chris07lex
i have an hercules RMX, but im thinking about purchasing a turntable... i wanted to feel a vinyl TT however, i dont need a top of the line TT. I want something cheap, but not too cheap and not too expensive. i ve been looking around the gemini brand what do u guys think.. and what bout the mixer, can i use my HERCULES RMX as my mixer im pretty comfortable with it and obiviously my Virtual Dj software with it? thnx for reading..
Posted Thu 09 Jul 09 @ 10:13 pm
Blulite
there are many different views on this and to the best of my knowlage heres what i have learned since beginning to build my hardware.
technics 1210's are industry standard,
direct drives are prefered,
belt drives are frowned upon
gemini is disliked by many.
however
to find a direct drive turntable that can produce the amount or tourque that even a cheap belt drive will cost a hell of a lot.
i personally use a pair of gemini tt-01 belt drive turntables and have no problems whatsoever. geimini is a nice cost effective option and they also look quite good too. i have been advised by dazmax (great guy btw) when i asked about trading in my belts for direct drive that i should stick with my belts due to the tourque issue and there is no performance difference between the directs and the belts.
you will not gain better sound quality or be able to do a better set just becasuse you have 1210 direct drive TT's.
so whatever anyone says about this subject along the lines of "you need 1210's" or "you need direct drive" well dont listen... some people can afford these top of the range items but if your just looking for something to add as a cheap and cheerful reliability machine then the geminis are just as good as anything else.
buy what "you" think is right for you and dont be fooled by the gloatings of the guys with the top setups. as long as you change your belts regularly if you buy belt drives, there will be no difference in sound and performance quality whatever you decide.
just as a little note, technics 1210'S from my understanding are the industry standard due to thme being designed in such a way that "every" part is replaceable and therefore they are extra reliable. also extra costing.
Gemini's are a great option if you are on a budget or dont want to spend too much..dont be put off them its your choice.
technics 1210's are industry standard,
direct drives are prefered,
belt drives are frowned upon
gemini is disliked by many.
however
to find a direct drive turntable that can produce the amount or tourque that even a cheap belt drive will cost a hell of a lot.
i personally use a pair of gemini tt-01 belt drive turntables and have no problems whatsoever. geimini is a nice cost effective option and they also look quite good too. i have been advised by dazmax (great guy btw) when i asked about trading in my belts for direct drive that i should stick with my belts due to the tourque issue and there is no performance difference between the directs and the belts.
you will not gain better sound quality or be able to do a better set just becasuse you have 1210 direct drive TT's.
so whatever anyone says about this subject along the lines of "you need 1210's" or "you need direct drive" well dont listen... some people can afford these top of the range items but if your just looking for something to add as a cheap and cheerful reliability machine then the geminis are just as good as anything else.
buy what "you" think is right for you and dont be fooled by the gloatings of the guys with the top setups. as long as you change your belts regularly if you buy belt drives, there will be no difference in sound and performance quality whatever you decide.
just as a little note, technics 1210'S from my understanding are the industry standard due to thme being designed in such a way that "every" part is replaceable and therefore they are extra reliable. also extra costing.
Gemini's are a great option if you are on a budget or dont want to spend too much..dont be put off them its your choice.
Posted Fri 10 Jul 09 @ 2:54 am
Dazmax
Hi Mate.
In the top of range the 1200 has been the industry standard for a very long time. The 1200 is a high quality direct drive deck that was (when produced ) sold by Technics as a HIFI deck. The fact that they are still prefered by many DJs today by many DJs is a testiment to their superb build quality. Other manufacturers, Vestax for one have been producing decks which are as good or ,some would say better than the 1200. One of the big pluses of these decks is the massive starting Tourque of their motors, the use of high quality bearings and case materials. The point that Blulite made is that when you look at the less expensive end of the TT range building a direct drive TT that can produce hi tourqe and maintain its performance night after night is realy not going to happen. With TTs at the less expensive end I would always work on the "keep it simple stupid" pricipal. Don't look for a whole host of fancy features because the more addons you have the less the money will have been spent on important bascs. Turntable drive torque will effect things like start time ie how long it takes between you hitting the start switch and the platter getting up to speed and being stable. At the low priced end of the market "As long as the belts are in good condition" most belt drive TTs outperform their DD cousins in this very important area.
