WhereIsAtlas · Hi-fi audio equipment

Technics

Maker of the SL-1200 turntable — the instrument that built hip-hop

Transformed — Retired by Panasonic in 2010, then revived in 2014 as a premium audio brand.

Technics is Panasonic's hi-fi brand, launched in 1965 and immortalised in 1972 with the SL-1200 direct-drive turntable. Its torque, pitch control and near-indestructible build made it the default tool of DJs, and in the hands of Bronx and Detroit pioneers it became the instrument behind scratching, hip-hop and techno.

As vinyl collapsed in the CD era, Panasonic quietly let the brand lapse: the SL-1200 was discontinued in 2010 and Technics shelved. But vinyl's revival changed the calculation, and in 2014 engineer Michiko Ogawa led a relaunch at IFA Berlin with a new Reference Class line.

The 2016 SL-1200GR brought the legend back at a mass-market price, and Technics today sits in a booming vinyl market, shipping turntables, amplifiers and network players to a generation that never stopped asking where the brand went.

Quick facts

Brand launched
1965, by Panasonic (Matsushita)
Icon product
SL-1200 turntable (1972)
Brand discontinued
2010
Revived
IFA Berlin, Sep 2014
Relaunch lead
Michiko Ogawa

Sources

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