Digital DJ hardware Options

[polymorphic]

Hi folks

I'm currently evaluating different options to enable me perform live sets / DJ from my laptop.

There are a number of different options available. I have plenty of general Qs regarding the best solution for this but the focus for this thread is really audio quality.

I guess I should state that my source material will be either wav, flac or worst case mp3 320kbps. I'm looking for a setup that'll be quality for club PAs.

Some of the front runners:

- traktor scratch
- serato scratch [pdf]
- vestax vci300 (integrated midi controller + soundcard)
- vestax vci100 (midi controller) + ext card e.g. apogee duet

Has anyone had much experience with any of these devices in a club / high quality listening environment? My suspicion is that a standalone soundcard like the apogee would prob serve best in terms of quality but I'd like some opinions on the integrated solutions if poss. I read somewhere that the traktor solutions used Cirrus ad/da convertors which is apparently a good thing ™? No idea personally..

Any thoughts welcome

[polymorphic]

To answer my own Q somewhat I eventually went for a VCI 100 with Traktor Scratch. The Audio 8 audio interface that comes with Scratch was deemed to be superior in sound quality than the Serato version by most of the shops I spoke to.

The Apogee wouldn't allow you to prelisten in Traktor to line up the next track, unless you created an aggregate device in OS X and aggregated it with the laptop built in soundcard. A quick google of this reaped lots of head scratching though..

Hi folks

I'm currently evaluating different options to enable me perform live sets / DJ from my laptop.

There are a number of different options available. I have plenty of general Qs regarding the best solution for this but the focus for this thread is really audio quality.

I guess I should state that my source material will be either wav, flac or worst case mp3 320kbps. I'm looking for a setup that'll be quality for club PAs.

Some of the front runners:

- traktor scratch
- serato scratch [pdf]
- vestax vci300 (integrated midi controller + soundcard)
- vestax vci100 (midi controller) + ext card e.g. apogee duet

Has anyone had much experience with any of these devices in a club / high quality listening environment? My suspicion is that a standalone soundcard like the apogee would prob serve best in terms of quality but I'd like some opinions on the integrated solutions if poss. I read somewhere that the traktor solutions used Cirrus ad/da convertors which is apparently a good thing ™? No idea personally..

Any thoughts welcome