I remember when Panasonic, the parent company of Technics, released a statement a few years ago about why they were discontinuing production of this turntable. Bottom line, people did not want it. Folks wanted players from boutique builders. No doubt, consumers saw the Technics product as a hold over from the 1970's; and, the product's molded plastic look apparently lost appeal to those who thought a basic from the likes of Rega and Project was cooler. At any rate, the SL-1200 turntable is IMHO not a four thousand dollar product. I'd even question it being a value at five hundred dollars.
