Technics updates its five-star SL-1500C direct drive turntable with premium technology for better sonic performance

Technics SL-1500CS turntable
(Image credit: Technics)

The Technics SL-1500C direct drive turntable has been a favourite of ours for many years, picking up a few What Hi-Fi? Awards and earning a spot on our best turntables list ever since we first reviewed it in 2019.

And now, an updated version has arrived in the form of the Technics SL-1500CS. This new record player carries on many of the hallmarks of the 1500C – an iron-coreless direct drive, built-in phono stage, S-shaped tonearm and rock-solid build – and features new technology first seen its more premium models.

The ΔΣ-Drive (Delta-Sigma) drive technology we first encountered in the SL-1200GR2 and Award-winning SL-1300G has now made its way into the 1500CS model. This technology aims to further reduce motor vibrations and aid rotation accuracy to deliver a more stable and accurate performance from your records.

Technics SL-1500CS turntable

(Image credit: Technics)

The existing direct drive motor used in Technics turntables already accounts for unwanted vibrations and 'cogging' effects that affect vinyl replay. The ΔΣ-Drive technology uses the brand's experience with signal processing to provide the motor with a purer, low-noise power feed, which further ensures "motor vibration components are reduced to an absolute minimum."

Frank Balzuweit, Senior Product Manager at Technics Europe, explains: “The ΔΣ-Drive technology, taking sophisticated signal processing techniques used in our full-digital Technics amplifiers, is all about eliminating motor vibrations down to the very limits of measurable. Therefore, especially lighter turntable platforms, using lighter platter constructions, benefit greatly from the vibration elimination of the ΔΣ-Drive. Through this, the new SL-1500CS achieves sonic performance levels far beyond the perceived standards of its class.”

Technics SL-1500CS turntable

(Image credit: Technics)

Elsewhere, the robust structure of the five-star SL-1500 is carried through in the new model. The aluminium die-cast chassis is combined with ABS and glass fibre for rigidity and vibration control. The S-shaped aluminium tonearm returns, as does the automatic arm lift function, and the deck comes fitted with the Ortofon 2M Red moving magnet cartridge.

As before, you get a switchable MM phono stage built into the turntable, which allows flexibility for your system matching.

Whereas the outgoing SL-1500C was available in black, silver and white finishes, the new SL-1500CS will be available in a metallic grey finish.

The new Technics SL-1500CS will be available from March 2026, costing £1099. We tested the original 1500C for £899 back in 2019, when it was Technics' entry-level deck, a position now usurped by the Bluetooth-toting SL-40CBT.

We're excited to find out if the new SL-1500CS surpasses its Award-winning siblings' performance once we get a review sample into our test rooms.

MORE:

Read our original Technics SL-1500C review

12 of the most exciting products I saw at the Bristol Hi-Fi Show 2026

Technics modernises its direct drive turntable with a contemporary design and Bluetooth streaming

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Kashfia Kabir
Hi-Fi and Audio Editor

Kashfia is the Hi-Fi and Audio Editor of What Hi-Fi? and first joined the brand 13 years ago. During her time in the consumer tech industry, she has reviewed hundreds of products (including speakers, amplifiers, turntables and headphones), been to countless trade shows across the world and fallen in love with hi-fi kit much bigger than her. In her spare time, Kash can be found tending to an ever-growing houseplant collection and shooing her cat away from spinning records.

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