Audophile deck vs DJ deck

Chillibob

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Hello everyone,

I'm looking for a record deck to play and mostly record some of my vinyl to digital.

My current setup is Onkyo amp and Tannoy Eclipse Floorstanders and I'll be recording vinyl from say 91-95, hardcore, jungle, oldskool, techno etc, with the occasional newer dnb productions.

My first though was a half decent direct drive deck, so I could change the pitch if I wanted to record at a +/- (some tunes are just too slow or fast!).... e.g. the Audio Technica one that's about £230.

Then I wondered about one of the more audiophile ones - for a similar cost. I'd not be able to change pitch (From what I can see none of these models have this), and I'd be using a belt (which to any DJ would just be a total joke!), but... would I notice a difference in sound quality? - Or with the setup and type of music I'm listening to (amiga samples anyone?!) would it be hardly any different?

My preference is quite strongly to a direct drive dj deck as I'm not convinced an audiophile one would make *that* much difference in my situation. I just wondered what you guys thought?
 
Audiophile decks are for listening at a price point. DJ decks are more about function at a price point - fast start/stop, pitch control and being able to tolerate being back-cued (though slip mats are generally used to aid this) - that may mean sacrificed audio quality.

At any give price, you will most likely get a better sounding deck when all of its cost is about listening quality. For ripping, I would suggest you do not need a pitch control and indeed a decent DJ deck will probably have a pitch control bypass button to ensure playback at the original speed.

Historically, a good direct drive was believed to provide a more accurate and stable speed, but cost a bit more - much more powerful and carefully designed motor (to minimise speed variation and vibration). Direct drive is still touted as being better for ripping, but with more accurate modern manufacturing I wonder if that still matters - rega and pro-ject have a good reputation for making good quality listening decks for the money.

Some decks also include USB audio interfaces to facilitate ripping - I cannot comment on how good/bad they are. Personally if I were looking for a deck, I would tend to avoid sub £400 direct drive decks without listening to them on a decent system especially if also has DJ orientated features, USB audio interface / phono stage etc built in. They may indeed be fine, I would just tend to get a bit suspicious about what compromises maybe have been made to cram all that in.

I still have a pair of technics SL1210 M5G decks - I probably would not trade them for anything that I am aware on the market of for under a grand in direct drive models available, but I may one day replace them with a good pure listening deck if the urge to continue to mix ever fades :)
 
Hello everyone,

I'm looking for a record deck to play and mostly record some of my vinyl to digital.

My current setup is Onkyo amp and Tannoy Eclipse Floorstanders and I'll be recording vinyl from say 91-95, hardcore, jungle, oldskool, techno etc, with the occasional newer dnb productions.

My first though was a half decent direct drive deck, so I could change the pitch if I wanted to record at a +/- (some tunes are just too slow or fast!).... e.g. the Audio Technica one that's about £230.

Then I wondered about one of the more audiophile ones - for a similar cost. I'd not be able to change pitch (From what I can see none of these models have this), and I'd be using a belt (which to any DJ would just be a total joke!), but... would I notice a difference in sound quality? - Or with the setup and type of music I'm listening to (amiga samples anyone?!) would it be hardly any different?

My preference is quite strongly to a direct drive dj deck as I'm not convinced an audiophile one would make *that* much difference in my situation. I just wondered what you guys thought?


Quite a lot of jungle/dnb from that era is available on Tidal, but some rarer white label stuff is missing.
I've been listening to a load of stuff from Remarc, origin unknown, dillinja, marvellous cain, johnny jungle etc.

So as a curve ball....you could save yourself the hassle and cost of buying a deck and actually make some money by selling the vinyl and just stream from a high quality source like Tidal

Just a suggestion
 
The first question is - How much MONEY do you have to spend on this project?

There are turntables that have USB built in, this is specifically for recording Vinyl to a computer.

But again, without a price, we have nothing to go on.

Belt Drive are fine, the reason DJ don't like them is because the belt does not stand up well to Scratching or Back cuing; too much stress on the belts.

Direct Drive Turntables tend to have very high torque motors that come up to speed in a small fraction of a rotation. Great for Radio DJs because they can put on Vinyl, back cue in the dead groove, hit the play button and before it moves forward to the music on the disk, it is up to rotational speed.

As to the pitch control on a DJ Turntable, for home use that is rarely to never used.

For a turntable deck that does not have USB capability, you could need an external Phono Pre-Amp between the Turntable and the Computer Analog Line In inputs.

The third way to record, if you happen to have a Stereo Amp available, is to run the Turntable into the Amp, then the Record Out or Tape Out of the Amp to the Analog Line In on the Computer.

In both these last two Analog methods, the turntable low-voltage signal is boosted to Standard Line Level before being fed into the computer.

Just as an example, here are a couple of USB Turntables that are Hi-Fi Belt Drive -

Project Debut Carbon USB Turntable - Superfi

Pro-Ject Debut Carbon RecordMaster HiRes Turntable - Superfi

Here are a couple of DJ Turntables with USB Out -

Audio Technica AT-LP120USB-HC

Audio Technica AT-LP1240USB

Though no USB, there is the new Technics 1200 Turntable, but for a considerable price -

Technics SL-1200GR Turntable with Ortofon Concorde Elektro Cartridge - Superfi

How far do you want to go?

Steve/bluewizard
 
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Really? They supply these with the electro cartridge. How to utterly label a deck as a DJ mix/scratch deck :)

There are quite decent all-out DJ cartridges that are good for mixing an a bit of scratch work. I have these on my decks still - I quite like the sound for dance music mixing, but nothing like the detail you would get from even the ortofon 2 red (about £20 more), so I would not recommend it at all for listening and especially not ripping. OTOH for DJing off a pair of decks - yes - definitely - they are great, though ortofon nightclub 2 is a much sounding cartridge for pure mix DJing (no scratching) and can double as a hifi cartridge (they are basically more robust HiFi cartridges) so I'm surprised they didn't package these decks with those instead, though I suspect technics would feel happier if it were paired with an ortofon 2m blue at least or bronze.
 
It should also be note that there are a few (very few) Phono Equalization Pre-Amps that have USB outputs built in, if that option is of interest to you.

Steve/bluewizard
 

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