DJ Equipment Reviews

Trackmaster V3 is the master of output DJ cartridges

All of you working DJs spinning DJ turntables out there know Stanton, right? Yeah, sure you do, how could you not when pretty much every talk about DJ cartridges has the name "Stanton" included at some point? It’s nothing to be ashamed of either, because Stanton is the "daddy" when it comes to DJ cartridges, having started with the world’s first microgroove cartridge all the way in 1948. But that’s history, the main thing is that Stanton Magnetics, the cartridges division of Stanton DJ equipment has been updating ever since and they constantly offer the industry standard, never outdone by anybody else. Proof of their continuous evolution is their Trackmaster V3 DJ cartridge, which is cut out to be used in club or live performace by working DJs all around the world.

Trackmaster V3 is, as the name suggests, the master of vinyl tracking in DJ cartridges. Everything about the Trackmaster V3 is to further enhance and improve tracking, giving that great sound only Stanton DJ cartridges can offer, and it of course serves scratching DJs maybe a little better than other kinds of working DJs. First of all, Trackmaster V3 is Stanton’s third and (let’s hope) not final iteration of their Trackmaster series DJ cartridges, brought to a whole new era with the current features. The most obvious change is the look, where Trackmaster V3 is more modern and more suitable for clubs maybe, with a combination of light blue and silver. Man, can those colors attract attention under night club neon lights…

The design of Trackmaster V3 is pretty simple to explain: Stanton set out from the beginning to make Trackmaster V3 a one-piece DJ cartridge, putting everything together and inside one single enclosure, rather than leaving exposed wires and such. This also helps the Trackmaster V3 give one of the best ways to play a record and a sound to be admired by any working DJ. The modern look, more aerodynamic, long and slick is also present in Trackmaster V3, which is more of a curve kind of guy, rather than a bulky, all squary DJ cartridge, like some other I could name.

Biggest advantage for Trackmaster V3 and the thing that makes it so worthwhile when talking tracking is the way in which it picks up sound. While most other DJ cartridges use one coil to transform vibrations into sound, Trackmaster V3 uses an amazing 4 different coils to pick up even the slightest most insignifiant groove on that album. The one piece design also helps eliminating hums or background noise that can ruin or seriously mess up your DJ turntable’s output sound. Made mostly for tracking and scratching, the choice of needles was rather simple for Stanton: spherical stylus. This makes following grooves easy and keeps the Trackmaster V3 on track, so to speak, helps capture the maximum amount of detail from the vinyl, and furthermore, since Trackmaster V3 is made to be scratch intensive at the highest quality, the stylus minimizes the cue burn and lengthens the total lifespan of your DJ cartridge.

A bit of technical facts about the Trackmaster V3 go like this:

• frequency response of 20 Hz to 20 kHz
• an output of 7.0 mV at 1 kHz
• the tracking force is from 2 to 5 grams
• stylus dimensions is 0.7 millimeters, spherical shape with super high polish
• total Trackmaster V3 weight is 18 grams
• and the tracking ability (no wonder they mentioned this) is 90u at 3 grams

The same integrated design makes mounting Trackmaster V3 on a headshell a thing of the past while helping with some other things I’ve mentioned as well. Altogether, Trackmaster V3 is made especially for club working DJs and hip hop or scratch DJs, as the features of this DJ cartridge make it run for hours at a time maintaing the same sound quality and groove tracking. Now, for all that Stanton quality, a Trackmaster V3 costs around 120$ a single DJ cartridge, but it’s also available in an MP4 package, Trackmaster V3 MP4, which offers two matched DJ cartridges mounted on something that looks like a tonearm, and put inside a practical, easy to carry, road worthy, clear flight case for transport, and that will bring you down about 240$. However, the features and quality on Trackmaster V3 recommend it as a canditate for a long term relationship with any working DJ out there.

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