How do CDX and HDX compare with the Denon and Pioneer table-top players?

A Question for Biff!

"How do CDX and HDX compare with the Denon and Pioneer table-top players? "

This question was recently asked and Biff thought he's share his answer with everyone.

HDX is a new and innovative piece that allows an external hard drive to be inserted into the unit with all of your music. Plus it still plays CDs. So there is really no standard to compare it to.

In my opinion, and EVERYONE has one. It really depends on what you are going to do with them……

Mobile, I would stick with the Pioneer or Denon (again my opinion) because the CDX is heavy and I personally would not want to cart them around. I would definitely buy them if I was using them in a bar or home application.

That being said, I think the CDX is one of the most innovate products of last year…..it has the feel closest to a turntable….good response effects and such.

So if you are a turntablest looking for the feel closest to your 1200’s this is your piece. If you are a mobile DJ who does a lot of traveling and likes the feel of the Pioneer or Denon, I wouldn’t switch.

May not be the answer you are looking for, but it is hard to just give a yes or no answer….All three are on display in the store and available on the web site. The best bet is to play with them and see what you think.

Not a very committal answer, but the real difference is a matter of feel and not one of technical comparison. If you are in the Detroit area drop into one of our stores and we'll be more than happy to help you choose what is right for you.

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DJ Biff
DJSupply.com

NAMM - Day 2 & 3

Friday was yet another busy day at the NAMM show. Due to a bunch of confidentiality agreements that we had to sign, I can't really get into many things that we saw. However, there are a couple of tidbits that I can pass along.

Numark had a prototype of their hybrid tunrtable/CD player. It is basically the TTX and the CDX merged together in one unit. The motor is solid as heck and it is a very sturdy piece. We also got a chance to see the Numark HDX CD player with built in hard drive and they also have a new single DVD player out called the VJ01 and the corresponding mixer, the AVM02. The video pieces are the next generation of products brought out by Numark.

Pioneer also showed a couple of new products, the DJM-800 and the DJM-400. The DJM-800 is a 4 channel mixer with all the standard effects plus some new ones, and FULL midi control. Basically, you can use it as a midi controller to control any software that you own. It's pretty cool. The DJM-400 is the new 2-channel mixer from Pioneer that also has effects and is also designed to go along with the CDJ-200's, but it really can be used with anything you so choose.

Another neat product that we saw was a new portable staging system from Road Ready. It's actually very affordable and could be a good product for a DJ to add to his system. I mean, how could you not want a portable stage system for a good price??

Today was more of a research day with an appointment with Edirol/Roland and we also were looking at other software manufactures. We talked to the good folks at M Audio, Ableton, and Native Instruments. I really didn't see anything new and groundbreaking in the way of software, but we did hammer out a few details of what software we are going to start to carry.

It's going to be an exciting year for us in 2006, we will be taking on new products and growing as a company in ways that we never have before. Stay tuned as to what the future holds for us in the next year!

As a reminder, don't forget to check out our wonderful pics from the NAMM '06 on DJSupply.com.

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DJ Biff
DJSupply.com

NAMM Day 1

Today was the first day of the NAMM show in Anaheim, CA. We had a pretty lengthy day with lots of appointments with manufactures. We saw ADJ, Odyssey, Rane, Gemini, Cortex, American Audio, Arriba, Chauvet, Crown, JBL, Lexicon,Tapco, Crate, B-52, and Omnisistem. Needless to say, it was rather lengthy and we logged a lot of time on our feet.

On to the goods...

One of the pieces of gear that really peaked our interest was the new Rane TTM57SL mixer. The nice thing about it is that it has the Scratch Live scratch amp built into the mixer and it also comes with the Scratch Live software. (see pic below)





Not only does the TTM57 have the scratch amp essentially built in, but it also has added controls for controlling the software from the mixer itself. What kind of functions you ask? Well, when the mixer comes out around the summer time, Scratch Live will have implemented effects into the program and the mixer will actually be able to control the effects parameters, too! This piece is definitely going to be a hot item once it's released and we have already placed our order for some.

Another cool piece we saw was the HDC-01 Digital Music Controller from Cortex. What this piece is a dual CD player controller that you can hook into an external hard drive or iPod and play and control your music files from it! It takes the laptop out of the equation while still letting you play songs off of your hard drive. This unit is a very interesting piece and could really change the mobile DJ industry. We were told that the product won't be released until later in the year, so keep checking back to DJSupply.com for more info. Here's a pic in the meantime, though.


We are now off to hit the sack. We have another full day of appointments and are looking forward as to what new products we will get to see tomorrow. Until then, have a wonderful evening.

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DJ Biff
DJSupply.com

DJ Supply at NAMM!

Disc Jockey Supply management is heading to the NAMM trade show to find the very best in new DJ, Karaoke, Lighting, and Pro Sound gear. They plan to report daily right here on this blog what exciting new products. Stop by daily during the show to see what they found is the very best in new gear.

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DJ Biff
DJSupply.com