Best Buy DJ Turntables

photo credit: simonlesleyphoto

The best DJ turntables can help make the difference between a club that draws in the crowds or a club that flounders and dies a slow death. This is especially true if you plan to take music seriously in your own club, where the quality of sound is a major issue for you to handle.

If you’re out in the market and looking for the perfect tool to help you do your thing, here are a couple of things you’d want to look out for:

Direct Drive

There is a reason you want to get direct drive over belt drive, and that reason is a significantly higher level of torque on direct drives. Belt drives also have a tendency to slip and erode with use, and are generally not recommended for serious DJs who want to turntable as well.

High Torque

The best DJ turntables have a decent torque level on the disks, ranging around 1.5kg/m, and are usually found on direct drive turntables. The problem here, however, is that only an experienced DJ will be able to tell whether the label on the turntable is accurate or not. Check for resistance when pulling back the disk, and never get a turntable that doesn’t ’snap’ a disk back into a spin after stopping or pulling it back.

Straight tone arm

A good tone arm needs to hold a pickup and stylus where they need to be, and a straight tone arm gets the job decently well. The best DJ turntables usually have a straight tone arm, which is a good measure to prevent the needles from jumping all over the place and ruining the overall sounds on your mixes.

Decent pitch adjustment

And last but definitely not the least is a decent range of pitch adjustment. This will allow you to adjust the tempo of the music, varying between slower, somber tunes and fast-paced, energetic ones. A range of plus-minus eight is a decent enough value to work with for most clubs DJs, which then comes as the recommended pitch adjustment levels.

Keep all these factors in mind when shopping and you’ll be able to separate the cheap knock-offs from the best DJ turntables around.

No matter how passionate you are about being a DJ, if you have no basic understanding of audio equipment, entertaining the crowd may be difficult. All DJs need to know how to connect DJ equipment before taking their first paying or free gig. Connecting DJ equipment is really quite easy with a little preparation.

First Things First

Most DJ equipment will have detachable cords. These need to be marked with the name of the equipment they will be used to connect. If one USB cord goes to the turntable, a small piece of masking tape can be used to mark that cord with the appropriate machine. Color coding the cords is another option. Just remember to place a dot of color on both the cord and the bottom of the machine. After the cords have been sorted – there are 5 steps to connecting DJ equipment.

Step 1 – Plug it all in. Turn off all DJ machines and plug the equipment into a power strip with a surge protector. The electrical strip also needs to be powered down before plugging in the equipment.

Step 2 – Connect the music to the mixer. The music source should be connected to the mixer using audio outputs and inputs. The cord should be plugged into the music output and the mixer input.

Step 3 – Connect the mixer to the amplifier. The mixer will feed the music into the amplifier. The cord needs to be attached to the mixer output and the amplifier input.

Step 4 – Connect the amplifier to the speakers. The amplifier needs to be connected to the speakers so the guests can hear the music. The cord should be connected to the amplifier output and the speaker input.

Step 5 – Check the sound. Once all pieces are connected, turn on the power strip and all machines. Once booted, check to ensure the sound quality is correct.

Once all equipment is working properly, tape down all cords on the carpet with duct tape. Colored duct tape can be used to match the carpet color. The tape keeps the cords safely close to the carpet or flooring so nothing comes unplugged and no one trips on the cords.

photo credit: _sarchi

Both beginner turntablists and established DJs can make full use of DJ turntables packages, especially when you consider the convenience and practicality of making use of such packages. Turntables, mixers, sound cards and sometimes even turntable emulation software come bundled in with these packages, which makes for some really good deals. Some people, however, have a bit of a problem actually finding a place to buy these packages. As such, here are a few places to buy DJ turntables packages:

Your local audio and music shops are good places to start. Look around town, browse the ads and check each audio and music shop for packages, and you will find maintaining and upgrading your turntable a snap. The problem here is that not all people have access to audio and music shops that stock DJ turntables, which can then be solved by going to the one place where people and boundaries meet together: The Internet.

Search engines are your best friend. Simply key in the words ‘DJ turntables packages’ and you’ll be presented with a list of websites that specialize in selling the hardware. The problem here is that you need to know your stuff about turntables before you buy them off the Internet. Package content and pricing are two factors that take high priority, while brand name and authenticity are two others that will seal the deal. You need to choose where you shop on the World Wide Web if you want to find a good place from which to buy your packages.

DJ equipment sites come more recommended than auction or commerce sites. Such DJ equipment sites specialize in this particular niche, which means they develop a reputation based on the quality of their products and services. Auction and commerce sites, on the other hand, are more interested in a sale than providing quality goods, which is something you do not want if you are serious in your pursuit of good packages.

So there you have it, three basic places where you can find the best DJ turntables packages. They are good places to start your hunt, as long as you keep your wits about you and make a smart and informed purchase.

photo credit: laffy4k