These turntables are solid. The anti-skate feature is excellent and the value for the price is very high. My one real negative is the delay; you'll need EXCELLENT slipmats for these. At $500 for two tables and a mixer, the price is great for serious DJ work. The Technic 1200 is still king, but, for a hungry up-and-comer with shallow pockets, the XL-500 Scratchmaster set is the way to go.

Start/stop is quick. The price is excellent. THe fact that you can adjust the timing from the top of the deck without any dissambling is good,too.

There is NO torque. NONE. Braking usually ends up in stopping the tables. Further, I actually had to hand polish my platters just to get them to "slip" right. Further, the pitch bend buttons have no consistency, and my tables go out of time at least once a week.

I bought these turntables thinking that I would ease into DJing. What I found out was that once you get a little skill, you have effectively outgrown these tables. They have almost no torque at all,making braking almost impossible. Further, pitch doesn't take effect for a few seconds, making on the fly cuts almostimpossible, because half the time the beat is off after a few seconds, when the platter catches up. Further, the top of the deck is very prone to "hearing" ambient noise, or worse,picking up sonndfromt he monitors or main speakers, which in turn feeds back thru the stylus.

In my own humble opinion, these are not the best decksyou could buy, even for a beginner. I would recommend buying the higher end Gemeni series, such as the Pt100 or 2000, or any of the Numark or Vestax decks. And if you can afford it, get a pair of Technics. Even a used pair of Technics is better than an out of the boxpair of Xl500II's.

Similar Products Used:

Technics 1200mkII

The Gemini XL-500 II is the best beginner turntable I know. It is direct drive and it stops quickly. The start/stop button is very easy to press.

The only thing I don't like is the delay to start the table and the pitch control is not that good.

This is a great turntable for any beginner DJ. I have them myself. I reccommend the Gemini Scratchmaster DJ Package. Its great!

Similar Products Used:

Gemini XL-400 II Gemini PT-2000