technics is dead

The DJing community and the greater dance music scene mourns the loss of a clubbing staple today. No, Steve Aoki hasn’t hung up his record bag, but rather news has emerged that iconic turntable manufacturers Technics will be stopping production on their universally loved Technics 1200s and Technics 1210s.

In a statement re-posted on dance board Global Hardstyle, the company behind the production of the Technics turntables Panasonic announced that they would cease the manufacture of Tehcnics turntables in February next year, citing an increasing decline in sales as the motivation behind the line’s demise.

The Australian arm of Panasonic issued a similar statement today, expressing their disappointment that the brand’s 35 years-and-running legacy was to be put to bed.

“It is a sad day today but due to low sales globally in analogue turntables a decision to stop production has been made on Technics Turntables,” Panasonic spokesman Ian North explained. “For Australia this means we will receive our last shipment in March.”

With the disappearance of Technics decks now imminent it’s becoming increasingly clear that the digital juggernaut is showing no signs of slowing down. We’ve already heard from trance icon Tiesto how he’s abandoned the ‘outdated’ medium in favour and gone for the ease and accessibility of digital tune libraries. Indeed, the new (and might we just say super-sexy) CDJ-2000s from Pioneer look to be making things easier than ever before with USB stick functionality, employed just last weekend by another digital convert Sasha.

Whilst we’re sure the classic Technics turntables will live on in the hearts of many club-reverent folk out there – not to mention in more than a few purist clubs – it’s still a crushing blow to lose the decks, and if nobody minds, we’ll be bringing beer o’clock around early this Friday afternoon.

http://www.inthemix.com.au/news/intl/45075/Technics_is_dead

That's a shame really, but it was bound to happen some day. I reckon that if they lowered the price some years ago, they wouldn't have to do this.

jeeze louise I better get to making some $ so I can pick up one before the only place to get them is ebay.

  On 11/27/2009 at 8:07 PM, sneaksta303 said:

jeeze louise I better get to making some $ so I can pick up one two before the only place to get them is ebay.

Two my friend, two.

It's a shame they quit. I picked up an sl1200 last spring (i only need one, i don't dj) and i'm very happy with it.

this sucks

er, would they continue making tables but a new model?

  On 11/28/2009 at 1:15 AM, yek said:

er, would they continue making tables but a new model?

from the context of that article, i would say not.

the article keeps alluding to the "digital juggernaut", so to me that means no more Technics turntables at all

actually i take this back.

this smells like bullshit

don't sweat the technics

um, there's nothing online to indicate that this is true.

  On 11/28/2009 at 2:12 AM, Echo said:

don't sweat the technics

lol

  Quote

It's not very often that we have anything to post about Technics but rumours abound about the 1210MK5G being discontinued. So being the dutiful DJ hack that I am, rather than post rumour, I got FACTS. Clarification came from Panasonic UK to squash rumours. And It's not what you might think.

 

UPDATE: For those of you using this story as some sort of gospel to refute the current (Nov 29 2009) Technics is dead rumour - this piece was written nearly 3 YEARS AGO. And as it turns out, despite the official word from Panasonic UK, the MK5 is still in plentiful supply, thus casting some doubt on any Technics rumour to be honest. So stop quoting this over and over again.

 

So here goes - the 1200MK5 and 1210MK5 WILL be discontinued leaving the 1210MK5G as the top of the range and most definitely NOT discontinued. It never was a limited edition, just a flagship special edition model. And the 1200 and 1210 MK2 will continue as normal. So now there's some distance between the MK2 and MK5G models instead having a middle MK5 deck to confuse matters. So it's vanilla Technics or the more expensive piano black extra pitched blue light luxury model left in the range.

 

In this case, less choice is better. Now you can make a very clear decision about which Technics to buy. Well that's my opinion anyway.

 

http://www.skratchworx.com/news3/comments.php?id=603

There's absolutely no way this is true. If anything main line production will stop, but panasonic would create a sub-outlet for their analogue aficionados and independent producers.

  On 11/27/2009 at 9:25 PM, kanarie said:

It's a shame good they don't quit. I picked up an sl1200 last spring (i only need one, i don't dj) and i'm very happy with it.

fixed

you can do the same with serato

I call BS on them blaming Serato.

From 1996 to 2003ish every single douchebag on Earth decided they wanted to be a DJ - presumably Technics kept the factory pumping that whole time - so now the second hand market is utterly saturated with barely-used tech 12s from the aforementioned douchebags realising they never used their decks and they need weed/rent money.

Why would you buy a brand new tech 12 when you can get a nearly new ex-douchebag one for way less?

  On 12/15/2009 at 10:55 AM, analogue wings said:

I call BS on them blaming Serato.

 

From 1996 to 2003ish every single douchebag on Earth decided they wanted to be a DJ - presumably Technics kept the factory pumping that whole time - so now the second hand market is utterly saturated with barely-used tech 12s from the aforementioned douchebags realising they never used their decks and they need weed/rent money.

 

Why would you buy a brand new tech 12 when you can get a nearly new ex-douchebag one for way less?

Not to mention that even the ones that are used regularly are so durable that they can be used for decades. Ironically they might be halting production of them because they're too high quality of a product for their own good.

A friend of mine who first told me about Technics discontinuing the 1200s said that it's not the first time they've halted production on them. According to him there were times in the past when the market was saturated so they did the same thing.

  On 12/16/2009 at 7:06 AM, scones to die for said:

  On 12/15/2009 at 10:55 AM, analogue wings said:

I call BS on them blaming Serato.

 

From 1996 to 2003ish every single douchebag on Earth decided they wanted to be a DJ - presumably Technics kept the factory pumping that whole time - so now the second hand market is utterly saturated with barely-used tech 12s from the aforementioned douchebags realising they never used their decks and they need weed/rent money.

 

Why would you buy a brand new tech 12 when you can get a nearly new ex-douchebag one for way less?

Not to mention that even the ones that are used regularly are so durable that they can be used for decades. Ironically they might be halting production of them because they're too high quality of a product for their own good.

 

A friend of mine who first told me about Technics discontinuing the 1200s said that it's not the first time they've halted production on them. According to him there were times in the past when the market was saturated so they did the same thing.

erm, they're not halting production :)

thread has ascertained that this is yet another hoax

you mean the refuting post that refutes itself?

  Quote

UPDATE: For those of you using this story as some sort of gospel to refute the current (Nov 29 2009) Technics is dead rumour - this piece was written nearly 3 YEARS AGO. And as it turns out, despite the official word from Panasonic UK, the MK5 is still in plentiful supply, thus casting some doubt on any Technics rumour to be honest. So stop quoting this over and over again.

i seriously almost cried here. thank you for debunking the rumor. i learned to spin on technics almost 15 years ago, and even though i dont nowadays, i really felt that a part of my soul was dieing when i read that. technics 1200s forever!