chile Posted November 14, 2014 Share Posted November 14, 2014 I have a student of mine who has really taken an interest scratching. He's 13 and has asked his parents for decks for christmas. I gave him a little write up a few months back of gear he could look into if he wanted to get a setup himself eventually, but I think it was a bit lacking overall in terms of options. I mentioned occasionally that PDX2000s can be bought really cheap these days on ebay.. That the DIF-1s is supposed to be decent as an affordable scratch mixer.. m447s for needles...mentioned the ecler nuo 2.0 as well, just because its sort of fairly cheap if you get it second hand and it has upgrade ability later down the line to eternal fader if needed.. Basically, I know theres probably a few more options these days for a real nice budget setup, but im totally not clued up even on what companies are releasing things these days. If anyone has any suggestions for decks and mixers to look up that would be awesome. Also I remember seeing a fong fong video where he cuts it up with a budget setup, giving individual and total cost of each item, but couldnt find it during the class time to show him... Does anyone know the video im talking about? doesnt seem to be on his youtube channel anymore..EDIT: ahh managed to find it in the end.. other suggestions would still be awesome though if you know of any as itd be nice to give his parents a bit more of a clue of what to be looking at 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chile Posted November 14, 2014 Author Share Posted November 14, 2014 has anyone here tried the synq xtrem 1? seems pretty decent in the vid.. also for anyone thats tried the DIF-1S, how good is the crossfader? and does it last long? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted November 14, 2014 Share Posted November 14, 2014 Any Super OEM deck based on the Hanpin DJ-5500 is going to be decent. Manufacturers use Hanpin's motors, platters and tonearms as the base for their own designs. That Sync deck you posted is an example of one. The Stanton STR8-150 and Reloop RP-7000 are 2 others. If you do a Google search, you can find a complete list. Be careful though as Hanpin make several direct drive models that are used by other manufacturers and the models that are lower in the range are not particularly good. You can tell from the tech specs, as the DJ-5500 has 4.5 Kgf/cm of torque, while the DJ-3560 (the next one down) only has 1.6. While a Technics 1200 only has 1.5, in practice the decks based on the Hanpin DJ-3560 feel a little weak in comparison and they also have sucky tonearms. So yeah, a Super OEM with 4.5 Kgf/cm of torque is gonna be spot on. The second gen and up TTX are good, as are the TT500s. The Gemini TT-04 is good too. The DIF-1S is a solid little scratch mixer, but it's missing master cue, so you can't scratch in your headphones and it's not ideal for mixing really. You can connect your headphones to the booth output, but it's far from ideal. The crossfader is a Mini Innofader, the same as in the Native Instruments Z2. The DIF-1M is better, but more expensive of course. It has the same Mini Innofader, but it has master cue and pads for switching cue points etc. just like a Z2, so he might find that useful if he's using Serato or Traktor. Failing that, bargains pop up from time to time on eBay as not too many folks are buying mixers anymore. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chile Posted November 14, 2014 Author Share Posted November 14, 2014 thats wicked, didnt know that about hanpins.. crazy! the Synq's definitely seem the way to go price wise, and if they have the same motor as much more expensive gear then thats defo on the top of the list to recommend. I was looking at lower torque decks and found the hanpin DJ 3560, which was used in pioneers PLX-1000, although it sells for 500 odd quid each :\ so thats not really an option.. I woulda thought itd be cheaper since its a lower torque model. strange.. damn, the DIF-1S seems awesome, but thats a ridiculous thing not to include :\ really cool about the crossfader being the same as the Z2 though. I'll probably suggest the DIF-1M over the DIF-1S, but will stick both of them in with a warning about the difference. thanks steve, defo got a lot more options to add now! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Posted November 14, 2014 Share Posted November 14, 2014 No worries! I'm pretty sure that the PLX-1000s are based on the DJ-5500, cos they have 4.5 Kgf/cm of torque too. Pioneer have customised those decks more than most though, plus Pioneer's stuff is pricey anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
