VL12 pitch fader dead zones

The dead zone is their but like I said the lines on the platter become perfecly still so you know when your in it so its not a issue for me. as soon as you come out of the dead zone the lines on the platter start moving.

I understand what you mean, but that’s still irregular for DJ turntables (both the 3 big deadzones and the lack of LED lighting when in the center one), unintuitive, and unlikely to have been an intentional part of the design regardless of the ludicrous excuses being given for it after-the-fact. That one issue is reason enough for me not to get them.

Sounds like their motor firmware has been improved since HellNegative tried them, because the ones he used had some bad W&F with DVS.

So you don’t have any platter wobble…

Any play at the tonearm bearings? Curious if that’s been improved on the latest units, though admittedly that’s less of a valid issue when juxtaposing to Super OEMs that often also have a touch of bearings play from Hanpin erroring on the side of less versus more tightening… but the Super OEMs can be had for way cheaper, especially if you’re willing to settle for ABS plastic on the body. So if you’re paying a premium and not getting Technics, there really ought not to be such poor adjustment and workmanship on the VL12 arm.

What about the weird glitches with the motor? Does that strange power off glitch thing not occur anymore?

are you talking about the turntable still turning when it turned of if not i have not noticed anything thing else and someone said they like the deadzone .

here is a guy talking about why he likes the dead zone and he explained why it does not turn of instantly.

That guy sounds completely idiotic. It makes zero sense. Anyone trying to make excuses for the three big deadzones and the LED not lighting when in the center is just looking like a fool. It’s an oversight. It might not bother you, but don’t start pulling stuff out your bum to cover for it. These online “pro reviewers” are all on the take and not to be trusted. Ad money. Plain and simple. You ever see a review of the Gemini MDJ-1000 by any of them? How about the early problems on the SC5000s? Nope? There’s a reason.

his book is the best selling DJ book on amazon and he owns a massive dj skool with nealy 3000 customer so maybe he know his stuff

He might not be stupid, but his statement makes him sound stupid. Bias through moneyed interests. His opinion is not trustworthy and objective on the subject.

then listern to this guy he knows his stuff probably more than that Technics servicing guy who gave a negative review.

He never brought up the touch platter problems on the SC5000s or the lack of being able to set a cue early on, either. Not objective reviewers. They all sell ads for their reviews and are reliant on the gear being sent by the manufacturers. I’d much rather trust the opinion of the some repair guy who bought the gear, is not getting the gear from the company direct, and isn’t making money doing this stuff. At 3:50 Mojaxx doesn’t even mention the deadzones in his video. Clear enough what’s going on.

I have had no issue with mine the platter does not wobble , I have used them for mixing and the dead zone has not affected my mixing. I like these a lot more than my 1210’s I would never buy the new 1210s as they are over priced and their is a issue with the casting of the platter they are a 400 turntable not a £899 turntable with the issues customers have run into with the platter been cast incorrectly. The old mk2 are old and i wanted a new turntable i love this turntable more than my 1210 that i owned back in the late 90’s.

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Yeah I have heard of problems on the 1200mk7, too. That’s really disappointing.

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I actually asked this guy about the dead zones, and why he was advocating these turntables when they clearly have such a big problem - he never replied, which made me think he was sponsored to do the review, so was not completely objective. I no longer follow him or watch his reviews as a result.

I fully respect everyone’s opinions, but i truly cannot understand why a reduction of 25% pitch capabilities is needed? Nobody has even come close to justifying why such large dead zones are actually a useful thing to have. it makes the range of pitch available tighter, so that getting the correct pitch point is harder to achieve, and you’ll be hunting that precise point you need for ever and a day. I am also disappointed by Denon’s responses too, as their explanation in ,my opinion leaves a lot to be desired. Its a real shame, as I’d love to compliment my SC5000’s with a VL12, but for my purposes, they are almost unusable.

