This Technics SP-10R turntable just set a new standard for sound

This week the folks at Technics announced a new turntable, the SP-10R, a Reference Class Direct Drive Turntable with top-level specs. Delivered in early Summer 2018, this device is the company's newest most premium analogue, direct drive turntable – the best of the best. Back in 2016 the standard was set with the SL-1200GAE/G, then in 2017 came the SL-1200GR.

The SP-10R turntable works with the world's best S/N (signal-to-noise) ratio as well as rotational stability. The best in the world as of August 30th, 2017 (according to a Technics survey,) is a S/N ratio of 92 dB and wow & flutter of 0.015%. We can safely assume that this SP-10R unit will out-perform the previous best figures here when we hear the product in 2018.

The 7kg heavy platter in the SP-10R uses the same combination of elements used on the SL-1200G. That's brass, aluminum die-cast and deadening rubber. These are run by a new coreless direct drive motor that uses a two-sided rotor drive system just as the SL-1200G did. This motor also utilizes stator coils on either side of the rotor – Panasonic suggests that this delivers a "more powerful and accurate sound."

These are the guts of Technics 2015 reference model turntable

An "ultra-low-noise" switching power supply is used here to suppress humming and vibrations present when using a transformer. This power supply is also separate from the main turntable – further preventing unwanted noise from reaching the final sound delivery.

Another interesting titbit from Technics – "The SP-10MK2 was introduced in 1975 as a successor to the SP-10 turntable (released in 1970) that featured a direct-drive system for the first time in the world. It was not only favoured by audiophiles around the world but also used by broadcasting stations in some 30 countries in professional applications."

This new SP-10R unit will be interchangeable with systems using the SP10MK2 (released in 1975) and the SP-10MK3 (1981). Technics also suggests that they'll be making a complete turntable system based on SP-10R with a tonearm and other components – soon!