Okay so I've been down with a bad cough and decided to play around with my home server. Connected to my server, MacPro Tower with 12GB of RAM and 2 x 2.3GHz Quad Cores, is a pair of Adam Artist 3s getting signal from a simple Apogee ONE. While syncing to Mr. Cloud, since I purchase most of my stuff off of my MacBook Pro, I decided to listen to some tracks while I waited. The Artist 3's HMT tweeters are really fast and sweet I thought. The bass was limited but the midrange was nice as well. Seeing as there was A LOT to sync by this point I decided to boot up a program called DJay which I bought on a lark and have only really used a couple of times (My Birthday) which I spend in my country place with my high school buddies with a clear pass to get totally wasted. 
Anyway, a pop up window came up saying that DJay 3, which I owned, was now officially obsolete and that Version 4.01 was available for $19.99. Hmmmm. I think I can do without a couple of packs of smokes so I went for it. I downloaded it, selected the Apogee as the output device then I clicked on one of the iTunes playlists I made (they are all displayed in the bottom window). I hit the automix button and watched as the cover art got loaded on the faux turntables and started playing.
WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The sound was more expansive, clearer, had a better sense of depth, greater separation, greater dynamic range, great snap and punch and basically just sounded better all around! This could very well be the friggin' Playstation 1s of computer music players! It even has iPhone and iPod remote Apps!
So what's the catch? While you can search and cue songs remotely, to make a playlist you still have to do it on iTunes. I'm pretty sure it won't do anything higher than 16/44.1 since as far as I know iTunes itself doesn't although I could be very wrong about this. It has it's own engine but requires the iTunes database. When you do make a new playlist on iTunes, you'll have to restart the program to refresh the library. The last snag is that well, you have two turntables and a DJ mixer on your screen. If you are over 40 like I am, you might be accused of going straight to your second childhood completely bypassing your middle age crisis.
In any case, it sounds good. Two packs less ain't a bad trade.
Anyway, a pop up window came up saying that DJay 3, which I owned, was now officially obsolete and that Version 4.01 was available for $19.99. Hmmmm. I think I can do without a couple of packs of smokes so I went for it. I downloaded it, selected the Apogee as the output device then I clicked on one of the iTunes playlists I made (they are all displayed in the bottom window). I hit the automix button and watched as the cover art got loaded on the faux turntables and started playing.
WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The sound was more expansive, clearer, had a better sense of depth, greater separation, greater dynamic range, great snap and punch and basically just sounded better all around! This could very well be the friggin' Playstation 1s of computer music players! It even has iPhone and iPod remote Apps!
So what's the catch? While you can search and cue songs remotely, to make a playlist you still have to do it on iTunes. I'm pretty sure it won't do anything higher than 16/44.1 since as far as I know iTunes itself doesn't although I could be very wrong about this. It has it's own engine but requires the iTunes database. When you do make a new playlist on iTunes, you'll have to restart the program to refresh the library. The last snag is that well, you have two turntables and a DJ mixer on your screen. If you are over 40 like I am, you might be accused of going straight to your second childhood completely bypassing your middle age crisis.
In any case, it sounds good. Two packs less ain't a bad trade.
