 "You get what you pay for!" | 2009-03-30 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1Z5NIW24HXOW8 |
In all fairness to the proceeding reviewers and to Numark I must say that unless you take the time to fully familiarize yourself with this unit, you may well experience frustration after frustration, especially if you're seeking instant gratification or the out of the box satisfaction of plug and play.
This unit takes a little understanding and some respect for what it does and does not do. I say this from personal experience, you see I purchased my iDJ2 and Odyssey case about a year ago to complete the switch from conventional Cd's to digital.
The initial firmware version 1.09A was installed and the unit came to life. The library process was a little more than I was expecting as my 31,000+ song library took approximately 30 hrs to complete in FULL mode one of four options that indexes music, builds seek tables for MP3 or AAC tracks that the player can read as well as calculates BPM tables and profiles that can be used to identify sections of a song phrase.
This is where understanding and respect play a part. In order for the unit to function properly one must build and maintain a clean library. What I mean is the unit is only as good as it's source material. Corrupt or damaged files invite huge problems not the least of which may include many if not all of the complaints previously listed in this forum!
This I say because until having recently upgraded to the latest firmware version 1.13 the only major glitch I experience happened while playing a corporate party in a hotel ballroom whose carpet, when simply walked on, emitted so much static electricity it rendered the iDJ2's controls and display functions inoperative each time I walked away and returned then touched the unit.
(Fortunately, I had experienced this once before while using a standard cd player. To resolve the issue I had to switch the unit off then on again and remain absolutely stationary while operating the unit.)
My latest perplexity began to occur when I upgraded to the latest firmware version 1.13 and Librarian files as directed by NUMARK. Following the directive to delete any old Librarian files and reinstall the one that came with the new firmware download I ran the update overnight and proceeded to explore the new features i.e. Vinyl vrs. Cd cueing, load all search songs & playlists to crate, etc. That's when I noticed the songs were taking anywhere from 10 seconds to over a minute to load on either deck. Alarmed by this I immediately did a search on the internet to see if anyone else had posted this problem and sure enough there were at least a dozen complaints regarding slow interface problems amongst other things. I began to feel a little stressed as I had less than 24hrs. before my next event.
I quickly put in a call to NUMARK and spoke to a very knowledgeable tech who suggested that I rebuild the library using the option FORCE TOTAL REBUILD. Uuuggh! Another 24 hours I didn't really have. Fortunatly, the powered hard drive I use only took about 12 hrs. and that got me through the event with some finesse.
I just completed the FORCE TOTAL REBUILD (a little over 24 hrs. for a 21,000+ song library on 160 Gig Ipod using a laptop.) Having put iDJ2 through it's paces I'm very happy to report that everything is back to normal in all modes, loading, search, etc.
If you are using the iDJ2 I cannot over emphasize the importance of having:
1.) a clean library file system,
2.) a bit of patients also,
3.) the telephone number to the NUMARK tech support handy for emergencies.
Recognizing there are plug and play units out there that don't require the diligence or maintenance the iDJ2 requires such as the Pioneer MEP-7000, I would only add that such convenience comes at a premium cost which easily exceeds 2 to 3 times that of the NUMARK.
While the latest firmware adds some very useful features to an already attractive package still, I would like to see future NUMARK firmware that is more user friendly and less time consuming especially in the initial setup.
Having said that I would like to close by saying from a professional standpoint having provided mobile entertainment for private and public events for over 30 years using a variety of electronics I give this unit a solid 4 stars and look forward to further developments regarding the NUMARK iDJ2.
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| "Numark IDJ2" | 2009-01-09 |
| - Reviewed By User: A22B3MFHI1E37F |
| The IDJ2 is a great product, easy to learn & put out a good sound. With the update from Numark this made the system run much faster but I'm still having problems using the search on my key board what gives the new updates doesn't solve this problem. I only have a few major questions for Numark, are you gonna make a program so mixes can be saved or recorded to the IDJ2, why was this feature removed but is still advertised on web sights, this was the real reason I purchased this produce, the first IDJ2 has it but this new model doesn't? |
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 "I love it!" | 2008-11-23 |
| - Reviewed By User: A1W98JOPERVYAA |
| It is perfect for what I need. I'm a musician but a lot of people was asking me to dj a little in weddings and parties, so now I'm ready! It already paid for itself last week....GREAT |
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| "IDJ2 rocks" | 2008-10-02 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2BPO4JI5X76QD |
| Great for starting-up djs..unfortunately there is not much effects only looping...open source system works perfectly!very great firware updates you can feel the difference!No prob with the unit so far! |
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 "Not Recommended At All" | 2008-09-14 |
| - Reviewed By User: AUNYE8ONHNC47 |
Background
I am a mobile DJ who has been part-time in the industry for over nearly 15 years. My music collection consists of around 1200 CDs and until recently I had always used my Numark Dual CD player to operate. First I had the CDN-34s now I have the CDN-88. About a year and a half ago I started ripping my CD collection and about one year ago exactly, I had made enough progress to make CDs the backup and a laptop running iTunes for my main source of music. It has worked FINE with only one minor hiccup for a whole year. Why bother messing with a good thing you ask? Well I wanted to get back to DJing! I missed the live mixing and cueing of songs not to mention that iTunes does not have key locked increases in tempo and other cool DJ effects. I have a 160GB iPod with about 90GB of MP3s on it so I figured this would be the way to go.