doppelkorn Posted November 14, 2014 Share Posted November 14, 2014 Hey chile what about the actual sound output? Or is he going to be using headphones? I would have thought 13 yo kids nowadays use a phone as their "hi-fi" which saddens me 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Rock Well Posted November 14, 2014 Share Posted November 14, 2014 From similar experience, it can be hard to get a teenagers patents to start buying used stuff off eBay, but that's the way I'd go. I've had 3 PDX2000s off eBay - all cost £80 each at different times and they've been reliable (still my favourite deck for scratching too). For mixers, I'd look at Pioneer 707, Allen & Heath Xone:02 or possibly an old Vestax (being a bit cautious as to how they look in the pictures and how they are described condition-wise). For needles, if the decks came with some, that would be a good start. If not, I'd definitely steer them towards Shures - still the best for scratching and the needles are much cheaper than Ortofons and the like. Obviously if they or their parents want to put their money into new gear, then what Steve said. As a bit of a tangent, I was looking at what scratch mixers are still available and in stock with the obvious big retailers the other day... the outcome was bleak - the three Rane mixers (56s, 61 and 62), the Traktor Z2 and the DJ-Tech ones. Dark days Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJ Rock Well Posted November 14, 2014 Share Posted November 14, 2014 One final thought... If I had the money, I'd love to stockpile cheap scratch gear off eBay to sell on to beginners when they want it. When you're used to doing it, it's not too hard. But trying to get teenager's parents to start bidding on stuff on eBay with no guarantees is another story. Usually, it's not the secondhand bit that bothers them, but the eBay bit and buying stuff they know nothing about. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mfsop Posted November 14, 2014 Share Posted November 14, 2014 Here's the list of all Super OEMs I was able to find: http://www.digitalvertigo.co.uk/forum/index.php?showtopic=36811&hl=%2Bsuper+%2Boem For a mixer, I'd always go for a second hand model. Old Vestax, Gemini UMX or Stanton SK/SA's for 10 to 50 pounds - decent quality and can be sold for the same price once he knows what he wants. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chile Posted November 15, 2014 Author Share Posted November 15, 2014 thanks for the suggestions guys, gonna be adding this to the write out for the next session. i had already mentioned about looking on ebay for a bargain pdx2000, but just wanted to see what was available new too.. also the last thing i bought off ebay was a used NUO 2.0 that i gave positive rating on then a few days later ended up dying on me, so i wanna give them a few options for new gear just in case Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest rasteri Posted November 15, 2014 Share Posted November 15, 2014 BTW the Pioneer PLX-1000 is a SuperOEM, and has the same motor/tonearm suspension as the other superOEMs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motosega Posted November 17, 2014 Share Posted November 17, 2014 i have a super cheeapskate skratch setup.the secret: buy broken things! i have used numark ttx1s from ebay, they are the old ones that break, but i've managed to fix them both so far, motor chips and plator speed sensors. i paid 100€ for one and 80€ for the other plus another 20€ in parts so far. a stanton sk2f mixer from a fleamarket that cost me 25€ had a broken line switch on one channel. 2€ fix. for a dvs i use xwax opensource digital vinyl system, which uses serato vinyls,20€ and a mixvibes umix44 soundcard.100€ with an m-audio trigger finger for cuepoints 40€ i wouldn't recommend the ttx1s to anybody without electronics expertise, and i wouldn't reccomend xwax to people who don't know how to compile programs under linux. or who care about features other than basic dvs.(performance wise xwax beats everthing else though)a friend of mine was looking to buy a turntable and a mixer, so i found him a pdx2000 and a vestax 06 on ebay.for a total of about 170€ i'm happy with my ttx1s but if i had to start over i'd get pdx2000s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest petesasqwax Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 stupidly obvious question: does xwax only run on Linux? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest rasteri Posted November 24, 2014 Share Posted November 24, 2014 stupidly obvious question: does xwax only run on Linux? Yep. I ported an older version of it to windows once but only as a test exercise, it wasn't particularly stable/usable. Under linux it probably has the best performance of any DVS on the market though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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