Stanton T.62 MKII Review – Great Budget (DJ) Turntable?

Design and build quality

This turntable has a classic DJ look with its black and silver finish. Its materials are mostly aluminum and plastic but at the same time the turntable doesn’t seem light which gives it a more premium feel. Although it might seem to focus more towards the DJ market the design and feel is actually quite close to the Audio Techna AT-LP120, which is one of the best alternatives by the way, although a bit more expensive.

With most of the elements in black the device has a solid look. There are quite a few features found on the plinth beside the tonearm and platter. Things like a power button, two start/stop buttons, speed button, and pitch control slider. What is smart is that the use of aluminum is limited to the tonearm, buttons, and ring around the platter and therefore giving extra focus towards the most important elements. All these elements give the turntable the true DJ look rather than a minimalistic feel that other brands are going for. 

Features

DJ Set up

Although the turntable can be used easily for some casual vinyl it really has some particular features that show it is suited for DJs. To start, the turntable is direct-drive meaning the motor is directly placed under the platter instead of bel-drive turntables where the motor is placed more towards the side and connected with a belt. This has some advantages, you have more control of starting, stopping and adjusting pitch or speed and it will react immediately to your controls. Also tracking and scratching is possible for some classic DJing. The straight tonearm helps as it is more geared towards DJing than an S-shaped tonearm. It has cardan’s suspension and an arm length of 191mm making it rather suitable.

Cartidge

The Stanton T.62  includes a Stanton 500.v3 cartridge, pre-mounted into the headshell. This cartridge does a decent job of reducing the surface noise and at 3 grams also helps to avoid skipping or crackling. So in short, there is no sense of noise such as crackling or resonance when listening to music on the turntable – which ultimately also ads to the overall sound quality.

Controls

Furthermore, there are two playback speed controls for either 33 or 45 RPM, alongside two start/stop switches which allows the DJ to have a mix or a battle set up. Within the package, there are also audio cables included, but keep in mind that the cords are quite short and any distance over three feet you’ll probably need to buy some longer ones. There is also a pitch control slider with a +/- 10% adjustment, giving you more flexibility to play with sounds.

Accessories

Finally, some basic accessories come with the Stanton T.62, such as a slipmat and a cloth dust cover.

Setup and Sound

The instructions to set up the turntable is incredibly simple with little need for specific knowledge, adding to the fact that this is very suitable for both beginners and professionals. The sound quality of this turntable is really decent for the price, and at roughly $150 at the time of writing, it’ll be hard to find anything that beats it. The sound is enjoyable to listen to, though there is a little room for improvement in the width of the soundstage. Vocals seem to be played very well through this turntable, as the sound can be best described as rich and transparent. Furthermore, on this turntable there is plenty of bass pull, with the 500.v3 cartridge really managing the bass and high end well simultaneously. For the price, the sound quality of the Stanton T.62 is phenomenal, making this a fantastic all-rounder that is very suitable for vinyl or DJ beginners.

Conclusion

The Stanton T.62 is priced really well when all its features are taken into account. And for a DJ, it is probably the best quality turntable available in this lower price range. While there are definitely better alternatives, the jump in cost will rarely pay out for an amateur, and most beginning DJs will most likely find that the Stanton is more than enough to cover their needs. Of course, there are much better DJ turntables out there but on average these devices such as CDJ’s can cost $1000 aiming more for the professional DJ’s. Now the Stanton T.62 is also suitable for vinyl beginners that want to play a record once in a while but we do think there are better options out there for these users. We recommend looking into our guides on the best beginner turntables or the best cheap turntables. Or you could go with our overall favourite turntable on the market the Denon DP400, but keep in mind this is In a higher price range.