MC-6000 2 year review / button quality in general
EDIT: Why did I think this was my first post? Goes to show how long it's been since I've been here...
Ive had my Denon MC-6000 for just under 3 years, and was only my second piece of DJ gear after my Mixtrack Pro. Honestly the unit has performed fairly well; I've taken it to a good number of gigs in that time and Ive never had any severe sudden issues with it like crashes or sudden dropouts or freezes. It started off absolutely rock-solid for me, but this controller is quite deceptive about it's build quality...
When you first get it in your hands, it certainly looks and feels like it has all the hallmarks of a solid build; metal construction, low-wiggle knobs, rubberized controls, and clicky micro-switched buttons. Even the jogs have a great weight and feeling for their size, although the faders leave a little to be desired.
After owning it as long as I have, I can say that all the knobs still feel very nice (even the ones that are a little loose, like the low freq knobs, still have a very strong center 'detent') and the jogs still feel just as nice as they did on day one. The faders still even have some resistance, even though I do like to slam 'em every once in a while.
As for the buttons, I mentioned that they have that microswitched, clicky feel (which in a lot of cases is a good thing, especially with arcade/Midi Fighter buttons). Combined with the rubbery block button rests on top of then, it feels better than a lot of competitors buttons, especially when all the display models are placed side by side... at first. However, as I and many others have found, these buttons just don't have the right feel for DJing and simply don't hold up to the test of time. It feels like the microswitches inside are pencil thin, which is fine for the really small buttons, but for the larger buttons like Cue/Play, you can really feel just how much they wobble around inside the socket on top the switch.
The microswitches also have a strangely 'hard' feel to them that isn't as conductive for DJing as I thought. I personally like to give my play/cue/hot cue buttons a quick yet firm tap, similar to if I was tapping my fingers on the table to the beat. With these buttons, you need to give them a certain amount of pressure before they reach that point where they engage. If you 'quick tap' too lightly, you won't press it hard enough to trigger, but if you tap too hard you run the risk of damaging them (more on that in a sec). You're basically limited to firm, well-controlled button presses, but that just makes it harder to get into the music and have accurate timing.
Speaking of damaging the buttons, these are prone to damage very easily. Many of my buttons now have dead zones or dead corners, or need to be pressed at a certain angle, or require a lot more pressure to trigger despite there being an audible click. Most notorious are the large buttons like Cue/Play, but others such as my Filter 2, << Vinyl Bend, and Deck Load buttons are having similar issues. Keep in mind, I try as hard as I can not to abuse my controllers but they seemed to deteriorate anyway, and many others have experienced similar issues: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMSjKQ7vWDU
On top of that, the controller had a few other quirks that sullied the overall experience. A couple of the knobs sticking out of the front panel are now bent from transport. I tried to be as careful as possible, and never considered the controller big enough to warrant buying a case for it. Thankfully, they still work, but its something I knew was coming sometime as a result of not owning a case for it. Being that this unit is small enough for transport, perhaps front knobs (that aren't slim or recessable in any way) weren't a good idea for this unit.
There is also a quirk when switching between decks A-C and B-D. Whenever you switch decks, the tempo faders snap automatically to whatever position they were in from the last deck, meaning if you switch decks, your timing will be suddenly thrown off. The only way I've found to counteract this is to make the tempo faders only work when a Modifier is changed, and to map another button as a "shift" button that changes said modifier. It solves the problem, but its something plug-n-play users may find annoying, and it takes away a free hand when using the tempo fader.
So at this point I was thinking either replace the mixer or fix it. So I looked into how to disassemble this whole thing (as my crossfader had also stopped functioning by that point), and what I found was this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31fhfzhQgvk
Remove 400 some screws, multiple panels, remove the motherboard, unsolder and unglue connections every single time I want to replace something? No thanks. At that point, I decided I was done with the controller and it was time for an upgrade, especially since the 6000mk1 is no longer being supported.
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TL;DR
MC6000, good knobs and jogs, OK faders, fragile and hard to work with buttons!, extremely time consuming to repair!
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This makes me very wary of any Denon equipment in the future. I really like the idea of the 3900's and the platter control, but Ive heard Denon uses these same buttons on nearly everything they make. Have they improved the buttons much at all, and do decks like the 2900 and 3900 still have the same issues?
Recently I got a job at a theater which is still using an old Denon rackmount CD/Mini Disc player. It had to be at least 15+ years old and it had those -exact- same buttons.
My other question is, how are the reliability (specifically of buttons) of some of the other brands of controller that have come out recently? I've used Pioneer stuff like CDJs and even an Egro once before and am aware that their play/cue buttons are silky smooth and responsive, but Im curious about other manufacturers/controllers.
I really like the idea/style of a NS7 or NS7II, but they appear to have rubberized buttons as well. Do they hold up better than the Denon buttons?
