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Thoughts? AA Radius 3k's have nothing readily available on them to read or watch, where as the Stanton CMP has some good reviews. However the AA product has better designed features, but I'm not sure how to weigh that out. I couldn't even find a bad review about the Radius 3k's which to me is a bit scary given the amount of crap on YouTube and the internet.
I have two American Audio Radius 1000's; they work very well and are a great multi-functional playback device/controller. My only gripe is the very plastic feeling it has (because it is made almost entirely of plastic). Every button on it is plastic (something I think the 3000 improved on by making them pads) and the entire deck structure is plastic. I'm not sure how durable the device is since I've only been using them for about 5 months but they have held up very well so far. The MIDI mapping is phenomenal, as every button and knob is doubly mappable due to a shift-like feature. So I guess my contribution is that the Radius 1000 has not disappointed me much so I would hope the 3000 would be even more impressive!
I have 2 Radius 3000 and I totaly love them. I don't use the cd slot at all I use it mainly as midi controller for traktor and USB thump drive as backup.
I have mapped it to the extream but I still have 6 unused button and 2 modifiers left over to map :D
The buttons are pad like rubber feel and most of them are just the right size. The Radius is plastic constructed but don't feel cheep, my friend has a Pioneer cdj2000 and it also plastic. But as a midi controller the Radius is miles ahead. The onboard FX are not Pioneer good but fine for adding a little extra.
As a CD/Media Player it is good and easy to use but as most cheeper CDJ's the BMP counter is not acurate the jog wheel and pitch slider feel realy good.
Looking at the Stanton it looks like it has many of the same parts as the 3000 the display looks like its 100% the same
I like the layout of the 3000 much better although the cue buttons are placed better on Stanton's.
Tuff call realy but I'd still go with AA. When I was looking for CDJ's Stanton were not even in my considirations.
My mate has the 1000's, which are the 3000's without the USB. They recently went in for a service, as they stopped reading CDs. The play and cue buttons on both decks were also pretty bad, so much so that everyone used the a.cue feature of the jogs (touch the jog to go to cuepoint & release to play). The cost of the repair of the pair was £300 - ouch!
Saying that the CDJs have been used for outdoor free parties at least once a month for the last year. They have been used and abused and only stopped reading CDs after a night where they downwind of the fire, so were constantly in smoke!
My biggest gripe though is a lack of accuracy on the pitch fader. 0.1% is as accurate as it will go, even when on a 4% pitch range. I have tested this in Trakor (using a timecode CD in the Radius). The pitch in Traktor would only change when the %age display on the Radius also changed. Means getting super-tight mixes are not quite possible - you can mix on them fine, but be prepared to be nudging the jogs every 4 or 8 bars to keep them in time.
I am looking at getting some CDJs shortly, and the way I see it at the moment, I am looking at the following 3 decks (depending on price):
£170 - Kam KCD450 - cheap, but pretty fully formed
£300 - Numark NDX800 or 900 - 900 if you want a 2nd soundcard in the CDJ for Traktor use (v. good idea Numark) - also have a slip-type mode when using the jog to scratch :)
£500 - Gemini CDJ700 - depending on reliability reports, although buy from Thomann and get 3 year warranty :)
Yeah, I know none of these are what you are looking at, but thought I'd throw it out there, just in case it helps in some way.
Hope you enjoy whatever you get! Nothing like a bit of new tech to give you the horn! :001_wub:
FYI Citronic MPCD-X3 is the same as the stanton deck you mention. Possibly cheaper too?
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Think both are made by Hanpin (Taiwanese company).
Oh, and also Akiyama Kuro
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You may find others!
And the Omnitronic DJS 2000 and Reloop RMP 2.5 and 3 (adds AIFF) Alpha. They are a standalone version of the all-in-one unit design under the same brandings.Quote:
Originally Posted by escapemcp
Your comments on the radius 1000 also do not apply to the 3000, which has 14bit faders. The 1000 is not just the 3000 without USB playback capability. The similarities are mostly cosmetic.