Got rid of my 1200’s back in 2001 when I quit DJ’ing for the 2nd time. Well I am looking into gettin TT’s again but Technics seemed to have gone up quite a bit, even the used ones. I should invested in a warehouse full of 1200’s instead of the stock market…hahaha.
Anyways, been looking at the Stanton ST150’s. Seems to be a pretty solid TT that can be a very good replacement for the Technics. Anyone here have any actual gigging experience with them? Seen them as cheap as $499 brand spanking new.
The main downside to them for gigging is the weight. They weigh 36 lbs each. Any time I’ve shown my decks to another DJ that’s never used them I say “try picking one up” and they’re always amazed at how heavy they are.
Other than that, I think they’re rock solid and the only reason to choose Technics over them is because of familiarity and maybe the abundance of spare parts (I’m not sure how easy it is to get spares for Stanton tables).
They’re pretty much the perfect deck for me, cos it’s like having the features of PDX but without the cheap feel. There are things about Technics 1200s (the ubiquitous MK2 specifically) that annoy me - lack of removable RCAs, ground wire, quartz lock at 0, pitch click at 0 - and none of those annoyances affect the ST/STR8-150s. I’ve had mine for 5 years now and I have never once regretted not buying different decks and I’ve used 1200s (amongst others) extensively over the years.
