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Turntables 101

I want to buy a pair of turntables but i dont' know where to start. I have a budget of 300 per unit. and would like to know what expect when i buy a turntable in this price range. I don't need a digital turntable seeing as i am going to plug it through the phono inputs on my numark DXM06 2-Channel Digital Mixer. also when buying a turntable should i buy a cartridge and needle or do most come with one. i was looking at numarks TT500's. I want a turntable thats good for scratching and only needs pitch control for matching beats. thanks for your time!

Stanton Str8-80s Ive heard had a reputation for being built for scratch, I have some Stanton Str8-30s and do the job just fine, scratching and mixing both. You can get them for about 250, with mounted headshells

for 300US per unit, you can get Used Tech12s for cheap, but that tt500 you were looking at will also be fine for mixing/scratching, its the same as the TTX but without the digital stuff, as for the Str-80, I don't think there to bad, but if your lookin at Stanton, look for the Str-150s, as for the Str-30, man that has hardly any torque for scratching, I ain't flaming you man, but either you are an amazing scratcher who can get around the lack of torque, or you can't scratch all that great to realise what there like, I had a pair of Soundlab decks that had the same torque, you could mix with them (but have to be on the pitch the whole time) but theres no way you could scratch with them, as soon as you let the record go it takes like 5 seconds to get back upto speed.

Best of luck man, you got the cash to get some fine decks.

Okay, seriously, there are about 349032093209 threads currently asking the same question. It's getting a little out of hand.

I have a TTX and a TT500 and I can tell you that the TT500 is a monster when it comes to torque. It actually has more than the TTX. Pitch control is analog, so that shouldn't be any different than anything else out there. Wow and flutter is greater on the Numarks than on Technics but I don't have any problem mixing with them. The only area that they remain unproven in is reliability, and only time will tell that. For your budget, I think the TT500 is a great value.

EDIT:

I should add though, if you ever are interested in playing out though, most clubs (from what I've heard, not from experieince) usually have Technics as they are the industry mainstay. As I get more and more involved in mixing this has become a concern for me, as I've never touched another turntable beside my own. I know it may not seem important now (I know it didn't for me when I bought mine) but it likely will if you ever wish to play in front of an audience. Something to consider.

i have a quick question how long have you had the tt500s and did they come with a cartridge and all the materials needed to play a record? did it come with a slip plate? also was installing it a pain or was the cartridge already on like the stantons.

I've had the table now since March. It does not come with a cartridge; that must be purchased seperately but, it does come with a slipmat, albeit not the best.

I bought a complete cartridge so all I head to do was attach it to the tone-arm. In that regards, it was very easy to set up.

what cartridge did you buy also how much would a case cost so dust doesn't get in while the turntables aren't in use. I also am considering buying a used technics sl-1200mk2 off ebay for the same price, would that be my best way to go.

quote:

Originally posted by spdandpwr what cartridge did you buy also how much would a case cost so dust doesn't get in while the turntables aren't in use. I also am considering buying a used technics sl-1200mk2 off ebay for the same price, would that be my best way to go.

If its in good condition, then you can't go wrong, the TT500 is a great deck, but they use the Techs in world DJ battles (mainly cos Tech sponsors them) and those scratchers have no trouble, really you can't go wrong with either deck, but for piece of mind, I'd recommend the Tech as there proven.

How much is the Tech???

EDIT: I'm not sure if there are cases for those Numark decks, I've never seen any, but I could be wrong.

quote:

Originally posted by spdandpwr what cartridge did you buy also how much would a case cost so dust doesn't get in while the turntables aren't in use. I also am considering buying a used technics sl-1200mk2 off ebay for the same price, would that be my best way to go.

I bought a Numark CS-1 cartirdge as it was my first forray into mixing records. I wanted to get a decent cart that I wouldn't feel bad about ruining being that I was new. I don't think that cart would be good for you though, since it is not necessarily a scratching cart.

Getting a good used Technic is not a bad deal at all. My only concern wouldn't be with the product but rather with purchasing thru Ebay. With something used like that, I would like to have the opportunity to see it and test it out prior.

