The Stanton STR8-100 – STR8 Up, A Great Turntable for Intermediate to Advanced Deejays!
Written: Sep 08 '03 (Updated Sep 08 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Nice torque, good features, sturdy, good sound, affordable, headshells included.
Cons: No dust covers, but you probably should buy flight cases or a coffin anyway.
The Bottom Line: You young’uns today have it made. Back in my day, turntables cost TWELVE MILLION DOLLARS , and we built our own mixers with aluminum foil, bobby pins, and dental floss…
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| madtheory's Full Review: Stanton STR8-100 Turntable |
Now that I’ve actually got a few dollars to my name, I decided it was time to try to some of the musical equipment I had when I was younger, which I had sold long ago in a post-college fit of broke-ness. My first objective? Turntables.
The turntable market isn’t quite as I remembered it. Whereas in the early to mid nineties you could only choose between: 1) Technic 1200s and 2) all that other crap, the prominence of Hip-Hop in American pop culture has given many companies significant financial incentive to produce and innovate turntable decks. As a result, nowadays there are significantly more companies and models for a young turntablist to choose from. Vestax, NuMark, and of course, Technic all have very impressive offerings on the shelves to convince turntable consumers to part with their hard-earned cash.
However, one of the companies that attracted me from the very start of my search was Stanton Magnetics . While many of the other turntable companies rose to prominence through chasing the tried-and-true design the industry-standard Technic 1200s, Stanton and a few other companies set out to reinvent the wheels of steel from scratch. Their efforts were more than justified by the creation of the mega-bada** Stanton STR8-150 turntable (review coming as soon as Epinions adds the product). While the STR8-150s are definitely a force to be reckoned with in the industry, the model a step down from that, the Stanton STR8-100 Direct Drive Turntable should not be ignored either.
The first thing you’ll notice about the beautiful design - these are truly some sweet-looking decks. The STR8-100 sports a retro-futuristic no-nonsense look with a silver faceplate and black accents. The overall design manages to be more ornate than the plain-Jane 1200s, yet not as space age as some of the newer Vestax or NuMark turntables.
When you actually step up to the decks, you’ll begin to realize that there is actually a lot of function that goes along with the eye-catching form. The solid, durable aluminum construction (17 ¾” x 5” x 14 5/8”) of the turntable is designed to stabilize the unit and help minimize the feedback and resonance that plagues some of the more generic competition. The unit definitely has some weight to it (9.5Kg) which is excellent for keeping it in place, and the flexible rubber feet make sure that no matter where you put it down, it stays there. In order to curtail the annoying needle-popping that invariably happens during scratching sessions, the STR8-100 is equipped with a straight tone arm (hence the model name – STR8 – get it?) versus the slightly better-sounding curved or s-shaped tone arms which are much more common.
Since my bank account is currently roughly $300 short of the $300 needed to make this puppy the newest addition to the madtheory musical family, I had to search around for a deejay shop willing to let me demo their decks. I finally found a small record shop that wasn’t afraid to let me give it a test drive, though the scratched-to-hell breakbeat compilation they provided had more needle marks than a heroin addict with bad aim. So, it was naturally surprising that even in the middle of my best DJ Craze after a three week crack binge impression, the exceptionally stable straight tone arm held those scratch-weary grooves as well as they did, and the sound wasn’t too shabby either.
But Stanton didn’t stop with just a platter, a base, and an arm; this turntable comes geared up with a host of cool functions to help you freak your mixes and scratches. Across the bottom of the deck is an array of silver function buttons. On the far left is the stop/start button, two small buttons that control the record speed (depress 33 for 33rpm records, 45 for 45rpm records, and both for 78s), and a motor on/off dial. On the right side are controls for reversing the platter direction, key correction, a retractable target light, and the pitch correction controls. I actually found that the pitch control didn’t work as perfectly as I hoped; it doesn’t actually eliminate the pitch problems, but does minimize them to a degree. Still, the ability to adjust pitch up to ±8%, ±16%, and ±25% does keep your music from sounding like Alvin and the Chipmunks or DJ Screw, except for when you want it to.
While the motor torque of up to 2.2Kgf-cm isn’t exactly the best in the industry (the STR8-150 is up to 4.5Kgf-cm!), this turntable is adequate for resisting the spins and counter-spins of the average deejay. Producers and beatmakers should also find this turntable especially handy as the S/PDIF digital outputs allow the unit to sample vinyl directly into digital recording or production gear. You also have the ability to switch the output of the decks between line and phono. Both of these are exceptionally cool features for the ProToolers out there.
To further sweeten the deal, Stanton includes all the accessories including slipmats, cables, mounted headshells (this “extra” should be “standard” in my opinion – good job for recognizing that, Stanton), and Stanton’s 680HP cartridge. Considering the great job Stanton has done with this turntable, intermediate to advanced deejays looking to step up their game and break away from the pack at the same time should seriously consider giving the Stanton STR8-100 turntable a few spins.
Recommended:
Yes
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madtheory
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Location: Dallas,TX
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DON'T CALL IT A COMEB... wait. I guess you actually can call it a comeback.
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