Big Worm said:
Interesting deck you bought there. It appears to be a belt drive DJ mixer deck. The USB feature is pretty cool. Some of the other keys I can give you for better sound is to isolate the deck by decoupling it from sound resonance created from the speakers. You can decouple the speakers as well by using speaker stand or speaker spikes. You should hear a small difference, but every small difference adds up in the world of audio. Numark has many products out there to upgrade the turntable. I usually start with a good cartridge ($150+) for that style of deck and a good medium tension needle (too hard will eat your vinyl, too soft will drop db). Be sure to inspect and remove the dust from you needle every so often and change the felt like you would with an air filter since it will tend to slip the vinyl after dirt and dust collects. You can also adjust you tone arm height, but I find the reference level to work best. This feature is mainly adjusted if you buy an aggressive slop cartridge.
Keep on rock Tup:
Good tips there. I have always had my speakers isolated on stands. My speakers are RogerSound Labs studio monitors. Very flat frequency response, they don't color the sound at all, at least not that I can perceive. I use them for mixing and mastering original recordings as well. They are honest, reliable speakers. The deck is on top of a seperate cabinet a few feet away from either speaker.
What is a good way to clean the needle? Before I stage a disc, I run a swiffer duster over the vinyl. If they're dirty I'll use a solution of distilled water and alcohol.
