For years they were the DJ's deck of choice, and one member of the team here on whathifi.com even managed to drop his down four flights of stairs, yet – apart from a few scratches – it carried on working perfectly.
Sadly, the SL-1200's days are numbered. Technics has officially announced it will end production of all its analogue turntables this autumn. If you still have one, hang on to it: it's bound to become a classic.
"After more than 35 years as a leading manufacturer of analogue turntables, Panasonic [Technics' parent company] has regretfully taken the decision to leave this market," a spokeswoman told whathifi.com.
"We are sure that retailers and consumers will understand that our product range has to reflect the accelerating transformation of the entire audio market from analogue to digital.
"In addition, the number of component suppliers serving the analogue market has dwindled in recent years and we brought forward the decision to leave the market rather than risk being unable to fulfil future orders because of a lack of parts."
However, Panasonic will continue to sell headphones under the Technics brand.
Do you own a Technics turntable? Have you still got it? Let us know in the Comments box below.