Best needles for DVS and Vinyl?

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

Best needles for DVS and Vinyl?

I play both traktor timecode and music on vinyl whats the best needles? Just mixing & I spin House

what are my options :smiley:

2

Most people here will recommend the Shure m44-7 as the best all round needles for DJ’ing, personally I prefer concorde style carts but thats purely for aesthetics. Since they are only used for transport controls with DVS, the quality of the needle’s is only really relevant when it comes to prone they are to skipping.

3

There is no difference between needles for vinyl and needles for DVS.

4

i just got a pair of Concorde Scratch’s for my STR8-150s.. F-ING Beautiful!!! and from what i have noticed when in Absolute mode in TSP2, there is no jumping that i used to occasionally get with the standard Stanton 680 cartridge…

5

I use the Ortofon Concorde Elektro’s, which I find are great for both vinyl and DVS.

People have different preferences though, but I like the Concorde style myself as well. +the white looks damned sharp :slight_smile:

6

When I was spinning vinyl, I always like Shure Whitelabels or Shure M-44gs. M-447s are good, but they’re really high output and can clip some mixer inputs (or just run hot with the gains all the way down)…and they’re a little bassy and almost muddy compared to the WHLB and 44g.

If you don’t want to spend that, the Shure SC35C are supposedly very close to the Whitelabels electronically (and the same styli) if you’re cool with headshells an don’t want to spend the money on WHLB styli, they sound awesome.

I was never a fan of Ortofon, but I’ve also never seen an Ortofon Concorde that wasn’t either on display in a store or broken. And their styli were more expensive the last time I was comparing prices……might not be the same now.

FWIW, I’m using 447s now for normal vinyl and CV, and apart from them being really loud, I like them. Weight around 2.5g and they just don’t skip.

7

Ehh their kinda is. DVS you don’t need to worry about sound quality/coloring, and can focus more on tracking and record wear.

8

You should always worry about those things. That’s why certain manufacturers build their reputation. There are always stylus’ with a higher overall gain.

You shouldn’t sacrifice quality because of the output signal of vinyl. The cartridge/needle debate doesn’t need fuel for a fire which does not exist.

Time code pressed on vinyl will effect your needles the EXACT same as choons pressed on vinyl.

This isn’t a vinyl VS controller debate and shouldn’t be turned into one. If you want to pay an extra $50 per needle to get one “for” Serato, then you don’t deserve your money.

The way the time code sends signal to software has no more an impact on your needle or audio quality than regular audio signals do.

Don’t believe the hype. In an age where
technology rules, analog principles are the only constant.

9

djlotus - I think what people are trying to say is that it doesn’t matter that much if you overweight your carts when using a DVS, as you can just buy another TC vinyl when it wears out, whereas is you wear your ‘real’ vinyl out like that, it might not be available again.

10

Most people here (at least the ones that post often) use the shure 44-7s or Ortofons. I’ve got the shure white labels, and love them. I’ve been using the same needles for almost a year, and they sound just as good as if they were new. Supposedly they have exceptional tracking on timecode, but I haven’t used anything other than old stanton scratch carts, so I can’t really compare. Plus the whitelabels look so hype.

11

Thanks for all the input everyone I was looking at the Ortofone Concorde S ($200 for the pair) but went to a record store yesterday scoop up some new releases and a friend who works their was saying the needles really does matter when using real vinyl and he uses the Ortofone Nightclubs

My question is can I for example get the concordes and then when replacing the styli put on nightclubs?

and im gunna look at the needles everyone listed thanks :slight_smile:

12

I’ve been using Ortofones for a long time, currently I use the Q-Bert series as they have a great output and most of the true vinyl DJing I do is scratching/turntablist stuff.

You can interchange the stylii between ortofons, but honestly, I wouldn’t. Each stylii is different from the others and matched to it’s cart, and they might not play nicely in the way you want.

13

Except that it’s crap. First, over-weighting carts increases the likelihood of skipping compared to using the right weight with halfway decent technique. Second, overweighting messes with the stereo signal, which the DVS needs to track the CV. Third, it also wears out your styli faster (and makes the more prone to braking) and those things are expensive.

There’s no reason not to just use a half decent cart and set it up correctly.

Of course it matters; that’s what we’ve been saying. IMHO, Nightclubs are overpriced and sell based on the color and the name. But based on my limited experience, I don’t think Ortofon makes a cart that sounds as good as the good shure ones.

14

For DVS, the “sound quality” of the cart is totally irrelevant as it is just “controlling” the audio file.

It’s like the “sound quailty” of a jog wheel on the s4 or CDJ

I got Ortofon Digitracks which are supposedly “made” for control vinyl but i’m sure it’s hype. Though they are great and seem loud and strong and vinyl sounds good thru em too.

http://www.juno.co.uk/products/ortofon-digitrack-stylus-red/250274-01/

15

Wrong. It’s still an audio signal. The threshold for usable is a lot lower, but it’s still sound.

16

Im not wrong fella. I’m right.

What ever you’re referring to is misleading.

As long as the DVS needle is sending a clean enough time code signal to the software then the software is simply communicating the audio file straight to the soundcard. The DVS is just telling the software where to play the song.

There’s no difference in sound quality if I use DVS or just the X1 with the mixer because DVS is just about transport control of the audio file.

17

Might be just me, but I didn’t see anything in this thread really pointing that way except your post. Forgive me if I’m missing something plenty of other people are seeing here.

Good thread either way. I’d think that Shure’s would be great for DVS seeing how you don’t have to worry about wearing out a track you might never find again, and they run loud. I could be wrong, but I see a louder signal being good for DVS as it’s just a timecode signal. Logically, as long as it’s not clipping, a loud signal is just going to communicate louder to the software, giving it a stronger signal.

18

Out of these Ortofones which ones would you recommend? What are the differences?

  • Ortofon DJ S Concorde

  • Ortofon Elecktro Concorde

  • Ortofon Pro Concorde

  • Ortofon Concorde Pro

19

I think you might be looking for this Control Record Needle Shootout
:smiley:

I use Shure m447’s, chosen based on cost vs benefits.

20

I checked that out but thats more just for DVS alot of carts that are good on DVS wear out real vinyl quickly