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Technics is a
brand name of the
Japan-based
Matsushita company. Under this name the company produces a variety of
hi-fi products, such as
turntables,
amplifiers,
audio receivers,
tape decks,
CD players and
speakers for sale in various countries. It was originally conceived
for a line of high-end audio equipment to go against such companies as
Nakamichi, but most of its home products have been rebranded as
Panasonic starting in 2002 (except in Japan, where the brand is still
popular). DJ equipment and electronic pianos are the only Technics
products currently being sold in the USA and Europe.
The name Technics came to widespread fame with the production of
turntables: in
1969 they introduced the SP-10, the first direct-drive model for the
professional market, and in 1971 the SL-1100 for the consumer market. The
SL-1100 was used by the influential
DJ Kool Herc for the first
sound system he set up after emigrating from
Jamaica to
New York. This latter model was the predecessor to the
SL-1200 which, as the upgraded SL-1200 Mk2, became a widely used
turntable by
DJs. The SL-1200 Mk2 was a robust machine and incorporated a
pitch control (or
vari-speed), and kept the speed constant and the speed variability
low, thus making it a popular tool with DJs.
The 1200 continues to evolve with the M3D series, followed by the MK5
series in 2003.
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