iDJ iPod Mixing Console

By budda on Tuesday, December 6th, 2005 comments

We featured the innovative iDJ back in July 2005 when details about it were sketchy. However, it's now out in the wild and available to purchase by normal consumers! So we've done a bit of poking around to find out what it's really like.

The iDJ allows you to professionally mix live tunes from two iPods for the listening pleasure of your stylish party guests. You won't know whether your friends are more impressed with your musical mixosity or the fact that you own two iPods!

The iDJ is essentially a combination of a DJ mixer and an iPod dock. As a mixer, it’s fairly typical of basic 2-channel DJ models. Two inputs can be combined into a single output via a horizontal cross-fader. Switched to line/phono mode, either input is capable of accepting a line-level output from a turntable, CD player, computer, or non-iPod MP3 player, though the iDJ makes little sense if you’re not using it with iPods.

The iDJ also has typical DJ-style, 3-band (treble, mid, and bass) equalization (EQ) controls, as well as phono amps and grounds for connecting turntables.

Each dock connector charges its iPod and feeds audio directly into the mixer, bypassing the iPod’s headphone jack. This results in an immediate, noticeable boost in audio fidelity over trying to amplify the headphone output of the iPod, and saves you from having to worry about power (or volume levels).

The big draw of the iDJ is its large control buttons on the top face of the unit. Backlit in blue, these make it much easier to control your iPods in a darkened DJ booth. An enormous play button is accompanied by menu, next/previous, and enter buttons, plus a large scroll wheel, so you don’t have to fumble for the small controls on the front of the iPod.

Unfortunately, even for casual DJing and beginning DJs, the novelty of the iDJ quickly fades into frustration. Much of the fault is Apple’s: The iPod simply isn’t designed as a DJ player. The iPod (or any other MP3 player, for that matter) has most of the same problems plugged into the iDJ as it does when used on its own. You can’t scratch it, as you can a similarly-priced DJ CD player. You can’t adjust pitch, meaning you can’t match beats, eliminating most DJ techniques. You can’t even cue songs easily for decent-sounding cross-fades, since the iPod’s cueing interface skips several seconds at a time.

Unless Apple updates the iPod with DJ features, DJing on an iPod just isn’t as fun (or effective) as using dedicated DJ players, computer mixing software, or just good old-fashioned vinyl.

Read the full review at Playlistmag.com. ThinkGeek.comThinkGeek.com have the Numark iDJ available for $249.99 now.