So, I’ve had the Technics SL-1300G in my system for roughly a year and I am more than content.

I contemplated the 1200/1210G but couldn’t make a case for needing the strobe or the pitch adjustment as I'm unlikely to start collecting 78 RPM shellacs. Besides, I get most of the performance of the 1200G (ΔΣ-Drive, Coreless direct drive motor, and three-layer platter) and I prefer the minimal good looks of the SL-1300G.

My Luna Cables Gris loom made the transition, as did the Ortofon Concorde Music Bronze cartridge and the Ortofon SM-101 cork/rubber hybrid mat. Being an inveterate analogue empiricist, I was determined to extract maximum performance from my new deck.

I first changed out the SM-101 in favour of the MITMAT Premium twin tier mat. This Canadian made mat employs PVC microcell technology to dissipate spurious energy that will negatively affect playback. Combined with an Ortofon record stabilizer, more music emerged LP after LP. Not quite a new record collection, but you get the idea. I think the fact that the stylus/LP interface floats on 6mm thick shock absorber is a big contributor.

According to Ortofon, the Bronze level is where the magic happens. Be it a 2M, a Concorde, or a Cadenza, these cartridges offer musicality, clarity, and excellent tonality not afforded to their more modest stable mates. But there’s always better, right? I thought about trying one of the new MC X moving coils as I’d recently installed a few of the MC X40 cartridges and was very impressed. Under $1500, this is a serious moving coil cartridge. In the end I landed on an Ortofon SPU.

Ortofon SPUs have been in continuous production since 1958 and, for some, they are the only way to truly enjoy records. I don’t disagree as I have been enjoying an Ortofon Synergy SPU-A on my rebuilt Garrard 301 for the last fifteen years. While the 301 is not the most mechanically refined deck, the sound is rich, weighty and colourful, and I wanted a “modern” version of that. For the 1300G I settled on the newest SPU, the Ortofon GTXE.

The GTX is a SPU with a twist. In a nod to modernity, it features an elliptical stylus profile for improved detail retrieval and better tracking. The neat trick with the GTX is that Lundahl MC step-up transformers are built into the cartridge, raising the output to 4.0mV, making it compatible with the excellent MM-only phono section of my Naim NAIT50.

This incarnation of the SL-1300G provides plenty of detail and musical insight. It’s quiet in the groove and an assured tracker, delivering a richly instrumented soundscape, making it easier to focus on the music. But it’s that extra tonal density and colour, provided in part by the GTX-E, that seals the deal. This deck is immensely listenable and that has to be a win.