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

• 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

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.