The Review
I bought the unit from a Sam Goody with a Odyssey case: iDJ2 $550 and case $200. The case is worthless, it weighs a TON and the foam inside is too thick to shut the case so I had to rip a section out (which I will re-glue when I return it) to make it shut over the iDJ2. WOW who engineered this thing and didn't measure it??
Why a one star?
A) It would probably take DAYS to build a "library" on the iPod using the unit. I have 17,000 songs and I let it go for one hour (my limit of frustration) and decided to try to use the computer since I have a pretty fast laptop. Here's where it gets worse. I gave it 7 hours and it still wasn't finished using a Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz CPU on Vista 64-bit. Unacceptable. But it takes a while to analyze all that music you say. OK fine. The deal breaker is in the next complaint.
B) Errors Errors Errors. It took me a lot of reading in the manual to find out I needed to enable disk mode in the iPod. That should have been step 1 or 2 after plug the unit in and turn it on. Then the iDJ2 had trouble reading the iPod in the dock. I used the iPod USB cable because the dock stopped recognizing the iPod but the USB connector would be fine. Then I tried using the iDJ2 search wheel on a song while it was playing to cue to a specific part of the song and it said: "Please don't disconnect the library while playing, use the eject button..." (I don't remember word for word) and it "rebooted" the connection to the iPod. I didn't bump it or do anything to disrupt the connection. Song stopped playing and it happened again when I tried to play the song again.
Luckily all my problems happened while this was in my living room and not on the job. This iDJ2 unit and case are going back to the store.
Pros:
-XLR Outputs
-Accepts Other Sources via Line In (You are going to need them)
Cons:
-Expected plug and play operation and found out it takes HOURS of processing to ready your iPod
-Even with all the firmware upgrades (yeah I did those first thing!) it has BUGS and ERRORS. (I have a 160GB circa October 2007 iPod)
NOT RECOMMENDED. DO NOT RISK YOUR REPUTATION ON THIS EQUIPMENT. |
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 "Almost there, but not quite" | 2008-09-01 |
| - Reviewed By sewoods1 |
What it does right, it does well. But where the ball drops, it falls pretty hard.
The unit is fine as advertised, and generally performs admirably: it mixes from a single iPod, or you can add an assortment of devices (USB-based drives, thumb drives, etc.). You need not only use the iPod. It plays various formats (WAV, MP3, etc.). It has a strong visual screen and plenty of outputs (XLR, RCA). Support is fair to middling. it has a very nice "crate" feature which let's you pull out songs from your general pile and set them aside for quick access.
However:
- It may not read all of your songs.
ITunes isn't on board with this piece, so you may have to still burn songs to CD and re-install them to iTunes (or some other drive/device) to use them. It reads what it can, but I found the Library software that comes with it somewhat useless.
- It's lightweight.
Mostly plastic here. Invest in a case.
- The fade is too abrupt.
- A headphone cue knob (! Buttons, please) on the face of the device instead of the top?!
- The touted turntable action is cute, but not realistic. Going forward is kind of cool, but at the end of pulling back generates a pause. Between this and the suspect fader, not a lot of trick work happening here. Also, no dead-stop like real turntables.
- Some freezing there during 2 song play on occassion.
- HUGE load times if your iPod is loading more than about 8 GB. I use an iPod that has about 20 GBs on it and it takes about two hours to upload the changes. I don't even want to think about how long it would take if I put my full 80 GBs on it.
- Costs just a little too much for an item with so many downsides.
I can't recommend it as a primary unit for DJs who spin on the regular. It's a nice piece for casual DJs who mostly do blends or for regular DJs who want a side piece that helps cut down on the amount of gear they need to carry around. I use this piece about twice a week live and with that little use, it holds up okay, but I never know when it's going to to spoil...I just know that, with all these hang-ups, it will. |
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Expedited Available
