A&H Xone:96 | Xone:K1 | 2 x 1210s | Traktor Pro 3 | Apple Macbook Pro (2015) 13" | Sennheiser HD7 DJ | Maschine Mikro Mk3
read: http://djworx.com/author/dan-morse
talk: http://facebook.com/bleeptechno
listen: http://mixcloud.com/bleephudds
The NI Kontrol S4 mk3 sounds way much better then his previous versions. More presents and punchier and its the same as the expensive table players. I sound checked it last week on a leopard meyer soundsystem with 900 and 1100 subs added to the system. In one word... WOW!
As someone said above, numbers , cables and sampling rates are basically irrelevant, it depends on source file quality, gain-staging and quality of conversion. Presuming you're using shop-sourced or properly ripped cds etc at min. 320kbps and not 15 yr-old 128kbps Napster grabs, then the files likely aren't the issue.
Gain-staging - basically healthy but NOT red-peaking levels starting with your Traktor channels (goes for each file you play), same for the mixer your interface is running into.
Lastly conversion - presuming the other things are in order this one is HUGE. Acceptable is very different from great. 'Punchy' is often just marketing speak. Yes the average level of even entry level stuff is way better than a 1995 Soundblaster or whatever but a decent external interface can be noticeably better than built-in/on-board parts providing you choose well.
I've had NI interfaces, Audio Kontrol 8 - superb design and build with 'good enough' sound but I wanted better. Also had the $100 pocket-size thing which is ....sorry but complete junk, both sound and build. Pretty sure you can use an external interface with S4 etc, so depending on your budget you can get a good improvement without having to buy a whole new rig. You just have to look at your needs and budget. I tried RME etc, great stuff but realised I wanted to use bus power for gigs, travel etc so after some listening/research got this https://www.roland.com/global/products/mobile_ua/. It sounds very good indeed, 4 out, no in, bus powered and very small. It has no parts I don't need so the cost is going entirely on the parts I do need. At home I use a pro class rack mount interface https://mhsecure.com/metric_halo/pro...are/uln-8.html (part of work) and it sounds ridiculously good but is impractical and waaay too expensive to take to gigs.
Long story short...you get what you pay for and built-in is generally only 'good enough' - work out what you can pay and choose well.
Last edited by niknok; 10-24-2019 at 12:21 AM.
Assuming you're talking about using a CD or USB drive on the CDJs... Pioneer uses better DSP processing methods than is done by Traktor and better DACs than your controller. However, the DSP stuff is a much larger difference than the difference between the DACs. While in your particular instance the files could have been of different quality and your gain-staging might have been improper (easy to foul up in software, especially with their poor metering and lazy auto-gain), you'd see much of this difference even with identical files and very conservative, manual trimming & metering of gains on both. You would even see much of this difference comparing the CDJs running off CD or a thumb drive vs the CDJs as sound cards and controllers for Traktor.
Last edited by Reticuli; 11-11-2019 at 05:33 PM.
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