I was wondering which features i might not be able to use if i switch the x1800 out and use lets say a db2 instead. The players can be linked without the x1800 as central device but which functions or features won’t be able to use without the x1800?
i would say the main 2 would be:
- when a deck is “live” the platter changes color so you know its the deck playing out the speakers
- instant BPM on effect, with the db2 you will have to wait for it to calculate the bpm for effects vs with the 1800 being linked it reads the data right from the track instantly
being this is the same from a nexus setup I’m assuming this would be the 2 main downfalls in not linking to a 1800
Yeah, I think I’m going to end up keeping my 900nxs2 over getting the X1800. I just can’t get past the color scheme for the VU meters. When I had the NS6, those were sooo distracting and annoying to say the least. Oh, how I wish they had gone w’ the traditional Green/Amber/Red!!!
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I agree maybe I’m too traditional but I also prefer the green and red leds.
haha - ya, I must be a bit of a traditionalist myself as I found the meters a tad jarring in the first few videos. However A&H have a long history of toying around with the VU meters and people seem to be able to adapt so I imagine this will be no different.
For me it’s not the unusual VU meter colors but the lack of two features:
- filter resonance knob (that was for some reason removed from prototype unit in favour of pan knob and placed inside the utility menu)
- inability to apply FX to only hi+low frequency of the original song because of the use of frequency knob instead of the standard 3 buttons on/off system
They should have kept the X1600 design and updated it to match the x1800 specs. That is a beautiful mixer…too bad.
At its time, the x1600 was indeed a very nice mixer.
There are so many differences between the legacy x1600 and the new x1800 that a mere firmware update etc wouldn’t be able to apply all the features of the x1800 - especially the Prime integration.
Understood but I’m sure a faceplate refresh and some hardware changes wouldn’t have been that impossible.
It might be easier to start with “What features of the x1600 did you want to retain, which don’t appear to be on the x1800 ?”
Well for that fact that the x1800 is a full digital mixer is a little bit frightening because i used to own a djm 900 nxs2 with the error 9000 board. In it. So i would prefer the x1800 to be hybrid like the px5 or even a fully analog mixer.
Well, for one, the VU Meters were Green/Amber/Red, lololol!!
Analog mixers are suseptible to problems with faders and knobs affecting sound quality. Each technology has it’s own problems.
This “analog mixer is the best” crap needs to end. Fine, if you play strictly vinyl I understand you will want a full analog mixer to get that full warm sound but saying you’re getting it to avoid A/D conversion and then get PX5 that will do 2 such conversion every time you engage a FX (because the FX section is digital) just proves how DJ’s are “me too” crowd without understanding the finer points of some things.
And any digital mixer of a decent build will sound good. That saying, if you put crap into it, it will output crap. If you know your gain staging and have tracks of good audio quality it will sound good. On the other hand, anybody who has owned a mid level (or a cheap analog) mixer 15 years ago knows that with analog you get what you pay for. Meaning, it cost money to build a analog mixer that sounds good and you still get typical problems with dirty faders and current.
Denon mixers were always in the top regarding sound quality, even the full digital lineup. From the small X600 that sounds the same as it’s bigger brother X1600, small MC3000 controller that would put to shame DDJ-SX owners or the underrated king - X1700.
Even if they just c/p the components of the X1700 into the X1800 it is good enough. But, knowing Denon, they tweaked every little thing they could on it 
Denon deserves heat for a lot of things (software!) but saying they need to make a analog mixer just because you don’t trust digital from a bad experience with a competing product - crazy.
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Matrix input switches. And I hope Denon plans on releasing the simpler 4ch version that X1600 was in comparison to X1700 and a 2ch X600 mk2 Prime version
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I think the x1600 looks better than the 1800. From the vu meters to the design. The 1800 looks a little toyish in comparison.
I[quote=“DaMelloOne, post:15, topic:3847”]…a little toyish in comparison…[/quote] I really wish we as an industry could agree that this is a silly insult to level at any professional gear. I mean has anyone actually seen a toy? They don’t look like DJ gear - not even the entry level gear.
I think I’ll start a campaign - stop calling things “toys” just because you don’t fancy their industrial design.
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LED colour, or color … so long as its visible, I’m happy. Can we all agree perhaps that colour doesn’t have any significant working difference on the performance?
There’s a personal preference element sure. I was pleased, for the reasons perhaps bubbling a little in this thread, that the large, round, Effects On/Off button on the x1800 can have its RGB colour adjusted by the user menu, so if you’d like the button to glow Red, green, white, light blue, dark blue, purple (yummmmm!) or gold… you can have it that colour.
And we already know that the x1800 Cue buttons loght up in the same colours as the user has chosen for their platter ring colours on each of their layers.
Exactly. And if the sound/effects quality and functionality is top notch, who cares what colour the lights are…well, maybe pink would be questionable.
Actually, the VU Meter colors match a frequency value, so they do have a performance significance.
It’s a shame, because other than having to go into the utility menu to change the filter resonance, as well as the afore mentioned VU meter colors, I think the X1800 is actually superior to the 900nxs2. Maybe in a few years Denon will release an X1900 w’ these features so I can upgrade to it.
The utility menu, whilst sounding to some, like a long process, can be left open on-screen and Increases and decreases to the filter resonance value can be made in-the-fly at any time during a mix, using a fast rotary control.