Tech
Discover The Secret Japanese Turntable Needles Used By Pro DJs
Taruya needles are made by hand in Shibuya, Tokyo.
While many want to push the turntable into a digital, needle-less future, there are enough vinyl enthusiasts willing to defy the cult of digital perfection, using real needles and vinyl to push the tried-and-true turntable setup even further. But if you’re this kind of DJ, you may have run into a common problem: choosing between your setup’s sound quality and DJ-ability. High-fidelity audiophile equipment would literally disintegrate in a club setting—or even a well-worn home setup—and commercial DJ needles and cartridges are often created with durability in mind, letting audio quality fall short.
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Enter Tsuyoshi Abe, the DJ equipment guru and sound engineer from Tokyo that’s been slinging this stuff since 1992. Frustrated with the DJ cartridges on the market, he created Taruya, a line of artisan-made needles that don’t compromise in either direction. Since they’ve been selling Taruya needles, Tsuyoshi Abe’s shop, Disc Jam, has been receiving visits from world-renouned DJs like Derrick May and Qbert, who swear by the needles’ quality. Committed to solving common DJ problems, Taruya needles have incredibly high sound output and a flat frequency response, not to mention they’re noticeably cheaper than other high-end DJ needles. Check them out in action below.
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To check out Taruya needles for yourself, head over to their site here.
Read more: Watch the world’s first turntable orchestra reconstruct classical music.
