Major European retailers display the VL12 as “sold out”.
Will there be an improved successor?
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I know someone who works at a massive musical instrument and DJ stock warehouse and he’s said that turntable sales have been bottoming out since free end of summer.
One opinion is that technics insanely high pricing, coupled with people still saying “if you want the best then only get technics” , then people seeing that they can’t easily afford technics makes their desire to buy a pair of vinyl players cool instantly to ice - no-one wants “almost first”. The result seems to be that the return of vinyl has got a nasty scratch in it and cobwebs on the stylus.
My own opinion is that technics have been outshone over the years by other decks being better at some of the things that are important, but nothing out there is a clear leader anymore. Even the cheaper direct drives aren’t cheap, especially if it’s only going to play DVS vinyl and all the gripes of DVS set up like calibration, relative, absolute, losing two mixer channels (sometimes), phono level or line levels and more
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Hit the nail on the head. Its cheaper to buy a short run of ten hanpins directly from Hanpin than to buy 4 rebranded Hanpins now.
Very true yes.
But if someone doesn’t want it then even cheap is too expensive
Hi there,
will the VL12 not be produced anymore? Or is the non availability here in Germany only for short term due to the covid situation? Sorry for asking, I just stumbled over this turntable as I was looking for a substitute for my Vestax PDX2000ers and I do not want a Technics as I always was the opinion they are overpriced.
I would go for a Reloop RP7000/8000 or Stanton ST150. The VL12 has a pitch fader dead zones issue.
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Hey,
thanks for the quick reply and the useful hint regarding the dead zone. I have to say I am not the biggest fan of reloop (had once a battle mixer, was not so satisfied) and the stanton is very nice but seems to be hard to get as it is also not produced anymore? So coming back to my question, is the VL12 still available or was it also obsoleted?
Thanks!
RP6000 and all above is a solid turn table. I had RP6000MK6 for 7 years - alaso on gigs - never failed, always did the job, and Torq - that was leaving the legendary technics behind all time…
Of course not. But there are models that are worth the money…
[quote=“kradcliffe, post:3, topic:21828”] Very few people actually mix vinyl any more[/quote]
With respect - I do think this statement is true at all.
Its such a shame this turntable did not bring enough profit for Denon I owned a pair of these and they were perfect for mixing, I have owned 1210’s am not saying they are better but their was not much in it for mixing. I would not buy technic’s just because I think they are ugly and old that’s what made me buy the Denons they looked stunning and performed amazingly.
Its a shame the amount of bad reviews they had got on youtube their were good one as well saying they are best newest turntable out their. I had Stanton’s 150’s 1st gen and you talk about a awful turntable to mix on they were. The denon is such a nice turntable to beat match on I loved it.
The main problem with the VL12’s is the tone arm, it’s just too flimsy and lightweight and not best suited for scratch DJ’s.
I own one and though I am happy with it, I avoid using it for scratching and just use it for mixing DVS and or real vinyl playback.
Scratch sessions are avoided and strictly only used with my Reloop RP-8000 MKII.
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I 100% agree that arm is to flimsy for scratching I don’t scratch but I can see why that arm would be too flimsy for scratching.
These turntables had a lot of quality issues when they were first released like the wobbling platter and the hum, well obviously people had paid a lot of money out for these turntables and were very angry and went on YouTube and vented about it, these reviews would not help with the sales of these great turntables. Fortunately by the time I got my turntables these issues have been sorted out and I got a really nice set of turntables.
The scratch Turntable market is already saturated for how niche it is. The VL12 launched with issues that were fixed later, but doing so into a market where the end user already expects tried and tested hardware (RP7/8000, ATLP1240, Technics 1200, STR8-150, etcetera) just lead the product to flop. Not to mention the price point.
I commend Denon DJ for not going down the SuperOEM route though …
Build-wise, the VL12 seemed to be well-built all around, apart from the tone arm. It’s as if it was built on a set budget and the budget was blown on the base of the unit and once they got to the tone arm there was nothing left, so they raided the InMusic/Numark parts bin and said “that’ll do…”
Real shame.
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Wonder how much a short run of ten Hanpins would cost direct.
Too bad that the VL12 are obviously no longer manufactured anymore. Would love to get some!
Mk7 Technics are alive and well 
And overpriced. Both the VL12 and the new Technics have absurd deadzones on the pitch faders, and other than the mk7’s fairly decent tonearm, especially compared to the VL12’s arm, nothing on that unit is similarly built as the older 1200s. You have to go up to the GR version or higher to get the historical 1200 overall build quality or better, but those tables’ motor DSP controller is tailored for audiphile use and rather than DJing. Pretty weird. Hence the reason that the asking prices on Hanpin ‘Super OEM’ TTs have recently increased, and yet are still cheaper than the new Technics. With the pros of the VL12 and the now documented, resolvable cons in the executed design, it’s also weird an updated Denon DJ TT isn’t out yet.
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My partners Brother in Law has a pair of the yellow anniversary models and said he absolutely loves them, worth every penny were his words. I’ve not had a go on them yet but a few of the lads have been around and all say pretty much the same.
And to add, Skratch Bastid has a pair set up in his DJ room at home, if they really did have the issues you’re proposing, don’t you think he would be using something else?… I’d say maybe don’t read too much into what clickbait YouTube channels have to say about stuff, as it’s often wide of the mark in actual use.