I’d phrase it another way… If the fader was just 25% shorter and therefore the travel narrower/tighter, that would still not be optimal, but it’d actually be less annoying than having unintuitive goofy deadzones and the LED not coming on. If they got rid of the deadzones on the ends of travel, made the center one much smaller, and had the LED come on when you’re in the now-smaller center one, this problem would be gone. So what I’m saying is that the reduced pitch resolution and precision possible with having less active area on the pitch fader for the given pitch ranges selectable is not the biggest implication of this issue.

I was using Stanton 150’s the first generation the grey ones before I bought these and their are a lot of records in my collection that when you mixed them together on the Stantons they never sounded just right the Stantons are very hard turntables to mix off of you have to keep putting finger on the platter or twisting the spindle to keep them in beat

The denon v12 is so much easier to mix with. Most of the time you can just let it play with no correction and it all I want is a turntable that is good at mixing and that is what these are a proper dj turntable that are easy to mix on and to hold the beat on them records that the Stantons could not hold or even if you did get it to beat match, it just does not sound as smooth as the denons.

And the sound quality on these things is just so nice. Like I said the dead zone has caused no issues when mixing. I totally love these turntables.

I took a risk on these turntables I was going to buy a old pair of technics 1210’s mrk 2’s and these denon turntables have come up trumps and tick all the right boxes for me

Amen to that!

One of the reasons for this is because Hanpin Super OEMs are extremely high torque. It’s hard to drag or nudge the edge of the platter or speed up or slow down by the spindle. Possible, but it takes a lot of effort and the amount of effort it takes is so high it’s easier to overshoot your intended drag or nudge. The best way I’ve found to bend on the Hanpins is to use the pitch fader, toggling the quartz lock on/off on the appropriate deck, or do your drags and nudges on the record itself. While I do not have VL12s, I can tell you the similar motor design used on the SC5000M makes it much easier to manipulate the platter edge on them than the Hanpin Super OEM platter. While I think manipulating the edge of a record on Hanpins is doable and certainly better than trying to manipulate the platter itself, manipulating the edge of the platter on an SC5000M is even easier and more predictable than manipulating the edge of a record on a Hanpin. So yeah, if the VL12’s platter itself responds anything like the SC5000M, and InMusic claims they’re similar motor designs, then I can certainly see that if you’re doing platter or spindle bends that the VL12 would be more pleasant in that regard than the Stantons. That is completely consistent with what I find comparing the M and the Hanpins.

So what for you is the biggest implication, as for me, this is key.

The biggest implication of the pitch fader issues to me on the VL12 is that it’s possible to move the pitch fader a little and it’s not actually going to do anything at all… speed doesn’t change or the LED light come on because you’ve gone into a little center deadzone. It needs to do one or the other. Every little movement of the pitch fader should be doing something, either changing the speed or telling me I’ve gone into that deadzone with an indicator light coming on. Even on a vinyl turntable with a digitally-controlled motor, I expect analog-like control and feedback. A small center deadzone and a light to tell me I’ve arrived in it are the only acceptable ways that any input on that pitch fader should not produce a new outcome when the quartz lock button is off. I shouldn’t have to wonder whether I’ve had an effect or have to stare at the ridges on the platter edge to see if their position or velocity has changed at all.

I agree. I’d definitely be interested in a version 2, with these issues resolved.

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And/or a returns/repair program on the VL12s to resolve these issues. They had a returns program for the Rane Twelve, after all.

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I finally got a chance to play with a set of VL12’s. The center dead zone on the VL12 is identical to the center dead zone on the Technics 1200MK2. The center LED turns on when you engage the Quartz Lock (Reset) identical operation as the Technics 1200M3D (which technics fixed the previous dead zone issue in).

The issues I did notice: There are ten markers on the pitch fader. The most commonly used mixing ranges are 8% and 16%. The pitch fader location does not represent an accurate change in pitch. For example, placing the fader in the middle between center and max gave an increase of 3.8% as opposed to 4%. This was recorded throughout the pitch range. For someone moving over from Technics, this makes for an uncomfortable mixing experience. The platter design collects oil from fingers on the outside leading to an inconsistent pitch bending experience utilizing the platter.