Status, October 2026: current. Technics still sells it.
What it is
The SL-1200MK7 is a direct-drive DJ turntable from Technics, the Panasonic brand. Panasonic announced it on 14 March 2019 as the first new model in the SL-1200MK series in 11 years, following the SL-1200MK6 of 2008, and it went on sale in Japan on 24 May 2019 (Panasonic press release, Technics specification sheet). It keeps the button layout, platter feel and outer dimensions of the earlier MK models and borrows technology from Technics' hi-fi SL-1200G. It launched in black, and Technics later added a silver finish.
A coreless direct-drive motor, designed to avoid cogging, gives 0.18 N·m of starting torque and reaches 33⅓ rpm from standstill in 0.7 seconds. Torque and brake speed each adjust in four steps. It plays at 33⅓ and 45 rpm, with 78 rpm and reverse play enabled by switches on the unit, and the pitch control covers ±8% or ±16%. The chassis has two layers, glass-fibre-reinforced ABS and aluminium die-cast, on spring-and-rubber insulators, and the aluminium die-cast platter weighs about 1.8 kg with its slipmat.
The S-shaped universal static-balance tonearm has a 230 mm effective length, 0 to 6 mm height adjustment and a head shell for cartridges of 5.6 to 12.0 g. The phono and power cables unplug from the deck; the only audio output is a gold-plated phono RCA pair with an earth terminal, so it needs a mixer's phono input or a phono stage. It measures 453 x 169 x 353 mm and weighs about 9.6 kg.
The box holds the turntable, slipmat, slipsheet, dust cover, 45 adaptor, balance weight, head shell, cartridge screws, phono cable, earth lead, power cord and owner's manual. No cartridge is included.