American Audio

The American Audio Encore 1000 is a DJ CD and MP3 player that is great for a mobile DJ; it can help you stay organized. It is a 2 channel audio mixer that is made well, all of the buttons and knobs are pretty well made and I don’t see any issues arising with the build of this unit. The Encore 1000 has a relay playback and balanced XLR outputs. There is also a auxiliary input on the front of it that was perfect for me to get my iPod audio into the Encore 1000. Getting the Encore 1000 up and running was not hard at all. I did follow of the instructions that where in the manual and I was ready to use it in no time. This unit is not that heavy which means it is great for travel and transportation but at the same time it didn’t have that “solid” build to me. It just didn’t seem like it was made out of the best materials to make it last for a long time. The buttons and sliders where fine but the unit overall had more of a “plastic” type of feel too it. The two platters feel nothing like some of the higher end similar models and nothing like a real vinyl platter in any way. Other users have said it does feel like a real vinyl player when used but I strongly disagree. There are other units out on the market that have a more “vinyl” feel too it but you will have to spend a little more money for one of those units. I do not think that this unit is bad, I just don’t think the Encore 1000 was for me. It does have a lot of features like auto BPM and Pitch options but it didn’t have any effects on board and for this price it should have some effects like flanger or some filters.

The American Audio Flex 100 is a MP3 CD Player that is very easy to operate and to understand how it works. Especially since I was using a few other players similar to this one around the same time. All of the buttons and the one slider are well made but I still would not trust this unit to keep working or at least look the same after a drop. The Flex 100 has a touch sensitive jog wheel that you can cue tracks with or scroll with. There are some built in effects on the Flex 100 but nothing that I was really excited about. Setting up this unit is very easy; the instructions walked me through the whole process though I really didn’t even need the instructions. The screen that is on it is pretty small but it is very easy to read and work with. There are only about 4 lines of the display but everything is visible and the text/ numbers are not too small or hard to read. The Flex 100 has auto and manual BPM counters with a temp lock options. The effects that are on this unit are scratch, echo, filter, stutter, brake, and flanger. These effects are pretty standard for units in this price range. This unit is very affordable and could be great for someone who is just getting started. One of the features I did like about it is its ability to do a folder search to find the right songs easily and quickly and also the “quick MP3 recognition”. I had no issues getting the songs that I want to find playing quickly between the folder search and it showing the artist and track name when the disc is loaded. Working with this unit has been a joy, I have not used many products from American Audio but I felt very comfortable with the quality of this unit.

The American Audio Radius 3000 is a table top CD or MP3 playing CDJ system. It will play CD and CDR disk, and you can play all your music from a USB or external hard drive, and the managing system with the American Audio Radius is very in detail by being able to organize your music files by artist name, song name, or genre. This will allow you to locate all of your files as fast as possible. The price of the Radius 3000 is very affordable, but I do want to suggest to a future buyer that maybe saving a few hundred more dollars if you can and just get a Pioneer CDJ system. They are built to last and just feel so much more better and have a better output sound. The Radius 3000 does have some key features that make it very competitive and for the price, most people will not pass this unit up. You have around 9 FX options on the Radius 3000 , Filter , Phase, Flanger, Pan and Scratch just to name a few, along with the Digital Bpm you will have the tap button as well to match all of your tempo’s really easy and fast. The Radius 3000 also had MIDI capabilities for input and output mapping. So whether you need to have all of your music organized or you want to search for a song while you already have one playing , you will have some pretty advanced features for a 400 dollars you will have a solid built CDJ system. But as I stated, I would save more for the Pioneer line if you can hold off. The Radius 3000 is not a bad unit at all, It just feels like it is made for more of a beginner rather than a paid DJ. Also make sure you invest in some good audio cords, because the ones that come with it are not very good and are cheap. This unit is also smaller and lighter than a lot of other CDJ systems, but maybe because it is not as well built.

(Originally written by lachosenet/translated from Audiofanzine FR) - How long have you been using it? Three years - Which feature do you like the most / the least? Pros: - Bop function (a button that takes you back to the cue point in play mode), which is very convenient for track sync. - Ultra accurate cue points. Cons: - Almost useless scratch function. - Did you try any other models before buying it? Many... And I prefer turntables to the CDJ. - How would you rate its value for money? The product is quite expensive even though it's MP3 compatible, which was a rare feature when I bought it. - Based on your experience, would you buy this product again? I wouldn't hesitate to buy it again. It's a good and effective product.