(Photo: Kenneth Chen)

Everyone’s a critic, goes the lament of the criticized. Now everyone’s a D.J. too—and there’s no better place in the city for fledglings or pros to outfit themselves than Turntable Lab (120 East 7th Street; 212-677-0675 or turntablelab.com). Behind its appropriately graffiti’d façade, the low-ceilinged D.J.-owned and -staffed emporium stocks turntables, needles, records, mixers, production gear, headphones, magazines, and more (from $5 for new Daptone funk 45s to $79 for a Stanton starter mixer to $725 for a top-of-the-line Rane scratch mixer). Best of all, the attitude-free staff, unlike its Canal Street competition, cares less about the hard sell than about hard beats.

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• Archive: “Best of New York Weekly”
• Articles by Matt Weingarden
• Table of Contents: Feb 9, 2004 issue of New York | Subscribe!