I have been a laptop user for several years - Went to the local DJ shop last week to try and solve my problem
with having to many gadgets attatched to my laptop (laptop/Vestax controller/NI Soundcard/behringer Pre Amp),
I have previously seen pics of the Denon 2500 and read a few reviews but that was it, not really interested..
however seeing it in the flesh and catching a demo of it.. I walked out of the shop with one, plus a mixer and flight case..

I now sit here adding my tracks to the denon database hoping that i have done the right thing!!
So far everything is a big plus++ and it has also give me a push to update my mp3 tags and get my music collection in order..

Couple of Questions..

One thing i love about Traktor was the graphical animation/image of the track which was playing (showing high points,low points, and basically by looking at the graphics you could see when the beats were active in a track)
- From what i have played with i don;t think there is anything similar on the hd2500? is there??

I also purchased a numark cm200 (with usb) mixer - The mixer has a soundcard and the hd2500 has a soundcard - which one do i use? What would be the best setup for the best sound quality?


Cheers Steve

I've got one and I love it, be careful with those buttons though, mine are starting to wear a little.

Anyhow, your questions.
1. No graphical representation at all. It would be useful, but you just have to know your music. Sorry.
2. The Soundcard as such is only enabled in Midi mode as I believe. I use the L+R outputs for each side straight into the mixer. Quality is fine but I haven't done any direct comparisons.

I Love evolution. A lot of DJs are ditching their Windows woes and going for a dedicated unit. Of course 2 or 3 years ago, if you wanted to DJ from a hard drive, then you had to go down the domestic laptop route, and you've mentioned some laptop problems above.



For best sound quality between your Denon DN-HD2500 and your CM200, I'd recommend simply a really good quality pair of phono/RCA leads. The DN-HD2500 uses a stunning Low-latency, Burr-Brown, ASIO sound card inside, and the phono/rca sockets benefit from this - this same excellent sound card can also be used by a laptop, and is of significantly better spec than what the average domestic laptop sound chip would cough out. The only better sound that you could get, would be if you had a mixer with digital inputs (normally on an orange phono/rca socket, then you'd connect using the orange phono/RCA sockets on the side of the DN-HD2500.



I've used a DN-HD2500 for over a year now, and currently having a great amount of pleasure with some stunning new features which should be out for public release soon. As you may have read, the DN-HD2500 has user upgradable firmware. It's worth your while checking what version of firmware you have in the unit, and which version of Denon DJ Music manager (PC application) you have, and download the very latest versions from the Denon DJ Website (You'll need your DN-HD2500 serial number to register).



Be sure to check out the 2500's "Category" feature, and the Auto BPM tagging (of all tracks) in Music Manager. Any other questions that you think of, post them here on DJU for answers.

if it was me.....

I would use the HD2500 with the RCA phono leads when playing music back with the 2500 and the only time i would use the sound card in the mixer would be when playing music back from the laptop.....

again i would use the sound card in the 2500 if i was using it in midi mode as the hd2500s sound card is very very good...

forget the tracktor graphic display for mixing.. its back to the old way of doing things. by ear... and thats a good thing if you ask me

the thing to remember is that the 2500 is only as good as the tags you give your mp3's if things are hard to find its becuase of the lack of info in your tags...

Cheers guys for the great advice.

Totally agree about the mp3 tags, it's going to take me weeks to do but def worth it.