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| A decent direct drive with some thoughtful features. |
 As most of you will have no doubt noticed, Stanton have recently released a handful of new turntables under the ‘T’ banner, the T.60 being the most affordable of the lot. All bar one of the models in the ‘T’ series come with straight tonearms and replace the (previously available) STR8 series of turntables, the one exception being the-top-of-the-range STR8-150 which has been retained due to huge sales.
The first thing you’ll notice about this turntable is that it is extremely light, which means that it’s slightly susceptible to needle jump if subject to any knocking and vibration, though this is not uncommon on decks at this level anyway.
The T.60 sports the new Stanton livery of blue and silver (complete with the new ‘Stant-on’ logo) and there’s no denying that the entire interface is clean and smooth. I personally prefer the look of the old STR8 series decks, but this is of course completely down to personal preference.
What about the performance though? Well, while we found the deck’s performance to be fine when normal beat-mixing, we did find that it was necessary to double the suggested counter-weight pressure on the tonearm to get anywhere near a skip-free scratch with the supplied 500B cartridge.
Considering the exceptional performance of Stanton’s top-of-the-range decks in this department, we were a bit surprised by this, and compared to the competition (in particular Gemini’s TT-02, reviewed last issue) we found this aspect slightly below par.
However, there are areas where the T.60 scores higher though, and these include twin start/stop buttons which make it easier to use in battle mode and, although the motor isn’t the snappiest from standstill or to stop, it is smooth and reliable in the mix and doesn’t let loose an unsettling clunking sound each time the motor starts or stops, as did the aforementioned Gemini turntable.
Elsewhere the T.60 sports one of the biggest back panel recesses I’ve seen, which is useful for tucking those cables out of the way. It is also the first DJ turntable I’ve come across that comes supplied with a cloth dust cover.
Now that the trend is for DJ decks to come without lids (the hinges get in the way of a battle layout) they can get covered in dust very quickly, so while the cover might at first seem a bit of a gimmick it will, in fact, proof a very useful accessory.
The pitch control has an adjustment range of +/-10%, which is ample for the entry-level DJ to get to grips with, but because the fader’s scale is not incredibly clearly marked, you do have to concentrate to work out your degrees of adjustment. Perhaps this will encourage novice DJs to concentrate that much harder though!
Conclusion
Overall then, the T.60 is a decent DJ turntable, good enough to learn on, but with some of the limitations in performance that the pricepoint at this level dictates. Some nice features, though, including the twin start/stop buttons, back panel recess and dust cover. As for the new look... well, you decide for yourself!
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Direct drive motor
Straight tonearm
Twin start-stop buttons
+/-10% pitch adjustment |
33 and 45 rpm
Replaceable target light
Stanton 500B cartridge included
Cloth dust cover |
Manufacturer: Stanton
Model: T60
Price: £169.95 RRP inc VAT |
Contact: Lamba
Tel: 01582 690 600
Web: www.stantondj.com |
This review is courtesy of i-dj.co.uk
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