Fortunate enough to bump into my old pal and forum member Tonsk on Saturday evening, who gave me an overview of the HD 2500 in action.

First time i have seen it and looks a nice bit of kit. Very impressive.

It does indeed, Im still toying with the idea, Think ill stick to me laptops for a while, until the sort out all these "bugs & moans" everyones been on about in the other threads,
Deffo the future though - more than garlic bread

Yes, the price needs to drop before i buy.

Yeah, it is a bit steep, I think Mrs Eclipse wants a new kitchen first lol

too soon after i bought the DND 4500. wife would kill me if i bought again!

No she wouldn't Robin, just pretend it's the same thing!!

Glad you liked it. They are a nice piece of kit, expensive (although I got mine for under £600) but when you consider that this weekend I received £500 from the two gigs, it kinda puts it in perspective (although I know I have to take out petrol/overheads etc)...

Although as I told you, the main reason I got one was because of a wedding I have in Dublin - This was I only have to take the unit and 2 hard drives instead of 2 massive metal flightcases and 3 x 264 caselogic wallets on the plane.....

If there's a date you're booked and I'm free, let me know and I'll lend it to you to have a "real" play..

My 2p worth.

Yes, setting up your database of music is a pain. Six weeks and still working on it here.

But please - do not let the moans and niggles (including mine) put you in any doubt at all.

This machine is a serious piece of kit. The investment (even for a part time DJ like me) is worth it. Only my LUCAS 1000 was dearer, and I dont regret parting with my cash at all.

Two gigs done with it now. Second gig - no CDs used at all. (I found out which files I use were corrupt and corrected them before the gig).
No problems, no issues. Just a great bit of kit.

And remember that Denon are working on developing the firmware and software full time, so as the song says "Things Can Only Get Better".....

Hmmm, what month is the longest day of the year in again ?

Thanks Tonsk, I might try it out. As I said very impressive.

Another HD 2500 thread!!
Wonderful!

I don't think the price is too bad actually, although I'll pay less if I can, obviously. As I'm in the market for another player of some sort anyhow at about this price point, the HD 2500 makes perfect sense, as it will enable me to place my old CD decks into backup/secondary duty.

Just this digital DJ licence nonsense to deal with, as I intend to take a core 'survival' collection of CDs along with me for backup, besides the copies stored on HDD for use with the 2500. I don't think the licence allows for this, does it?

I have 2 reservations still.

1. The time it would take to transfer to hard drive -my wife will go mad at me.

2. Sometimes i get mental block, i enjoy flicking through my Cd's particularly the compilations albums for some inspiration. eg the colour of the Now Albums will ring a bell to play a particular track.

thank god im not the only one

As i said, i frequently get reminded of classic tracks by flicking through the cd's albums at random. Maybe my memory is going!

I'm afraid I use a loooong list of music, listed by year on one list, and by artist on another, to help me.

Interestingly, when I used to DJ regularly, I had some kind of list in my head, and tracks would often pop into my mind. Since being away from it for so long, I seem to have lost the 'internal' playlist altogether, and nowadays rely completely on these prompt sheets.

Maybe it'll come back...

I got the D", and have the same issue....inspiration!!

Sometimes looking at the cd covers or lap top screen is ace!!

But for a main/secondary player its just what I needed and hasnt let me down yet!

Not as much as the denon, however not as loaded with features...but well worth considering if you want a cheaper version that does its job?

With regards to point 1) I've been ripping Now albums in around 2 mins (both discs) using two CD-ROM drives pointing to two internal drives. This is possible as I'm ripping to WAV rather than all that timely encoding and compressing down to MP3. The DN-HD2500 supports WAVs with tags, so you get full, rich uncompressed music, with all the year, genre, artist type data, quickly ripped.

With regard to point 2 - I am wondering whether to photocopy my CD covers to give myself something to look through for visual memory jogging - or maybe actually have the CDs still there in front of me, but never open a jewel case all night.

Fair point. You could take just the cover with you, in a small case.

I would have thought that bringing the CDs in their jewel cases is defeating the objective a bit though.

That is exactly what I have done.

Copied all the tracklists and arranged them in A5 folder.

Robin - I agree with the mental nudge that looking at CDs give, however I've found it much better whilst ripping and organising my tracks to put them in to Genres...

Now when I am looking through the genre (which I've set) I get mental nudge after nudge.....

Plus as you go through the CDs, you notice ones you've forgotten about and didn't even know was on that CD.......

I'm ripping to Wave as well and it is quick...

Yes Tonsk, I will get round to changing over to the HD2500. I think Gary's point was excellent about taking thr Now albums covers in a folder.

Rob

On top of all this, let's not forget the size of the busy LCD display.
Better get to Specsavers for some +3.5 bins........

true, it's not that large but readable.

Absolutely, the 10cm screen is very high resolution, sharp and extremely easy to read under virtually all lighting. it needs to be seen and used before any accurate comments can be made.

Yes, its smaller than a typical lappy display, but then again the DN-D2500 doesn't have to waste the top 50% of its display trying to mimic a real 19inch piece of DJ equipment with virtual Play buttons etc, as the whole of the 2500 is a real 19inch piece of DJ equipment.

Glad someone mentioned the display (which is fine for me, and I wear glasses) - Gary - can you turn off the feature where the screen dims if not used for a while, or lengthen the time it takes before it dims.

Several times at the last gig (during the background music bit) I had a very brief panic moment when I looked at the HD2500 and it looked like it had turned off coz the screen looked dead. Obvioulsy it wasnt, the screen had dimmed as a "screen saver" kind of thing, but I dont like it.

The current answer to whether or not the "screen saver" can be turned off, is "no". But hey, with Denon products, features which aren't there currently don't always stay missing for long - Indeed at the SEDA meeting this Sunday, I'll be able to announce a feature which is being added worldwide to the already massive list of functions on the DN-HD2500, which was in fact suggested by a forum member just 2 meetings ago. I'll pass the suggestion of "Screensaver" timer with a "No screensaver" option, on to The powers that be...

Obviously, any use of any control keeps the display on for around 12 minutes - and so, for many people wthe screen would never be off when playing to a dancefloor. When in screensaver mode of course any nudge of any control brings the screen back on instantly. However, I do know what you mean - I have gigs where the hirer wants to use the mic for 45 minutes plus, with not even a music bed running under the mic level, and during those times, yes, I can see how it can be re-assuring to still see the 2500 screen lit up.

My mate updated all the insides of his computer whilst him and his GF were putting 'everything they had' into an account to save for a house.

2 years he got away with it for too until she noticed things had changed when she saw the screen at bootup lol

It's ok Gary, you can stop dropping hints now.

Silvio from Denon has announced a "major update" on June XX on another forum.

I am assuming by XX he means 30th, then might get a pleasant suprise if it's earlier....

For other doubters (and I was a MAJOR doubter) - this update will make a great machine even better!!!!

I might be doing more than dropping hints about the new firmware, at the SEDA meeting this Sunday.

"I might be doing more than dropping hints about the new firmware, at the SEDA meeting this Sunday"
Hope it's not your trousers!


Unrelated request Gazza.

Please could you pass on to the Powers that be that any 'new' versions of a HD Denon system MUST HAVE a video out (spec similar to what the the Pioneer DVJs have...but with just a couple more little enhanced tweeks)... Pioneer would surely be left behind!!

Well... the 2500 does control the tray system of the dnd4500...

Why not get a small 6x4 photo album and instead of photos put your CD covers, which you can flick through when you need inspiration