Technics SL-DZ1200 Silver Digital Direct Drive DJ Turntable System

Technics entry into the Digital Turntable market, the SL-DZ1200 is definitely making a big splash into the CD turntable market! Equipped with a variety of great features and the same trusted direct drive motor as Technics vinyl turntables, the SL-DZ1200 is a great piece of equipment.

Condition: Excellent
Working perfectly, runs on 240V AU Power and Comes with plug.

The Technics SL-DZ1200 is the first Technics DJ CD player, and it took them an extra long time to release it. However, it was definitely worth the wait! The SL-DZ1200 is a very pleasing digital Tabletop CD-DJ deck to look at: it’s very individual, and provides one of the best vinyl turntable-simulation CD experience of all the leading single CD-DJ tabletop players. The main reason for this statement is that the motor and platter have been built around the original analog Technics SL-1200 motor.

This feature also gives the SL-DZ1200 an instant familiarity. It allows DJs that are still hesitant to picking up CDs over vinyl to surely change their mind (or at least give it a try). In addition to the original SL-1200 motor, the spinning platter is one of the largest available on a single tabletop CD-DJ player at 10 inches. The platter on this table is the second largest platter available and the biggest being on the Numark CDX and HDX. The Slip disc surface that is used for scratching is very similar to a vinyl record. 

These players have many, many features crammed onto its top panel along with the display and slip disc surface. Despite being a relatively small machine (smaller than the Pioneer CDJ-1000Mk2, but bigger than the Denon DN-S5000), It still delivers all of the features DJ’s want.

The display screen in the center of the Slip Disc surface is able to rotate 360 degrees, so you can have a variety of set-up positions to suit the DJ’s individual preference. It’s unlikely that anyone would actually use this feature, but if you were using these decks for scratching, you might want to rotate one of them so that both start/stop buttons are as close as possible to the mixer’s crossfader.

There are two playback modes on the Technics SL-DZ1200: CD or turntable. A DJ might need to flip between the two settings in order to take full advantage of everything the SL-DZ1200 has to offer. You will use the unit’s turntable-simulation feature when you want to scratch and DJ on the fly, but to operate the platter controlled effects you need to select ‘CD’ mode (possibly for mixing).

The SL-DZ1200 also has seamless loop function positioned on the central panel near the display. In addition to the loop function; there is also a real-time record feature linked to the (4) cue pads and (4) sample pads. This is an excellent, easy-to-use tool, with the cue function allowing DJs to do extremely fast mixing and remixing, while the sampling function (four 10-second pads) allows the DJ to record and replay samples to create an original mix!

The Technics SL-DZ1200 also has ‘vinyl simulation’ and ‘dynamic FX’. Vinyl Simulation simulates various analog systems, like the output of an SL1200 turntable, a range of different cartridge types as well as radio and telephone settings. DJ’s will most likely set it on Analog SL-1200 and leave it there.

The Dynamic FX function provides nice selection of effects; some can be used in turntable mode, BUT some of them are platter-controlled which means you will need to switch the unit into CD mode to use them. It just so happens that these are the best effects, such as TT Pan, which pans the sound depending on the platter movements.

The pitch controls gives the DJ all the control they could ever need, with an adjustable range of +/-8, 16, 33 and 50%, plus there’s a reset button (like the SL1200’s quartz lock) and a pitch lock control.