The Great Turntable Debate

So, I'm in the market. Naturally, my first inclination was towards 1210s (M5Gs, oh yes please! I love the blue LED purdiness of them. Realistically will probably go for MK2s though coz of price and availability innit...), but I had a couple tings I thought I would throw out there...

1. Do you own, or have you used turnies you've found comparable in terms of durability?

2. Any that you prefer because of their functionality (bells & whistles)?

3. Any you have seen that have stood up under extreme pressure?

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is 2009 and I'm asking about turntables

The only feature worth mentioning is the lock button instead of the Bermuda style lock in the middle of the pitch control.

Yeah, that I find annoying!

as well you should be. always gravitate back towards to the turnies.. and now that the serato / traktor revolution is firmly cemented, it can be vinyl 4 lyfe!

Pretty easy to remove that yourself though. And change the LEDs to fucken rad blue ones!

Boh!

Years ago I owned a pair of Vestax PDX A2's (the vertical straight arm units).
They (well to me anyway) were the closest Ive ever come to 1210's, for durability and performance.
They got nicked and I got some Mk5's.
Technics FTW!

Ah so you got it sorted huh? Sweet! Mayhap I can go down the 1210 MK2 path and purdy it up myself then

LeKnight - Dr. J used to be fond of Vestax as well. He said the upper crust Vestax gear was comparable to Technics. I have used Numark TTX's too which are alright, but I swear they've added lead weights to the things to make them heavier creating the illusion of being more sturdy like Technics...

Yeah I checked out the Numark's (gold colored ones) the sales person was like "Yeah man they are just like technics bla bla"
But I reckon the motor wasnt as grunty, it was direct drive but it felt like belt drive.

Yeah, I've only found the TTXs to have decent torque. And it's adjustable as well which is pretty cool. But theyre still Numark

1. Do you own, or have you used turnies you've found comparable in terms of durability?
No. The Vestax come close, but i hate the height of the platter. Used a Citronic once that was close, but the sound quality coming out of it was mud.

2. Any that you prefer because of their functionality (bells & whistles)?
No, bells and whistles are a waste of time. + - 8 all you need.

3. Any you have seen that have stood up under extreme pressure?
Never. My mk2s have travelled around the uk, australia and back to NZ, had cocaine, candle wax, beer, hash, tobacco and liquid acid, poured on them, been dropped down stairs, had a sub dropped on them, fallen off a stage, and still lasted the distance.
Technics for life, and i have tried all the rest.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it is 2009 and I'm asking about turntables

My mate from the UK reckons when he moved over here, his 1210's were at the bottom of the shipping container (containing his stuff) and when the forkhoist lifted the crate, it broke and one of his decks were stuck in between the forks and the rest of his stuff, holding up all of his gear with one turnie, and it still works properly to this day.

Not totally sorted. Still cant find the right sized LED for the pitch control light......But everything else, easy as.

Thats awesome Jason thanks

Sweet

You got 1210s or 1200s?

That there is, imo, a key reason hardly anyone ever really accepted the Vestax decks. This height thing suuuuuucked the fat one.

I've played around on the Stanton 150's. Enough torque to tear your arm off but they still didn't feel as good as the good ole mk5's. It's almost ike they had too much torque. My mate swore by them but I'll have 1200's over them any day

...and no reversing dot thingies.

I know exactly what you mean by too much torque! I found the same with Citronic and American Audio.

Yeh man, those american audio are mad tourqey. Dont they promo it "2kg epic torque!!!!!" or something, classicaly american i guess, all about power lolz
One argument i have heard against technics is the straight vs s-shaped tone arm debate. Not very well versed on it, will read up a bit, anyone got any
input on that?

Yeah thats an interesting one! I've been told that it's a personal aesthetic preference thing, but I'm not convinced. I slightly disagree with that sentiment from a mathematical perspective...

The S-shaped tone arms is designed to align along a tangent of the record so that the needle sits flush into the groove and it's movement through the groove from start to finish is without any unusual angles.

The straight tone arm from the outer lip of the record is sitting at a slightly skewed angle to the groove and corrects itself gradually as the records nears the centre.

As to whether this makes any difference, I don't know, but I suspect that the wear on your records would be greater with a straight arm.

Prefer the look of the s-shapes too

S-Arm - Sound
Straight Arm - Tracking

The straight arm is for scratching is it not?
It's less likely to jump out when doing all that mad turntablism bizness.

I don't know about the sound being better on S-Shaped arms though. I import Hifi turntables - almost universally they utilize straight tonearms and they usually sound better than 1200's too (gasp! shock! horror!)

1200's still rule though

Technics ftw. Blatant.

These days, go for MK5 1200s or 1210s.

You don't need +16. In fact generally once you're pitching up your tunes more than about 6%, you should GTFO!

Yes and no. While I do largely agree with you, you can do some interesting shit at higher speeds. I played around chucking hip hop vocals over DnB one morning and needed to speed them up quite significantly. It did work though

Also, I like the pretty colours of the M5Gs

true dat. I got 2 mk3s and 2 cdj100s, and I'm shortly gonna sell the 100s and get traktor. I love my technics! Such a beautiful piece of engineering. I've had them for over 6 years and they still look like sex

Straight tonearm: pfffft. If you're tonearm's are skipping you're being too rough or haven't set them up proper.

At the end of the day the undisputed classic SL-1200mk2 (silver) reigns as king. The pitch click? remove it if you're so inclined. Personally, I find it rather reasuring.

Straight tone arm is solely for skratching and tracking, you can even angle your cartridge at a 45 degree angle to get the same tracking ability as the straight tone arm. Try it. It looks freaky but it works. Only a Turntablist would bother with that. It also wears the records unevenly.
My Technics 1200 Mk 2's have been with me since 1990! Been bounced on the back of a Quad Bike over farmland for half an hour to get to a gig, Flipped upside down from a mad girlfriend (ouch) Skratched and thrashed on for 8 hours everyday for the 1st 8 years of their lives. In an out of sweaty clubs with smoke machines and drinks spilled on them.
That's living proof that they are true champions of the turntable world.