Turntable for sampling (and listening)

The Lounge Other Gear
#1

Hi all,

I have some vinyl I want to play and also sample, so I have started looking for a nice turntable for listening to music that would also work well for sampling. I was thinking maybe the debut carbon evo or debut pro, although with the anti-skating weight hanging off of the tone arm I am not sure if that would be a problem with always lifting the needle and moving it around while sampling. The Rega P3 also looks nice but is more than I want to spend (and I don’t want to get too deep into the audiophile side of this lol)

Anyone have any experience or opinions or recommendations for this?

Thanks!

Edit: Ended up with a technics 1210gr. And I definitely got too deep into the audiophile side of it lol.

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#2

If I was to buy a turntable for sampling I’d go for a second hand Technics SL-1200 or if budget does not stretch that far, maybe a Pioneer PLX-500/1000. They’re proper tools for professionals. Built to last and take anything that comes at them.

From my experience the aforementioned turntables are like the Black & Deckers of turntables. Professionals use them in their work so why should I settle for anything less. I used to dj for 18 years and even though customers and drunk djs spilt their beer on the SL-1200s, they kept going night after night.

Nice looking hifi players are cool and everything but I can’t stand the quirky things built into their user interfaces like having to lift up the whole platter and swapping the belt to another wheel just to change the play speed from 33 1/3 to 45 RPM. That would do my head in having to do that everytime I wanted to listen to a 12" or a 7". And then having to do the same thing in reverse when wanting to listen to an LP. Goddamn.

For a long time I’ve believed in the age old saying: “Hifi is just homeopathy for males.” The sound quality of a turntable depends a lot on the needle and the cartridge that you use, not so much on the tone arm or the wood that the body of the turntable is made from etc.

I’d go for a direct drive high torque pro player with a proper felt slipmat for rewinding the vinyl with my finger to find the correct spot to sample. A belt drive turntable with a rubber mat makes sampling things harder than it needs to be.

Just my 2 cents on the subject.

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#3

Great advice, thanks!

The debut carbon evo has a switch to change speeds so at least with that one that won’t be a problem.

I was thinking about if direct drive would help with sampling at all, but also looking at DJ tables they have a lot of features that I don’t need and I am sure the price has to go either into features I don’t need or sound quality, so I was thinking for the same price a belt-drive ‘hifi’ style one would sound better. It would also never be leaving my studio so it doesn’t need to be built like a tank (but I also don’t want it to be so fragile that sampling with it will mess it up).

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#4

The Debit Carbon Evo is ok but not sure if I’d recommend it. The speed box is handy and it can sound good if your records are good pressings and are kept clean, but for regular sampling use on older records that are a bit tatty, it suffers from a resonant ‘thunk’ when loud pops occur, possibly due to the counter weight, as though the relentless wobbling of the weight are sent back into the tone arm… Dunno 🤷 just my experience with that TT.

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#5

Thanks! Any other specific recommendations I should look at instead? I was also looking at the debut pro, I heard it was less resonant, but it also has the same hanging weight… I’d like to keep it under $1000 if possible…

#6

As wolframi says, a used 1200 or similar if you can find one for same price as a new carbon etc… then get a nice cart for it. Can’t go wrong.

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#7

There’s also the Technics SL1500C if you want a new TT without the pitch slider.

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#8

I have a cheap DJ style belt drive. For sampling and listening I honestly can’t tell any difference between it and audiophile turntables or Technics that DJ friends have.

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#9

They’re is some really cool cheap battery powered stuff now too specifically made for scratching and dj. They are not a 1200, but for around $300 you can’t go wrong… I bought a used reloop for $250 and switched out the arm and faders and some other stuff… might have gone kinda crazy, there is a ton of mods for these, but for less then $400 I feel I got a pretty nice deck that I can take anywhere if I need too… plus it’s has Bluetooth and preamp built in so you can sample from your phone and a speaker in it…
Cheap but what more do you need unless you’re a real dj or something…

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#10

Technics 1200. I bought the pair I have now in 1997 and aside from the popup light bulbs burning out (obligatory), have never had an issue. I see they cost a grand now so fuck that, get one (or two!) used.

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#11

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl: best line I’ve read in a while!

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#12

If I am not doing any DJing do you find things like the pitch slider and strobe dots and target light etc. useful at all? I could do the SL 1500C at the top of my budget (and I would probably have to use the built in preamp and cartridge it comes with for a while). My friend also has a 1210gr he could sell me but I would have to buy a separate preamp for it and it would probably end up costing a bit more. So wondering if it would be worth it in the end.

#13

No comment on its suitability for sampling sorry (unless you’re just gonna record a bit then chop later) but a year or so ago I got one of the yamaha MusicCast TTs and pretty happy with it just from a music listening point of view. If your music listening is just vinyl and streaming its a one box solution. Has a built in preamp so you can run straight into an interface for sampling.

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#14

I’d also go with a 1200/10, etc or SL 1500C.

If looked after Technics do last a lifetime.

And quite possibly most sampled music in history has probably be sampled via a Technics SL of some kind.

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#15

Ok, well everyone seems to be recomending the same thing so I went with the SL-1210GR. Thanks so much everyone!

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#16

OK, a little more help from the pros would help me here:

So, I got the 1210GR and I thought I would give sampling a shot with a standard hi-fi cartridge, but when sampling it turns out that I REALLY want to be able to manually cue, back cue, start and stop the record with the stylus down, etc. and I am worried about the stylus and records getting damaged if I do this with a hifi cartridge. But I also want the sound to be as good as possible lol.

So any recommendations on the best sounding dj cartridge to pair with this turntable? Maybe something like the Concorde MkII CLUB?

Or should I just stick with a hifi cartridge for better sound quality and just live w/ a slower workflow?

Thanks again you all!

2 Likes
#17

Gq with direct drive, you are messing up a belt driven table to try and manually move the platter while in motion. So you’ll be finicking with that dilemma on a Belt drive. It’s way more fun and I doubt that sounds better than a technics, and as one said the cartridge.

I used a pair of numark TT100’s and it has a reverse function built in, that’s fun too.

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#18

While the club has the lightest tracking force out of the concorde line and touts the best sound quality, back cuing isn’t its strong suit, I ended up getting it for similar purposes and decided on taking that trade off. Spherical styli are meant for scratching/back cuing as opposed to elliptical shaped styli, and the Club is the only one in that line with a elliptical shape. DJ carts inherently utilize a higher tracking weight which makes you lose out on some sound quality and increases wear on a record more than a hifi cart. That’s not to say you can’t back cue with it at lower tracking weights, but I wouldn’t do it too often.

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#19

I actually bought the Concorde DJ the other day and I can recommend it as far as a jack of all trades in the range. It has a good quality sound and will also stand up to the DJ work you want to play with. Good bang for buck too!

#20

Plus one for a Technics 1210. have my MK2 for almost 25 years now and never faced a single issue. Swapped the system to a Goldring some years ago which needs to be handled more carefully but was a massive upgrade soundwise…

If you’re on a budget, there’s quite a market for solid 2nd hand turntables from the 70s and 80s. You might find a very solid one there, too.

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