by Sound Hi-Fi who have

inspected the SL-1500C that the

arm cannot be changed, as it can on

Technics more expensive (slightly)

models.

As a package Technics SL-1500C

offers a modern take, shall I say, on

vinyl. Think confident timing, obvious

bass and an upfront portrayal. There’s

little warm romance but a cartridge

change can alter this.

CONCLUSION

In a nutshell, Technics new SL-1500C

budget Direct Drive turntable has a

wonderful motor and platter assembly

• but a mediocre arm. Ortofon’s 2M
  Red cartridge is what it is and can
  be changed, as can the cosmetically
  unfortunate headshell, but the arm
  cannot be changed. It is satisfactory
  for purpose but could easily be made
  better with internal damping, better
  headshell and arm rest.
  The SL-1500C looks good, feels
  good and has an air of quality about it,
  but the arm lets the package down I
  feel.

TECHNICS

SL-1500C £899

EXCELLENT - extremely

capable.

VERDICT

Sophisticated turntable,

mediocre arm, capable

cartridge.

FOR

• forward and revealing


• rock stable speed


• auto stop

AGAINST

• resonant arm


• low arm rest


• lacks typical vinyl sound

Technics

+44 (0)333 222 8777

http://www.technics.com/uk

http://www.hi-fiworld.co.uk SEPTEMBER 201 9 HI-FI WORLD 87

VINYL SECTION

Speed accuracy was near perfect and

speed variation very low, measuring

0.05% (weighted) at rotational frequency

(0.55Hz/33rpm) our analysis shows;

there was no wander of speed over time

(24 hrs). This is a European (German)

DIN figure derived from DIN 45-452 test

disc. With Japanese JIS weightings,

that give better figures than DIN and

are used by Technics, wow and flutter

measured 0.03% (weighted), matching

and validating their quoted value. The

SL-1500C has superb speed stability

• better than all else, whatever figures
  are used.
  Our analysis identifies a cogging
  component at 6.6Hz (0.55rpm x 12pole),
  but it has been suppressed to inconse-

quential level.

The arm has a pronounced main

bending mode at 300Hz, analysis with a

Bruel&Kjaer accelerometer attached to

the headshell showed. The arm tube is

not especially well damped but in line

with expected from a budget arm. Some

coloration will result.

The internal phono stage had a low

gain of x77 (38dB) at 1kHz (x100 is a

target figure) and 7.3V out maximum,

making input overload 95mV – far above

the 30mV an Ortofon 2M Red can deliver.

Gain of x77 gives 400mV out from 5mV

in, sufficient for most amplifier Line

inputs.

Frequency response (equalisation

accuracy) has been tailored to give slight

bass boost (+1dB) our analysis shows,

enough to give subtly stronger bass than

rivals.

Ortofon’s 2M Red cartridge

measured flat to 12.5kHz; our AT VM95

ML alternative rolled down slightly but

reached 16kHz (Adjust+ test disc, pink

noise). Tracking was good at 70μm max

on Clearaudio's test disc, confirming

Ortofon's quoted value.

The Technics SL-1500C was as

speed stable as their more expensive

models, and above most else. The arm

is a so-so budget design without merit.

Ortofon’s 2M Red budget MM cartridge

does a good job, having flat frequency

response plus adequate tracking ability.

NK

Speed error +0.1%

Wow (unwtd) 0.08%

Flutter 0.04%

Wow & Flutter (wtd) 0.05%

MEASURED PERFORMANCE

FREQUENCY RESPONSE

SPEED VARIATION (W&F)

0.1

0.05

0.02

W&F

Rotational rate

0.55Hz

I

(%)

0

frequency (Hz) 5 10

Speed variations

0.5 1

The arm sits on a large circular

black base that moves verti-

cally, position being shown by a

metric scale – seen here.