Following weeks of rumours and speculation, Panasonic has confirmed that their Technics brand of turntables has been discontinued.
The Osaka-based technology company sent out the following statement yesterday:
Panasonic has confirmed that it ceased the production of its Technics-branded analogue turntables this autumn.Resident Advisor recently spoke with JC Faxas, the main DJ Buyer for Guitar Center Inc, the biggest distributor of Technics products in the United States. Based on meetings with Technics' vice president, he confirmed much of Panasonic's statement, especially that a shortage of essential parts was the key factor in their decision. "Panasonic had been using some of the same parts manufacturers for over 40 years and most had gone out of business, so it would be very difficult and expensive to get some of those parts in production once again."
After more than 35 years as a leading manufacturer of analogue turntables, Panasonic has regretfully taken the decision to leave this market. However, Panasonic will continue to sell headphones under the Technics brand.
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 fulfill future orders because of a lack of parts.
Panasonic employees who have been working on the analogue turntable range have been redeployed elsewhere within Panasonic – many of them continuing to work in Panasonic’s Audio Video Business Unit.
But after working directly with Technics for over a decade, Faxas also thinks the brand could have survived if Panasonic valued it more highly. "In my opinion, if Technics was a stand-alone company and not part of Panasonic, then there would be sufficient business for the company to continue. I feel that Technics has always been pocket change to Panasonic, whose upper management never took the DJ business seriously. The question now is whether a manufacturer will step up with a suitable alternative since there will never be a true replacement."
What's almost somewhat ironic about this article though, is that about a month back someone tried to argue with me that Vinyl was making a come back. Are you serious? Wrong! If Panasonic is discontinuing the manufacturing of the Technics line name then that should be an indication that the market for Vinyl is in a state of only appealing to the small demographic of collector's or the purists. It was sheer ignorance that I think someone stated that Vinyl is making a come back, to those of us who are DJs, especially the ones who rely on Vinyl, we know that Vinyl isn't making a come back, it's always been there but, the market has been growing steadily smaller and smaller. Many record shops are closing down due to many influencing factors - you can take your choice of who you want to blame, shareware, pirating, legal downloads, equipment that makes using digital files easier, and more accessible - I'm sure there are other factors, but that's for another time.
I did read in another article that Panasonic is going to keep the Technics brand alive by continuing to manufacture Technics Headphones. Yet, I'm sure that that is simply going to be just that - a rumor. Sharing my opinion of this article, it once again is truly a sad day for the DJ Industry. This will leave an open spot in the industry, and we can only hope that there is a manufacturer who may decide to step up to fill the soon to be missing void by creating an analog turntable that can quite possibly match the turntable that we've come to rely on, yet most of all - treasure for it's remarkable build. There are many a DJ out there that purchased their Technics SL1200's - and still to this day rely on the precision that has set an industry standard. Truly, this is one of those sad times where it's only appropriate to have a funeral for a 'dear friend' - without you, many of us would not be where we are today.
