Korg handytraxx play – a portable turntable you can scratch on

Vinyl comes with an unwritten rule. You put the record on, you sit down, and you listen. Politely. Hands off. Like it’s 1975.

The Korg handytraxx play is a portable turntable that runs on AA batteries, has its own speaker, and comes with a scratch fader, a looper, filters and a delay built in. It’s a record player you’re supposed to mess with.

It’s the most fun-looking turntable I’ve seen in years, and also not a cheap toy.

What is the Korg handytraxx play?

Some DJs will recognize the shape. The Vestax Handy Trax was a portable turntable from the early 2000s. Then Vestax went bankrupt in 2014, and the Handy Trax went with it. Korg brought it back in 2024, developed together with Toshihide Nakama, the former president of Vestax and co-creator of the original.

Korg kept the briefcase format and added a pile of digital tricks.

How does it work?

Put a record on, and it plays through the built-in 2.5 W speaker or through line and phono outputs to a real sound system. It does 33, 45 and 78 rpm, with a variable speed control on top. Then the fun part, according to Korg:

• A scratch fader built under Nakama’s guidance. You can flip the control layout for left-handed use, and the fader is replaceable.
• Three filter types: a DJ filter, an EQ filter with a low isolator, and a peaking wah.
• A delay you control with a vertical fader.
• A looper that records about 20 seconds of audio, so you can loop a bit of one record and scratch over it, or swap records while the loop keeps going.

The motor is belt-driven with digital rotation correction. It runs on the included AC adapter or six AA batteries, and Korg rates battery life at about 11 hours with the speaker on. It weighs 5.07 pounds and comes with a dust cover, slipmat and a 45 adapter.

The good and the not-so-good

What I like, on paper:

• A turntable, effects box and looper in one case that runs on batteries. Park bench DJ set, anyone?
• German music site Bonedo gave it 4 out of 5 and liked the torque, the looper and effects, the recording function and the left-handed mode.
• You can upgrade the cartridge to a moving magnet one, though Korg says that takes soldering.

What could be better:

• Bonedo found the stock fader’s cut-in a bit late and heard a slight hum. It also has no Bluetooth.
• In Bonedo’s test the needle started skipping at about a 45-degree tilt, where rival portables kept going much further. Wild lap scratching is not its thing.
• Amazon reviews are thin and mixed so far. One buyer called it cheap-feeling and overpriced.
• The little speaker is fine for practice. For listening, Bonedo says to plug it into proper speakers.

Who is the Korg handytraxx play for?

Scratch DJs and beginners who want a turntable they can carry to a friend’s house, and vinyl people who like the idea of looping their own records. It’s also a great-looking object on a shelf.

If you just want to listen to records, this is too much machine. A simple suitcase record player costs a fraction and plays your albums fine. And if looping is the part that excites you, look at the Boss RC-505.

Where can I buy the Korg handytraxx play?

Korg sells it through its own Amazon store. It was about 500 bucks at the time of writing (October 2026). Korg has since added two siblings aimed at listening and recording: the handytraxx tube, with a vacuum tube phono amp, and the handytraxx 1bit, which records in high-resolution DSD.

For more noisy gift ideas, see our most fun music gadgets for musicians.