My opinion on the Kambar decks

[karohemd]

Good bits:
- They actually read CDs, but slowly which makes it a bit tricky if you need to swap CDs quickly.
- The sound quality is better than that of the old ones. Zion came out really well.
- The eject button is locked when a CD is playing (as with the old ones).

Annoying bits: Fiddliness
- Having to reset settings for single/continuous play and Track Time every time you put a new CD in. This takes time you could spend cueing to the spot you want.
- The buttons are relatively small, close together, some of them are the same colour as the casing or very dim, and the markings aren't very clear to see. There are buttons in the way that shouldn't be there and it's relatively easy to press one you don't want.
- The buttons aren't very responsive, either. A quick jab won't do, which is what you want.
- The CD trays close after a while. You take out a CD, put it back, and by the time you found the next one, the tray will be closed. Again, wasted time.
- I also had one of the decks reset randomly to the first track of the CD.
- The display was clearer and better to read on the old ones
- naranek said "Cue means rewind" on these decks. Fine. However, what I want is to be able to set a cue point that isn't the start of the track so I can quickly jump back to it (to skip an intro, to find the first beat, etc.)
- Despite claims to the opposite, they skip, especially when hitting the bottom left light switch.

In short, you spend a lot of time getting the actual track going. Time you could spend cueing up and timing it properly. I didn't even consider trying to mix/beat match during my dancy set because of this. Maybe after I'm used to them.

The fact that you have to keep switching on the lights doesn't help.
This means that during a track with an average run time (3-4 mins) you're almost constantly fiddling about.

Another old Kambar problem is that the monitor volume on the mixer is independent from the output volume. You only notice that a track is louder/lower than the previous one when it's out there. It would be nice if you could adjust the volume by comparing the two tracks on the headphones.

I'm a muppet and didn't write down the exact model to possibly look for documentation online. There might be a way of making it remember settings.

Comments

[raggedyman.livejournal.com]

iirc its a "soundlab" deck
and yes, they are pooh and crappy

[deliberateblank.livejournal.com]

I'm a muppet and didn't write down the exact model to possibly look for documentation online.

There wasn't one on either front panel, that I could see. I was a little too busy to go hunting round the back for one. But I believe it's this one (http://www.soundmastersdirect.co.uk/cgi-bin/show_popup.cgi?prod_id=G064GG&prod_name=Soundlab%20Anti-Shock%20Dual%20CD&prod_price=169&image=g064gg.jpg&description=This%20amazing%20value%20dual%20CD%20deck%20is%20not%20only%20good%20value%20but%20it::quote::s%20packed%20with%20every%20feature%20you%20could%20want!%3CBR%3EThis%20professional%20player%20features%20Anti-Shock,%20jog%20controls%20and%208%20times%20oversampling.%20Other%20features%20include...%3CBR%3E1%20Bit%20D/A%20Converter,%20Auto%20Cue,%20Frame%20Search,%20Pitch%20Display,%2020%20Track%20Program%20Play,%20Single%20&%20Continuous%20Play,%20Jog%20Dial%20Search,%20+/-%2012%%20Pitch%20Adjustment,%20Coaxial%20and%20Optical%20Digital%20Circuitry.%3CP%3EPhew!%20What%20else%20could%20they%20get%20in?%20This%20is%20an%20amazing%20deck%20with%20orders%20already%20making%20it%20our%20best%20seller%20to%20date!&options=&url=http://www.soundmastersdirect.co.uk/trolleyed/5/index.htm) here. The G064GG "Dual CD Player with Anti-Shock". Only a month on the market, so pretty new. And sold as value-for-money.

I just phoned Electrovision who claim to run the official SoundLAB website (http://www.electrovision.co.uk/soundlab/pages/frames.html), and they say there are no user manuals/guides online. Sue said they had one at the Kambar but had already lent it to someone else, so I may ask again next week.

The old decks look like they were a Citronic CD1 (http://www.citronic.com/cd1.html), which you can download the manual for as a PDF.

The eject button is locked when a CD is playing (as with the old ones).

I didn't actually try that - I don't deliberately tempt fate! I was trying to cue up and talk to someone at the same time and hit track forward. I seem to remember the old decks preventing this too.

what I want is to be able to set a cue point that isn't the start of the track

Quite. The product specs say "2 Cue Memories" so it ought to be possible to get it to behave sensibly. Buggered if I could see how to do it though. The CD1s automatically stored the cue point whenever you pressed Play.

Despite claims to the opposite, they skip, especially when hitting the bottom left light switch.

Well, they claim to have anti-skip, which (as the ad above phrases it) probably means anti-shock - ie it reads ahead and caches a few seconds (looking at various sites it appears to have 40 seconds total) so that when you thump it or people dance too vigorously, *then* it won't skip. However that relies on it being able to read the disk at all - if it's dirty or scratched or just badly mastered that won't stop it from skipping then. OTOH if it was only happening when you prodded things in the vicinity, that doesn't say much for its anti-shock protection at all. OTTH the light switches shouldn't cause much vibration at all - you get far more off the dance floor.

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links.

I overheard Sue asking someone on the phone to bring the instruction manual, so she should have it next time.

Now, what I would love to play with is two of these babies (http://www.soundmastersdirect.co.uk/cgi-bin/show_popup.cgi?prod_id=PIOCDJ1000&prod_name=Pioneer%20CDJ1000&prod_price=849&image=piocdj1000.jpg&description=Worlds%20Largest%20Jog%20Dial%20with%20integral%20display,%20True%20Vinyl%20emulation) plus the fitting mixer with gangable crossfader. I saw them in action when I was in the US in October, they're gorgeous.