When looking for a budget TT try to get a feel for how the deck behaves when you use it. Pop in to your dealer and have a play. Things to look out for include loose feeling platter and arm bearings, slow starting and large speed fluctuations or slow recovery when the platter is being dragged by the slipmat. try rocking the platter gently and check for any movement in the bearing. Anything felt here is not good news. Try to avoid units that have integral audio cables. A pair of phono sockets on the TT lets you choose what cable you want and aids rapid replacement if a cable is damaged. Cheaper turntables will use plastic as the case material. This is un avoidable but can come with its own issues, some of which won't be instantly obvious. One of the main reasons Technics use a resin material for there decks is that when used in an environment with high levels of vibration the casework will pick up this vibration and transfer it to the pickup. The resulting feedback noise can make it almost impossible to use a deck in some environments. The resin material used by Technics goes a long way towards reducing this problem. Some decks will be far worse than others in this respect so again the idea is try the deck in the shop and look out for this happening.
Hope this helps
Best of luck
Daz
In the top of range the 1200 has been the industry standard for a very long time. The 1200 is a high quality direct drive deck that was (when produced ) sold by Technics as a HIFI deck. The fact that they are still prefered by many DJs today by many DJs is a testiment to their superb build quality. Other manufacturers, Vestax for one have been producing decks which are as good or ,some would say better than the 1200. One of the big pluses of these decks is the massive starting Tourque of their motors, the use of high quality bearings and case materials. The point that Blulite made is that when you look at the less expensive end of the TT range building a direct drive TT that can produce hi tourqe and maintain its performance night after night is realy not going to happen. With TTs at the less expensive end I would always work on the "keep it simple stupid" pricipal. Don't look for a whole host of fancy features because the more addons you have the less the money will have been spent on important bascs. Turntable drive torque will effect things like start time ie how long it takes between you hitting the start switch and the platter getting up to speed and being stable. At the low priced end of the market "As long as the belts are in good condition" most belt drive TTs outperform their DD cousins in this very important area.
When looking for a budget TT try to get a feel for how the deck behaves when you use it. Pop in to your dealer and have a play. Things to look out for include loose feeling platter and arm bearings, slow starting and large speed fluctuations or slow recovery when the platter is being dragged by the slipmat. try rocking the platter gently and check for any movement in the bearing. Anything felt here is not good news. Try to avoid units that have integral audio cables. A pair of phono sockets on the TT lets you choose what cable you want and aids rapid replacement if a cable is damaged. Cheaper turntables will use plastic as the case material. This is un avoidable but can come with its own issues, some of which won't be instantly obvious. One of the main reasons Technics use a resin material for there decks is that when used in an environment with high levels of vibration the casework will pick up this vibration and transfer it to the pickup. The resulting feedback noise can make it almost impossible to use a deck in some environments. The resin material used by Technics goes a long way towards reducing this problem. Some decks will be far worse than others in this respect so again the idea is try the deck in the shop and look out for this happening.
Hope this helps
Best of luck
Daz
Posted Fri 10 Jul 09 @ 4:16 am
Djmadman73
Staton makes a nice TT and is affordable!! Yeah its not SL 1200 but it has all the same atributes EXCEPT the torq but like you said your not looking to spend a Ton of cash!! I had a pair of T90 worked great and though other DJ's were like Bah!! there not 1200's but who cares they work!!!
Posted Fri 10 Jul 09 @ 12:38 pm
hawkmoon12
Hi i still use my Vestax PDT 5000's (Carl Cox used these when they came out) 12 year old and still going like a train and yes i prefer them to 1210's any day.
Posted Fri 10 Jul 09 @ 1:36 pm
Dazmax
Hi all
Just a word on whats at the end of your tonearm. Even if you buy a budget deck , for goodness sake get your hands on a cart/stylus combination that was designed for DJ use. recomendations (from years of use) would be first, Stanton 500 series/Pickering, second shure and finally ortofon om series carts . If you don't have one of these on the end of your tonearm, you realy are wasting your time. I dont care what deck you have these carts are not just an industry standard, they are essential.