Regarding a case, I don't know. But here is a link for you:

Link Here

and there are alot more places like that online too.

what i mean by case is a dust cover so dust doesn't get in.

heres the LINK to the table i am looking at. Also i was thinking of buying stanton s-250 cd players for a temporary fix til january where i can buy the technics for 500 new!

As far as I know, there is no dust cover for the Numarks.

That table you linked looks like a good deal; my guess is that the bidding will get pretty competitive though. Ebay is a hotbed for djs looking for deals. If you are able to get it though, I think that would be top-notch.

On the cd players however, I would just save the money and wait until January for the Techs and not worry about the mean time. Be patient a bit and save your dough.

yea, you ain't gonna find dust covers for the numarks, that tech looks in great condition, you should go for it if the price stays low, and don't bother on the CD player, I've heard bad things about that CD player, just use a portable cd player and play a cd into one side of a mixer and then mix in with a record on your deck when you get one, and save up for another turntable or a high quality cdj.

so far i like your advice and i think i will buy either technics 1200mk2 or stanton st8-80+520. also should i get final scratch as opposed to a cd player. Also does final scratch not allow me to use my computer again. so can i have my music i have in my computer and all my files stay the same and still have final scratch i read the instruction manual and it said something about creating a partition in a fat32 format. But my hardive is nfsd(sp?)so what do i do. Is there something that is like final scratch. someone on these forums has RANE Serato Scratch Live v1.1.3, whats that about?

Oh man, I hate to tell you but, I don't know a single thing about Final Scratch. I haven't started looking in that direction yet but I know that it is becoming more and more popular with djs since you can essentially create an archive of your vinyl that will never wear out when you play it. For me, if it came down to a choice between cd player and FS, I think I would choose cd player but I can't give you any reason why, i'm just going on feel.

quote:

Originally posted by spdandpwr so far i like your advice and i think i will buy either technics 1200mk2 or stanton st8-80+520. also should i get final scratch as opposed to a cd player. Also does final scratch not allow me to use my computer again. so can i have my music i have in my computer and all my files stay the same and still have final scratch i read the instruction manual and it said something about creating a partition in a fat32 format. But my hardive is nfsd(sp?)so what do i do. Is there something that is like final scratch. someone on these forums has RANE Serato Scratch Live v1.1.3, whats that about?

Well it really depends, if your after just playing tracks, then I would go for the software solution, CDJs are great and if you got a CDJ1000 you would have a killer CD deck that is used in most clubs, I'm prolly gonna get a CDJ soon, but mainly for playing samples and making loops, if I was just gonna be playing tracks back and forth then I would go for something like FS.

So about FS, well its an awesome application...when it works, it has many compatibility problems, and the sound isn't to great because of the cheap scratch amp, if you want to go into this direction, look into Rane SSL, or hold off since there is alot of competition coming out, so you might be able to get a better product for cheap.

About what it will do with your computer, the old FS system used to have you install a second operating system that had the FS software on board, you could still use your pc like normal, you would just have to select to boot into windows, but that has changed since FS V1.5, now it is a windows app and you can have your computer completely normal, this is the same with the rest of the different Vinyl Emulation products that are coming out, they all run on windows now, so you got nothign to worry about, its pretty much as simple as installing MS office, but with abit of hardware setup.

Hope this helps, if you have anymore questions, be sure to shoot them this way.

So what your saying is for me to basically wait off and then buy a final scratch type of app when they become more popular, cheaper, and better sounding. this means i should skip buying cd players and go straight for turntables. I was thinking of buying cd players and having turntables but final cratch based programs would defeat that. now i just have to wait for turntables. thanks for your help. Does anyone have any suggestions for turntables. High torque and good for scratching

Yea basically, you can use these apps on CDJs aswell, but for what you seem to want, 2 turntables and a FS type app would be the best I think.

As for choice of turntables, you really can't go wrong with second hand Techs (doesn't matter on model), TTX, TT500, Str8-100 and Str-150, and Vestax decks, there all good at mixing and scratching.

I now am positive that i will save up and buy to technics sl-1200mk2's for 399 a pop. the only thing i need now are headphones and vinyl.

i was looking at turntables again and i saw that stanton offers the st-100 and the str8-100 now i want to know what are the differences besides the obivious being the tone-arm shapes. also what cartridge would you guys reccommend for it. A cartridge thats easy to scratch with and has good sound quality.

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