Korg's new portable turntables make me want to hit the streets and rock some blocks

(Image credit: Korg)

Battery-powered turntables for home and mobile listening
DJ-focused Play turntable has filters and looping
More premium versions have vacuum tube pre-amps

Korg has announced a trio of very unusual turntables that you can take anywhere. The new Handytraxx range can run on AA batteries as well as from a power outlet, and they include integrated speakers for music on the move. But these aren't toys. They're designed for DJs and serious music fans in the way that the best turntables are.

There are three and a bit models in the Handytraxx range. There's the Play, which is designed for mobile DJing; the Tube, which comes with a tube pre-amp for warmer sound and can turn your vinyl into digital files; and the 1bit, which offers improved digital recording. There's also a limited edition of the Tube in collaboration with Japanese cartridge firm JICO.

Korg Handytraxx turntables: portability, power features and pricing

Korg Handytraxx Tube — (Image credit: Korg)

The Handytraxx are a kind of homage to a homage; they're inspired by the early-noughties Vestax Handy Trax portable turntable, which in turn took its inspiration from the portable players of the 1960s and 1970s and found favour among DJs.

Each model is designed to be supremely portable, with the Play as the entry level model and the 1bit and limited-edition Tube as the premium options.

The key difference between the models is that the Play is much more focused on DJ features: it has a high-quality fader "optimized for scratching", built-in effects and a live looper. The Tube and 1bit remove that hardware and put in a Nutube vacuum tube preamp instead.

The Tube offers 16-bit, 44.1kHz/48kHz output via USB and the 1bit also offers digitization to 5.6 MHz DSD and 192 kHz, 24-bit PCM, creating audio files that you can then use on the 1bit or one of the best hi-res audio players.

The new Handytraxx turntables start at $399 / £359 for the Play, $799 / £699 for the Tube, $999 / £919 for the i1bit and $1,199 / £1,099 for the limited edition Tube J. Australian pricing hasn't been announced but should be around AU$640 to AU$1,925.

Contributor

Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than a dozen books. Her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, is on sale now and her next book, about pop music, is out in 2025. She is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind.