and a portable turntable/mixer Debt troubles In mid-October 2014, many websites reported a speculative piece investigating reports from the Japanese news source "Teikoku News Online", that Vestax was ceasing operations. Retailers in the US closed shop, and there was a lack of representation or new products being revealed at trade shows. On 5 December Vestax started bankruptcy proceedings with a debt of 900 million yen (roughly $7.5 million USD). Technology Vestax was the manufacturer to release a vinyl cutting machine for home vinyl cutting of new mixes / dubplate, in 2001. Vestax innovated with their turntable using a straight tone arm, which gave greater tracking force; useful for complex DJing maneuvers such as scratching or beat juggling. This has been adopted by virtually all other turntable manufacturers, with the exception of Technics. Some maintain however that the straight arm increases wear upon the record. This is based on the premise that the original 's' shaped tonearm is so designed as to naturally gravitate toward the center of the record. The straight arm will not do this, and so will theoretically drag more as the record rotates, wearing down the grooves. Vestax however have consistently denied this. Mixers For many years Vestax had been creating professional mobile DJ style mixers, but in the early 1990s they started creating mixers focusing on the developing Turntablism scene. Two of the first early attempts were the Vestax PMC-05FX and PMC-05 Trix mixers. These were simple mixers which were endorsed by famous DJs and had a stripped down layout. They had features (like a centered crossfader which was replaceable). They were also a small size which made juggling and other techniques easier. But they lacked some key features like a smooth crossfader, hamster switch, EQ controls, and an unobstructed crossfader area. During NAMM 1993 Vestax began talking to DJs (including DJ Shortkut, DJ Rhettmatic, and DJ Q-Bert) about creating mixers which took some of the best features from previous models and catered to the emerging turntablism scene. The PMC-05 Pro was the first model which came out of these conversations. It was a major step forward for DJs competing in DJ battles. It had a smooth, quick cut crossfader which was adjustable. The crossfader was also not surrounded by any screws or physical barriers, which made scratching and juggling easier. Other features included headphone cueing, 2 band EQs, and independent gains per channel. Mixer Models