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Audiofanzine FR
Published on 03/10/09 at 08:25
Value For Money :
Excellent
(Originally written by Shabrak/translated from Audiofanzine FR)
- I've been using it for two months.
- Pros: - Dual deck concept. I hesitated before buying it because
I wasn't sure about its practicality but it works really
good.
- The tray!!! You can place a vinyl record on it and the sound emulation sounds very good.
- DSP effects: I love the easy-to-use echo/loop effect.
- The possibility to mount a HDD in the device.
- ASIO sound card and Midi function. I can't wait for native support in Serato :p
- Cons: - Bugs but they will be removed by the next
update (in one month).
- Denon Music Manager which is not very practical to use.
- I previously owned two DN-S 1200 (very good value for money) and I' don't regret having changed them for this, especially considering the rotating plate. I also had ICDX (they are toys), Cortex HDC 3000 (avoid them), Denon DND-4000 (good).
- The value for money is excellent considering it's a dual tray device!! Cheaper than a CDJ-1000, even with the 250GB HDD, the Asio and Midi sound card and the plate! I personally think Denon made a quantum leap with this product.
UPDATE: after eight months of use.
lots of bugs have not been removed yet:
- First and foremost the Music Manager:
MP3 tag editing is annoying and with plenty VERY irritating minor bugs.
The search engine is also exasperating. I'd prefer an
itunes-like browser. Music Manager's search engine is not ergonomic at all.
- The deck:
The dual decks concept is NOT RELIABLE for live mixing, even after
upgrading, I still have pitch stability problems when I toggle between both decks, or
when I enable the echo/loop effect. The most irritating thing is that
you usually need to switch decks or start a loop
when you start the second song. And then the first song (or loop) changes
from 135 to 143 BPM (it happened to me 20 minutes ago while I recorded
a demo!). Worst of all is that there is no way to know when it will happen!
There are still other smaller problems which are unnerving:
- DSP effects are not reseted when you disable them
- buttons are not reliable (I would prefer aluminum buttons, especially for cue points.
After several months of use you'll have to depress them quite hard to make sure they are activated).
- You have to use the wheel to set DSP effects.
I miss dedicated buttons because the wheel is very sensitive and unpractical
to set parameter values.
- pitch value changes from time to time
- some functions are useless: mirror mix, next file, hot list,
filter. It would be better to have more cue points and, as I already said, dedicated buttons instead of the
wheel (but that's a matter of taste).
As a summary, the product has no major problems but I'm fed up of waiting for bug fixes. That's the reason I lower the mark from 9 to 7.
I wouldn't buy it again if they don't fix these bugs.
- I've been using it for two months.
- Pros: - Dual deck concept. I hesitated before buying it because
I wasn't sure about its practicality but it works really
good.
- The tray!!! You can place a vinyl record on it and the sound emulation sounds very good.
- DSP effects: I love the easy-to-use echo/loop effect.
- The possibility to mount a HDD in the device.
- ASIO sound card and Midi function. I can't wait for native support in Serato :p
- Cons: - Bugs but they will be removed by the next
update (in one month).
- Denon Music Manager which is not very practical to use.
- I previously owned two DN-S 1200 (very good value for money) and I' don't regret having changed them for this, especially considering the rotating plate. I also had ICDX (they are toys), Cortex HDC 3000 (avoid them), Denon DND-4000 (good).
- The value for money is excellent considering it's a dual tray device!! Cheaper than a CDJ-1000, even with the 250GB HDD, the Asio and Midi sound card and the plate! I personally think Denon made a quantum leap with this product.
UPDATE: after eight months of use.
lots of bugs have not been removed yet:
- First and foremost the Music Manager:
MP3 tag editing is annoying and with plenty VERY irritating minor bugs.
The search engine is also exasperating. I'd prefer an
itunes-like browser. Music Manager's search engine is not ergonomic at all.
- The deck:
The dual decks concept is NOT RELIABLE for live mixing, even after
upgrading, I still have pitch stability problems when I toggle between both decks, or
when I enable the echo/loop effect. The most irritating thing is that
you usually need to switch decks or start a loop
when you start the second song. And then the first song (or loop) changes
from 135 to 143 BPM (it happened to me 20 minutes ago while I recorded
a demo!). Worst of all is that there is no way to know when it will happen!
There are still other smaller problems which are unnerving:
- DSP effects are not reseted when you disable them
- buttons are not reliable (I would prefer aluminum buttons, especially for cue points.
After several months of use you'll have to depress them quite hard to make sure they are activated).
- You have to use the wheel to set DSP effects.
I miss dedicated buttons because the wheel is very sensitive and unpractical
to set parameter values.
- pitch value changes from time to time
- some functions are useless: mirror mix, next file, hot list,
filter. It would be better to have more cue points and, as I already said, dedicated buttons instead of the
wheel (but that's a matter of taste).
As a summary, the product has no major problems but I'm fed up of waiting for bug fixes. That's the reason I lower the mark from 9 to 7.
I wouldn't buy it again if they don't fix these bugs.