Hi Guys

Has anyone had any experience of the NUMARK HDCD1?

It is a double CD Player with 80 GB Hard Disk.

I think it might now also be discointinued?

Correct - the Numark HDCD1 was discontinued for some very good reasons.

If you're after a professional hard drive controller with a hard drive built-in, there is now the Denon DN-HD2500. It's got a 40gb drive built-in (capacity for 1100 WAV files - with tags thats upto around 3000 MP3s), with the ability of controlling upto 4 external hard drives too.

Might still be some nerw units available at suppliers. I've no idea what they are like. As Gary said the HD 2500 is excellent.

Worthwhile doing a google search as some USA websites do very good equpiment reviews. You are bound to find reviews on those sites.

Rob

What were the reasons for the HDCD being discon?

I may look at the Denon but I'd really like a CD tray as well.

The Denon DN-HD2500 will accept and control either a pair of cd-drawers from a DN-D4500, DN-D4000 dual cd-deck, or the BU-4500 dual drawers which are available separately, as just the drawers.

The HDCD1 had quite a lot of usage problems and also a long-term reliability issue - the firmware (the program inside the unit that tells it how to function wasn't stored safely on a chip, it was instead stored on the hard drive. If the hard drive went down, then Pwooof! so did the entire machine - the ability to play from the cd-drawers, the ability to play internally stored files, externally stored files, the whole lot.

No other manufacturers have put the firmware on a hard drive since (unless you include Windows, of course)

Hya Active Discos in simple terms they are rubbish, I bought the HDCD1 recently of the back of using the D2 but just not the same in how it works.
The only real way of creating organized files is by creating play-list.
The D2 has the library software so you can organize within sub folders etc.
Also with the D2 the keyboard is fully functional were as the HDCD1 is purely for searching on the hard drive and nothing ells.
I also found that it takes hours to transfer files, I even tried taking the standard IDE drive out and putting in my PC as a slave drive so I could transfer the files faster but even that didn't work as the HDCD1 does not run on a partition type system like the D2 i.e. fat system so the actual PC would not recognize the drive.
Also although the HDCD1 has 2 large screens the actual text size is huge so you cant see half of it as it goes off screen and that's purely track titles.
The HDCD1 also isn't very reliable as they have jumpers in the main unit which can be shorted to reset the system like clearing the CMOS on a PC but for some reason the jumpers have a tendency of coming of during transit so you have to start pulling the unit apart to put back in place (granted this isn't a huge issue as a dab of hot glue would sort this) but an issue all the same

Don't get me wrong the whole principle of the combined HD CD feature is cracking but just not for that particular model.

However there is light at the end of the tunnel for this kind of setup as other companies are now offering similar systems and even Numark are due to launch a new system that's based more along the lines of the D2 and IDJ2 but with the addition of the 80gig HD with a caddy and a single DVD player.
This the is the "DDS80" which looks very promising and estimated price of $799 in the US but not sure for other countries as yet, but if the same price in the UK would be roughly £400 which is £100 cheaper than the IDJ2 and about the same price as the D2 Director.
Have a nosy

My only concern though with having a single unit for both the hard drive and CD is that if one goes down then it all goes down so I would personally rather use say the D2 for hard drive use and a separate CD option which I bought the CDN95 so always have some form of backup.



http://www.numark.com/contentmgr/showdetai...p/id/60528/tt/5

The Numark D2 Director will also control USB CD drives. However if, say, you had 2 CD drives and 2 hard drives connected and the D2 failed that would be that.

That's why I run a separate twin CD/MP3 unit along with the D2.

The HDCD1 was a good idea but, as has been said earlier, was unreliable. The only reviews I have seen have been detrimental. In a couple of them the machine froze and had to be shut down and reset in the middle of wedding celebrations!