Turntables Explained

There are two types of turntable – belt and direct drive. Belt drive decks are cheap and cheerful, but are for beginners on a budget only, and are limited in their use past the initial stages. They turntable platter (the plate you put the record on) is connected to the motor with an elastic belt, so when you touch the record (as a DJ normally does) the the belt slips and the platter stops. They are OK for basic mixing (where you may speed up and slow down the record, but rarely stop it) but are certainly not suitable for scratching – where the DJ is handling the record pretty much constantly.

A direct drive deck attaches the motor directly to the platter, which makes the drives strength (called torque) better. The quality of the deck here is pretty much going to be directly related to the price you pay for it ... as the price goes up, the motor gets more expensive, therefore the torque gets higher and so on ...

Numark TT1610 Belt Drive Turntable Belt Drive Decks are strictly for beginners

On a budget deck, you will probably see a torque figure of about 1 Kg/cm, a mid range deck is between about 1 and 2 kg/cm and the top of the range models offer torque figures from 2 to 4.5 kg/cm. That’s pretty much all you need to look for in a turntable – they haven’t really changed all that much since they were invented! - Lets now take a look at some of the extra’s that you can get...

Manufacturers have recently started to add "facilities" to turntables, some of which are of questionable worth to most people – such as 78 rpm play speed (do you really have any records that play at 78rpm?) and LCD displays. These added value features appeal to some people, but may be a complete waste of time to others. If you don’t really know why a deck offers a certain feature - then you probably won’t use it, and probably shouldn’t be too bothered about it.

Numark TT200 Turntable
The TT200 comes with straight and s-shaped tone arms.

One facility which seems to be the subject of a lot of debate at the moment is the new straight tone arm - which we are now beginning to see on budget decks - some decks, such as the Numark TT200 and TTX1, come with both straight and s-shaped tone arms, and allow you to fit the one you want. People now generally agree that the s-shaped arm can deliver a better sound quality, but the straight tone arm is less prone to skipping, but we doubt that with normal day-to-day use, there would be any major differences.

One last bit of advice on selecting your turntables … if budget is limited - we always feel it’s better to spend a more on better decks and less on the mixer – as it’s likely you’ll grow out of the mixer, and want to upgrade it in time – but if you start with a good solid pair of decks, they will last you well, and won’t need a (costlier) upgrade.

When buying a package it will probably be based around your deck of choice, as this is the most important part of a DJ’s set up, so we’ve split our decks into three sections – budget, mid range and luxury – but we won’t concentrate too much on the luxury decks, as if you’re reading this buyers guide, you should be looking at decks to get you started, not the top of the range models.