Technics Sl-Dl1 worth upgrading

Mctaorluath

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I have a Technics sldl1 linear turnt20211203_143412.jpgable in good condition. I have recently upgraded my amp to audiolab 6000a and speakers to Dali opticon 1 mk2s. My turntable now sounds average compared to my cd player with regards to seperation and detail. Using an audio technica at85 ep cartridge at present. Would it be worth upgrading cartridge, hardware of the table etc, or should I get a different table.
 
You have a decent cartridge fitted but just wondered how old it is.
Usually I would suggest a cartridge upgrade as a start but the P mount certainly does not help selecting a replacement so perhaps best to sell the deck on if it is no longer doing it for you.
 

Mctaorluath

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You have a decent cartridge fitted but just wondered how old it is.
Usually I would suggest a cartridge upgrade as a start but the P mount certainly does not help selecting a replacement so perhaps best to sell the deck on if it is no longer doing it for you.
Thanks for your reply. The cartridge/stylus are about 6 months old and listen about 5 hours a week.
 

Rui

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this turntable is a problem in what concerns it´s upgrading due to it´s technics linear tracking system that if you take the cartridge it would stop following the grooves in perfection ,even a new stylus can´t cover the microprocessor hole in the cartridge ,the proper stylus would have a litle hole in the plastic part, i have one of this but don´t use it since the late 80´s i ofered it to the listening room of a radio station i help in the begining and worked for 35 years. But, i remenber it having a very clean and perfect sound this with a amplifier that had a good phono stage ,today´s amplifiers are very bad to conect turntables unless if it´s a expensive amplifier like the high-end of sony ES that i had for 4 years in the 90´s that with no tone controls on it gave my turntable from pioneer bought in 74 and at the time i also bought a new top of the line cerwin-vegas not that they had a special sound but worked perfect with this amplifier this in high volume because i conected a pair of early 70´s celestion or kenwood before the new ones arrived to my home ,i don´t remenber well but they also delivered good sound with this ES amplifier but being very old the new ones gave a more dynamic sound, those more budget friendly amp.´s deliver very bad sound and people just start to spend money on pre-amplifiers or upgrading cartridge and stylus ,if it was possible to conect one´s new turntable with pre-amplifier or not and improved cartridges with new stylus eliptical or conical it would have a perfect sound in a average amplifier from the 70´s ,i´ve tried several from diferent brands and all give a clean sound to any good turntable or built well no matter the price, also new turntables don´t have the output quality of a beginers 70´s turntable ,as an example a friend of mine bought a pro-ject with carbon fiber kind of S-shape arm ,he didn´t had turntable since early 80´s and it had upgraded it with a new cartridge and styles from sumiko ,the oyster ,my surprise was when hearing it ,it seemed a toy turntable from CHICO and i notice that the parts missing in a simple turntable were all available for sale on pro-ject site ,for it to have the sound of a new pl-12d from pioneer all original i had to re-built the output sound board and that´s when it started to sound as a turntable aceptable type ,this to say yours in original condition would work much better than a 1.000€ pro-ject turntable + cartridge and stylus almost 500€ ,the only advice i can give you is only to buy the stylus that came with the turntable (normally there´s a litle sticker with the stylus reference if not just look for it that is almost standart type to those turntables ) also buy a pre-amplifier if you have one just a new stylus,i can tell you that i needed one when for 35€ i´ve ordered from china a tube pre-amplifier ,i had nothing to loose and tried ,one day i receive a package with it ,only had to assemble it very easy and a incredible good sound started to appear ,while a pro-ject pre-amplier that cost almost 200€ had not even half of the quality, hope i helped ,sorry for my bad english, i´m portuguese ,regards
 
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Rui

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Mar 23, 2021
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I have a Technics sldl1 linear turntView attachment 3044able in good condition. I have recently upgraded my amp to audiolab 6000a and speakers to Dali opticon 1 mk2s. My turntable now sounds average compared to my cd player with regards to seperation and detail. Using an audio technica at85 ep cartridge at present. Would it be worth upgrading cartridge, hardware of the table etc, or should I get a different table.
just one more thing , in all my systems no matter if the cd player is top quality the turntable always sound much better to the point of having to stop hearing music ,because if i change from the turntable for the cd player the cd sounds so less dynamic and poor that one will wonder if something started to work bad in the amplifier this with a professional thorens from 1970 with a late 70´s cartridge and stylus from shure that at the time was very expensive and the high-end from TEAC cd players in 89, with a integrated amplifier from 79 a Pioneer sa-608 with a pair of mission 761 4ohms speakers from late 80´s, regards
 

ifor

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The SL-DL1 is a great turntable. My daughter has one and uses a Technics P22 cartridge with a Thakker replacement stylus. I currently have the same cartridge on a modified Lenco L75 TT using a Rega RB301 tonearm. I think my son is using a Stanton cartridge on his SL-QL1. I would try a decent phonostage before considering changes to the TT.
 

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