Like many who have gone before me, I too sold my 1210s in a moment of desperation and imminent fatherhood. Fast forward 4 years and I am now lucky enough to be the proud owner of the S4 but am looking to bring a set of decks back into the setup. While I would love to drop the appropriate coin on a set of 1210s that seem to be on the used market from $250 each to several million dollars a pop, I am simply out of funds.
I have seen a pair of Vestax PDX-A2 - The battle style decks and wondered if anyone has owned them? I am mainly looking to scratch but might dig out some old vinyl too. I have read some comments on other sites but frankly, I need confidence in the opinions I am given and I trust you lot.
They are F*cking great turntables … I used to sell DJ gear and got my hands on one of the first ever pairs made and they are solid and reliable and the battle style was dead handy from a space point of view
Things to watch out for on Vestax turntables of that generation:
was a bad run of motors at one point in time (around the same time as A1/2) which resulted in about 3-4mm up and down movement of the platter…
Test by laying both palms each side of the spindle and pushing slightly up/down on each side (not heavy). If you hear a gentle knocking you probably have one of these motors, it really wont effect you unless you are a heavy scratcher, I had mine replaced soon after purchase.
Rear RCA plates been Abused or Crushed in a coffin case or tight DJ box.. can result in grounding or cables not connecting properly
Broken Tone-arm holders, pretty common but easy replacement
No Target Light (means you have to buy separate).
Headshell wiggling badly left and right.
Depends on the price I guess. The “S” series had a better tonearm. The PDT 5000 is a better deck IMHO and nicer rubbery buttons than A Series.
Thanks mate! Appreciate the detailed insight. I am looking at the Vestax website and it seems these are shipped with straight tone arms yet the picture shows an S shaped tone arm:
Its not a deal breaker as I can probably get new tone arms but wanted to get your opinion?
I’m using a pair of A1 mk2s - they’re pretty much the same decks except standard style, S-shaped tonearm. Decent decks but braking speed is a bit wimpy on mine (not that I use brake stops a lot).
The pitch faders are easily taken apart without disassembling the whole deck. That’ll come in handy as you’ll probably have to fix the grease in them, which by now is likely a bit crappy
The tonearm height adjustments could be improved upon, it’s really nothing like what you’re used to from tech12’s - the assembly is loaded on some sort of spring which you lock in place with a screw without a matching hole, so sometimes it’ll spring back into place and mess things up. Regardless of that, there’s no precise way to tell what height you’re at, you’ll have to eyeball it.
Also, the pitch fader stem doesn’t lock tightly with the actual fader assembly so I had to credit card mod them to get rid of that 1.25 mm of play in the faders… that was a bit of a pain for super tight beatmatching adjustments
Hopefully most of these issues will have been somewhat worked around on the A2s.
disclaimer : I am not a turntablist, I just spin house and techno.
you by any chance still looking to buy the a2s? i’m selling a pair along with an 06 vextax mixer. they’re going for cheap too, i’m sad to see them go, they’re the best decks i’ve ever owned, but i don’t use them that much and space is becoming an issue.
… I used to sell DJ gear and got my hands on one of the first ever pairs made and they are solid and reliable and the battle style was dead handy from a space point of view
they are made outta wood