SwingDJs

Shanabanana wrote:You could probably get it for cheaper. I priced the same setup (minus longer-life battery) for <$1100 in December. Of course, it was a month after I paid $1200...

So I just bought a new rig for home last week (desktop, not laptop.) Having noticed that Dell is always having random sales I was curious to see how much the same rig would cost just a week later. Well, I configured an identical rig this morning and it came out to be $411.91 MORE then it cost last week. Looks like I bought just at the right time, woo hoo!

On the topic of Dell systems, you could try configuring the "same" system through the Home division or Small Office division... There are some price variations depending on the model line...

John...

You can go to www.gotapex.com and get pretty good coupons on Dell machines

Ok I'm thinking about PC Processors

I hear that Intel® Pentium® M Processor is better than the Intel® Celeron® M Processor for the kind of use we would give it. Is that true or false?

Brian

no, that's probably false. ("probably", because it depends on your exact use.)

technical bits: the celeron m is a pentium m with less level 2 cache (512k for the celeron, 1 or 2 mb for the pentium) and a crippled speed step unit (the bit that lowers the processor's clock rate to conserve power).

practical bits: playing and ripping mp3's will go as fast on the celeron as on the pentium. the extra level 2 cache is not going to buy you anything for playing, certainly, and it's extremely unlikely ripping will be significantly affected, either (though a trial run is the only way to know for sure). the celeron m laptop will have a shorter battery life than the pentium m one, because the processor can't slow itself down when it's mostly idle. is this a big deal? probably not. you'd be crazy to go dj without a power adapter, anyway.

in short: if you care about battery life, get the pentium m. if you don't, you're likely better off saving yourself a few hundred american dollars and getting a celeron m.

there are quite a few articles on the web comparing the celeron m and pentium m. check tom's hardware guide, anandtech, etc. or googlify.

Has anybody seen this tiny sound card? You can get it alone for $30 or with noise cancelling headphones for $60. Quite a bit less bulky than my last sound card, which I broke.

http://www.turtlebeach.com/site/product ... advantage/

Looks very good. It would be superior to the iMic if they put an "in line" on to it. I'll have to keep my eye out for it.
I'd be interested on how it's output is like side by side with an iMic.

Brian

I doubt anything you record on a device like this would have decent sound. As far as DJing purposes though it seems like a good product.

This sounds awesome, I just bought one off of Buy.com for $26.70, price includes S&H...I'm gonna compare it to my Sound Blaster MP3 which is a lot bigger and bulkier...I'm thinking it's gonna be better though because Turtle Beach is known to be a pretty good company...

Alex

I’m interested in knowing how many people are laptop DJing and putting the two line outs through a mixer? I’ve started do it recently, and have found it a great advantage.
First of all, it is adding the hands on approach.
It allows be to listen hear the music on the floor through the head phones, which gives be better real time sound quality understanding.
Most mixers can act as a pre-amp, so the input quality to the amp is a bit better.
You also then have any of the advantages of mixers like, cross fading, microphone, good previewing facilities, output meters ect, ect.
It also may save my laptop if the Amp decides to surge.

It does mean I have to carry around a mixer with the laptop.

Brian

The Software I use (BPM Studio), has a mixer built in. It's quite good and also allows me to save certain mix information per song. I know that takes away from the hands on approach, but it's a nice addition in my opinion.

I have used a mixer before, but found it to be no different than using the software mixer unless i needed another input.

Bob the Builder wrote:I’m interested in knowing how many people are laptop DJing and putting the two line outs through a mixer?

Brian

Have you looked in the usb mixers? There's a review on www.dj1800.com about the Numark DXM01-USB Mixer. It seems like a good accessory. You could send both lines out through usb, or you could use one usb line for recording.

DXM01 USB DXM01 with 2 USB Connectors

CM200USB DJ Mixer

DM950USB DJ Mixer

Ok,
I'm not happy with the output level and quality of my laptop sound card or my iMic. I'm looking for a better approach.

I'm trowing up between
Sound Blaster

&

Echo Indigo DJ

There may be something else good at the same price range too.
What would you buy?

Thanks
Brian

Before you do anything too drastic, keep in mind that the default volume of the imic seems to be medium, so you have to manually go in and change it to get full output. This setting seems to stick, so you'll probably only need to do it once.

Hi Shanabanana.
I've done a lot of experementing with my iMic. I've gone into its properties and set all its volumnes to their maximun, and I'm still not getting my required output level out of it.
Thanks for trying to help. The iMic is fine for previewing but when I put mine up against the output of my Newmark CD Players its not even close.

Brian