Quality Starter decks (Citronic PD-Q)

Member Name: poisonfish

Product:	Citronic PD-Q
Date:	26/09/01 (644 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Sturdy, Good value, Good for bedroom DJs

Disadvantages: Initial teething troubles, The paint issue

So you want to be a DJ? Ask most people who know about turntables what are the best and two names will pop - either Technics or Vestax. But these cost around £350 each.

I found this problem when I wanted to buy decks. I had practised on Technics and they are great - but £700 is a lot, especially when you add on a mixer - and all that vinyl.

I went to my local DJ store and spent 2 hours trying all the different decks. I eventually brought a pair of Citronic PD-Qs and a Gemini PMX-140 mixer. With headphones this came to £400. This is my review.

I had been to dooyoo and read the reviews of
the PD-1s and thought they could be for me. After testing, I feel that it is worth spending the extra £50. It is certainly spending the extra over the cost of Belt-Drive decks. I've used belt drives and over the course of 20 seconds the pitch can vary, and more worryingly when back cueing the deck actually slipped once. Direct drives are a real minimum for DJ use.

The Citronic stood out straight away. The tone arm is all metal, and very stable. It's not height adjustable but you will have no problems deck-wise with back-queing and beat matching I promise you.

Scratching is different - but that's a different league as well. I play 2 step and four to the floor garage, so I have no problems. Rewinds and drop-ins work fine.

The decks come with Stanton 500ALs. These are industry standard. Keep them clean and you'll have nothing to worry about.

The decks have all the standard features, but little else. Smoked plastic hood, 33/45 rpm, 10% pitch control, anti skate and ground leads. No reverse play, or 20% pitch, or 78 - but do you really want them? 10% pitch control is fine, and 2% more than the industry standard Technics

Although not a big point, it's also pleasing asthetically - it's shiny black with tiny silver flickers on it. They look nice and much better than th
e PD-1 with it's gaudy yellow headlining. The strobe is red though, rather than blue.

The pitch control is accurate and it responds quickly. Not like a Technics, but the same goes for most of the attributes. The notch at 0% is a matter of personal taste - it helps beginners, and the Technics have them, but they're not really needed when you have a quartz locked green light which displays at 0%. Still it's not a problem at all.

In addition to the pitch slider the decks have pitch bend buttons, as seen on the Gemini 500XL mk2. These are, quite frankly awful. Not specifically on the PD-Q, but awful generally They sound terrible, and if you want to progress your will be better off caressing the bumps on the platter or spinning the centre spindle.

The decks are very stable. They have the same bottom casing as the PD-2, if you look underneath you can see the areas where the PD-2 would be adjustable. They are just spacers on the PD-Q. The deck does not jump easily - any jumps are more likely to be caused by heavy handedness.

So - the bad points? There are some. When I first got my decks home I found that when at 45rpm they were not running at the proper speed - I took them back straight away and the problem seems to have settled down now. When I rang Citronic, the guy there was not that helpful - apparently you should expect a little difference at this level. The fault seems to lie between the Printed Circuit Board and the motor. I am quite happy with the decks now - beat matching is spot on even after 7 minutes, but I would like to hear from any other PD-Q owners who have experienced this. You certainly won't get it on Technics!

More annoyingly then a problem is the paint on the side of the platter, when the fingers touch it. After 2 weeks of 4 hours a day use, the paint beneath the dots is starting to fade. Hey - I may have corrosive hands, but I doubt it. It has no bearing on pitch speed.


These are minor gripes, and I would recommend the PD-Q as a quality beginner deck that you can be proud of. I got 2 with a feature-packed mixer for £400. I phoned around and haggled - try to play 2 shops off each other. If you want a more basic mixer, say a PMX-40 I reckon you could easily get this for £360.

The decks came with a return-to-shop warranty.

These decks are good for Hobby and bedroom use. Actually You could easily use them playing to people in a club, but you wouldn't want to. My advice is, when you get to the stage when you can play in a club, then go for Technics as an investment. Up to that point, these are great. Good luck if you want to learn to DJ - it's giving me great satisfaction.

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