Daz
Just a word on whats at the end of your tonearm. Even if you buy a budget deck , for goodness sake get your hands on a cart/stylus combination that was designed for DJ use. recomendations (from years of use) would be first, Stanton 500 series/Pickering, second shure and finally ortofon om series carts . If you don't have one of these on the end of your tonearm, you realy are wasting your time. I dont care what deck you have these carts are not just an industry standard, they are essential.
Daz
Posted Fri 10 Jul 09 @ 3:10 pm
John Doe 1x67s
It's also worth the effort to look around for second hand Technics SL-1200's. Those things are pretty much indestructable.
I actually once bought a fully working SL-1200 from a guy who didn't knew what it was for 10€, but you might find one for about 200-250€ on the second hand market.
I actually once bought a fully working SL-1200 from a guy who didn't knew what it was for 10€, but you might find one for about 200-250€ on the second hand market.
Posted Fri 10 Jul 09 @ 9:45 pm
Caliente123
I highly recomend buying them second hand. Make sure that they are in great condition. The Technics can take a beating. They are like the energizer bunny rabbit, They keep going and going.
Posted Fri 10 Jul 09 @ 11:34 pm
Justme12
Alright look a couple years ago i started with the demo version of virtual dj my music would skip alot and it was just horrible at first but then someone told me to get old mk2s and downloaded to pro my music was nice but now its been a couple of years and for 2009 2010 I thing that the HERCULES Dj Series Console "turntable" is the hottest thing out there its on point it has that firewire cable so music is up 800 mbps where reg USb is just like 480 so just for that it makes all the processessssss wayyyy faster than anything else out there keeping it simple
Fast
Affordable
Metal Case and polished
and NO SKIPS
NO DELAYS
AND THATS IT :)
ONE MORE THING
ALWAYS UPDATE YOUR SOUND DRIVERS
TRUST ME :)
OK NOW IM GOOD LOL
Fast
Affordable
Metal Case and polished
and NO SKIPS
NO DELAYS
AND THATS IT :)
ONE MORE THING
ALWAYS UPDATE YOUR SOUND DRIVERS
TRUST ME :)
OK NOW IM GOOD LOL
Posted Sat 11 Jul 09 @ 9:33 am
Caliente123
This is for blu Lite.. The reason why we recommend Technics is because we know what we are talking about. Budget is what separates the people from buying what is very good and something thats not good. Direct drive (Technics 1200s) have alot of torque and a quick pick up when you press play.. You can hold the platter and the needle wont jump. The platter is very sturdy. Belt driven is flimsy and would wobble. when you try to scratch, the neeldes would jump because its not designed for that. You would have to place a quarter as weigh to try to keep it from jumping. Belt driven's are for playing songs just to listen to favorite albums. Belts are not for DJ abuse like scratching, cutting, mixing, back spins. Belt driven are not for dj use. This is why we recommend the technics. The motor is the best in the market because it's strong and will never die out.
I forgot to mention this... Since the technics can take a beating and they last for ever, You can buy a great pair used on craigslist. 400 thru 500 bucks will get you 2 techs with needles.
@Justme12
The hercules is not a console turntable. Its a press to play controller. You can try to scratch but with the small jog, its gonna sound horrible. Its not designed for that. Firewire or USB, you wont see a difference when you are playing music. Usb 2.0 is fast enough. The hercules is not the best out there. Its just a nice looking portable controller.
I forgot to mention this... Since the technics can take a beating and they last for ever, You can buy a great pair used on craigslist. 400 thru 500 bucks will get you 2 techs with needles.
@Justme12
The hercules is not a console turntable. Its a press to play controller. You can try to scratch but with the small jog, its gonna sound horrible. Its not designed for that. Firewire or USB, you wont see a difference when you are playing music. Usb 2.0 is fast enough. The hercules is not the best out there. Its just a nice looking portable controller.
Posted Sat 11 Jul 09 @ 1:15 pm