NDX500 USB / CD Player from Numark – 5 things we like
The NDX500 USB / CD player from Numark was reviewed by us back in January 2015 and considering the devastating effect the rand/dollar exchange has had on the cost of equipment recently, we decided to revisit it for another look, since it is probably the best value for money DJ media player on the market.
If you’ve been around DJing for more than a minute you will know that the Pioneer DJ range of media players are kind of the industry standard – but you’ll literally have to take out a second bond to afford a pair of these – even the entry level CDJ-350 will set you back R 11,000 for one so whilst the quality of Pioneer DJ is undeniable, their products tend to be out of the hands of most regular DJs.
This is why we’re having another look at the Numark NDX500 USB / CD player – you can buy two of these, brand new, for the price of on Pioneer DJ CDJ-350! That is one heck of a saving but does one get the same performance from a NDX500 USB / CD Player that you’d get from the CDJ-350?
We think so.
The chances are when you walk into your local DJ tech supplier hoping to buy a set of Pioneers, when you discover the price and compare them to the NDX500 USB / CD player, you may just have a rethink and end up saving yourself some dosh.
Disclaimer:
We’re not knocking the CDJ-350 or the Pioneer DJ range at all. They are marvelous pieces of DJ gear. This article simply highlights what you can get for R 5k as opposed to R 11 k.
5 reasons to buys a Numark NDX500 USB / CD Player
-
USB & CD compatible
As the name suggests the NDX500 USB / CD player supports both USB and CD media formats. This makes it the ideal crossover DJ player to wean yourself of those pesky CDs you find yourself burning each time you have new music. This wasn’t such a big deal when we were all buying CDs once upon a time, but nowadays most of us get our music via download so the USB is a great option. Simply copy your music to a couple of flash drives, pop them in your pair of NDX500s and (depending on the size of your flash drive) you could DJ for days without plating the same track!
-
Rock-solid build quality
The NDX500 is heavy but in a good way. The minute you pick this baby up you’ll realize that it is built to last which is not necessarily something one can say about all Numark gear; their entry level products, whilst magnificently affordable, can be a bit plasticky at times. This is not the case with the NDX500 USB / CD player. It is robust and should withstand the rigours of regular use.
-
Intuitive layout, packed with features
There’s not a lot one can get wrong with a media player; jogwheel in the middle, screen on top, transport buttons one side, tempo slider the other… but it’s the extra features – and the NDX-500 has plenty of them – that are strategically well placed to encourage one to actually use them. All the features are grouped together. For example – USB and CD eject in the top left hand corner, then source/folder and browse/load knob directly underneath that – in a nutshell all the media related functions neatly placed together. The same for hot cues and looping – neatly grouped together. Jogwheel functions such as scratch mode, reverse, break and search are all neatly grouped…. where else? Around the jogwheel of course! The same applies for the screen modes (top right) and all the tempo functions which includes both the tempo buttons, slider, master pitch (so that you can maintain the key of the track even when you speed up or slow it down) as well as 4, 8 and 16 % tempo increments.
-
MIDI and Serato Compatible
Once you’re done with CDs and flash drives and decide you’d like to have your entire collection of music with you for every gig (this is of course a must for mobile DJs doing wedding etc) the great thing about the NDX500 USB / CD player is that it works seamlessly with Serato DJ. Simply connect via USB, select the deck number on the NDX 500 so that it can tell Serato which deck it is controlling and your music library will appear on the media player’s screen and you can load and perform. It is really that simple and works amazingly well. This is pretty massive as it means the NDX500 offers an amazing growth path from CD to flash drive to laptop controller.
-
Price
Consider all of the above and now look at the price again.
The list price for the NDX500 USB / CD player for R 6,356 but we’ve checked online and you can pick them up for R 4,990 each, locally. That’s under R 10K for a pair of media players that offers good old fashion CD, flash drive and Serato compatibility plus pretty much all the features any decent pro DJ player should.
CONNECT
Numark Global Site | Numark in South Africa
Telephone Enquiries: 087 236 8518
