I just saw the erm… “slick” user interface on a competitor’s new media player. I don’t want to mention the name. Let’s just call it the Grillinator-3000.
As a result I’d like you to all fill your glasses and toast the Denon DJ Engineers who brought us a smooth and 21st century UI on the Prime series. Thank you guys. Good job, we appreciate it.
From your point of view, yes, good for Denon but don’t forget that Pioneer still has what Denon wants (needs) which is that earned and trusted reputation Pioneer has.
It was smart of Pioneer to copy the SC units because (if we’re being honest here) there are still a ton of people who were not willing to part ways from their trusted Pioneer gear and even if they were contemplating, now with the release of the 3000’s, I would say that the chance Denon had to take more of Pioneer’s customers has diminished. Sure, there will always be people who will switch due to price, or common sense (lol) but at the end of the day, Pioneer is still wearing the crown in the industry and Denon still needs to work hard to take it away from them (please don’t confuse the last statement for me suggesting they deserve the crown, that’s not what I said).
I think that Denon needs to remember that what helped them gain a bit of success with the Prime decks was their price point and if the Denon gear is too close in price to the Pioneer gear, it will be an uphill battle for them.
I never intended to invest in CDJs again until the i saw the 5000s. Prior to the announcement of the 5ks, i was pretty content with using controllers, turntables (dvs) and HID in clubs.
There nothing wrong with the Grillinator-3000 and I’m happy to use them as with the earlier devices. I just think that the SC5000/6000 is an excellent device and it stands on it’s own two feet.
Yes you can navigate through the song by taping anywhere on the preview waveforms on the CDJ3000.
Just look any review on YouTube, you will realize how powerful it is!
the audio coming from the preview can be directly routed to the headphone output so no need to use cue mix button (Pioneer) or use the upfaders (Denon).
But not sure if the Denon link protocol can transport audio so the X1800/1850.
But on the prime Go/2/4 this should definitely be possible.
Just my personal opinion… I definitely prefer track preview in the browser the way it is implemented in the Prime series.
With Denon Prime track preview:
The preview does not take up extra screen space which can therefore be used for the information of the tracks tags instead of preview
There is no need to keep holding the preview to play (it plays trough on release untill tapped elsewhere to stop or loaded)
It’s easy to play from track start without accidentally press the browser to another list
There is a lot more room to scroll more exact trough the preview (not by mini waveform, but by time)
It doesn’t require a Pro Link compatible mixer, but can be used with every mixer (with as bonus upfader detection in advance with a Prime mixer).
Advantages to argue in favor of Pioneers way could be:
The visual mini waveform indication (instead of time indication)
Toggling on/off in browser screen instead of utility (but I don’t see the need on Prime to bring it there, since preview is not taking up extra space in the browser), so basically they can both be turned on and off
Seperate cue channel on top of all your channels (I don’t see the need, since you probably preview to load to one of the channels that also have cue