Panasonic is going to make Technics direct drive turntables again

Technics will come back in 2016 with a new turntable for DJs, parent company Panasonic reported at the IFA. It is a new direct drive turntable made of aluminum. The design is rebuilt from the ground up with new parts in all areas.

The new model thus succeeds the legendary Technics SL-1200, the last of which was produced in 2010. The appearance of the new turntable has to ‘respect’ its predecessor, Panasonic says in its press release.

Not much is known about the record player, but that it will again use a direct-drive mechanism, as has been used with a select part of the pick-ups since the 1970s. In this technique, the rotating part, the rotor, of the motor is directly connected to the turntable. The rotor consists of two discs with magnets that seem to create a magnetic field in the axial direction of the Technics motor. The stator, which is made up of coils, is located between the magnets of the rotors.

The stator that Technics says it will be using is coreless, minimizing unwanted torque ripples. Technics says it uses an oiled “high precision” bushing, which should further reduce the amount of vibration. The prototype has no arm or other elements yet.

Real details are still missing about the pick-up that should be released in 2016. One of the reasons Panasonic gives for developing a new turntable is that the demand for analog turntables and music is increasing, especially in the European, Japanese and North American markets. Panasonic rebranded Technics into a luxury audio brand in 2014.