This is my sort of ominous comparison between the two on different points, but anyhow…
I’ll be honest, ones priced three times less for a reason, and I’m willing to bank the sound card on the VMS4 didn’t survive the “price cut knife” so to speak. But hey, if that were a deal killer, why are people still paying almost $1000 for a VCI-300?.
Push comes to shove, when it comes to sound quality, I’d gladly pay the premium for the Allen & Heath DX given that the company is renowned for it’s quality, unlike American Audio. It also weights alot less than the VMS4 from what I can tell, and the fact that it can work with both Itch and Traktor is a great bonus, and gives plenty of options. Also, the faders on the DX are really nice. My biggest gripes though about the unit is that they didn’t put pitch faders on it (but I understand why they did on a more technical note, as have come to appreciate it), and the lack of touch sensitive platter, which for me, is somewhat of a deal killer.
Now that isn’t to say that the VMS4 is inferior in every way, cause if that were the case, why doesn’t the Xone DX have touch sensitive platters?. Also, the price for a big tankish all-in-one interface is very nice, and I commend American Audio for taking this route and offering a product like it.
Some people gripe that the controller has “too many” controls, which makes me laugh considering that I would prefer that over too little control options. Hell, it even has a mouse pad and touch strips, which is really nifty.
While some would argue that quality wise, they don’t compare - I would say they are different beasts which have separate takes on what users want, both of which are worthy candidates for a person in the market, depending n their wallet obviously.
