Technics SL-1410MK2 (late 1970s)

The SL-1410MK2 is one of the less-documented Technics turntables of the late 1970s. The record that survives is a retail listing and a second marketplace listing, and the two only partly overlap. One identifies it as a Japanese-made LP player from 1978. The other sketches the specification sheet. No period test reports or owner reviews have surfaced.

The retail listing describes a fully automatic, quartz-locked direct-drive deck. It has a heavy die-cast aluminum platter and a brushless DC servo motor, with electronic speed control for 33⅓ and 45 RPM. Claimed figures are wow and flutter of ≤0.025% WRMS and a signal-to-noise ratio of ≥78 dB (DIN-B). The tonearm is a static-balanced S-shape with adjustable tracking force and anti-skating. The example listed wears an Ortofon FF15EO MkII moving-magnet cartridge in a WEGA headshell. Weight is about 9.8 kg, and output is RCA plus ground.

Almost everything above traces to one source - headphones.lt - which lists a tested, working example at €550 and calls the model one of Technics' most respected vintage decks, with audiophile-grade performance. Those are a seller's claims, not an independent verdict. The gaps beyond them are real: no original price, no dimensions, no production-run dates, no maintenance lore. The Meshok.net entry adds only the 1978 date and Japanese origin.