Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
I must have bought a lemon, August 5, 2006
I don't know if my problem was typical or not, but I had an Axis 9 for less than a year before the display began to glitch and the player started taking longer and longer to cue. Before long, it stopped playing altogether. Mind you, it never left the bedroom - it wasn't dropped, shipped, or otherwise mistreated. I took it for repair at a reputable shop and was told it wasn't repairable. Bam - out 400 bucks.
Again- don't know if this is typical Numark quality or not, but I'm switching to Pioneer.
I will say, I did enjoy it while it worked. The effects were cool, and the re-start function allowed for some unique mixing. The short lifespan turneed me off unfortunately.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great for starters and bedroom DJs, March 14, 2006
Given the low price and loaded features, the Axis 9 has probably the highest value of any cd turntable currently on the market. It has solid performance with plenty of gadgets to keep you occupied. One problem which makes this turntable not suitable for professional use is the slight stutter when the key lock is in place. The problem is only slight and intermittent, but will drive you completely crazy if you are a perfectionist. Otherwise, for beginners and bedroom DJs this is the best cd turntable out there.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
"Premium", but it's questionable whether it is professional, May 20, 2006
5/22/2009:
I had the internal power supplies on my Axis 8s rebuilt locally for cheap and my tech used better caps, resistors, and other parts. The below mentioned freezes and cold-start callibrations are no longer valid in my case, though Numark should be scolded for using such low-tolerance pieces on such sophisticated designs.
The high frequency response is still troubling. If you have the 9's, try and utilize the digital outs.
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First, a note on calibration. This is the procedure I've come up with:
1. Turn the unit on.
2. Switch to 6% pitch.
3. Start Numark's callibration by properly going through the pitch range.
4. Spin the wheel clockwise while pressing Loop 1 in/out/reloop and Loop 2 in/out.
5. Switch back to 6% pitch since it changes to 12%.
6. Go through the pitch range to ensure it is working properly. If it is not, turn the unit off, wait 5-10 seconds, then start over at #1 again.
7. Assuming the pitch is working correctly now, turn off Auto Open by pressing Program + Eject.
8. Press SGL to enable single play again.
9. Hit eject, and once the unit is open gently press up on the underside of the tray to cause the mechanism to work any possible kinks out.
10. Hit eject again to close the tray. You're ready to use it.
Good:
The Axis 8, 9, CDN-90, and CDX make great MIDI controllers of external sequencers if used correctly in SmartLoop mode and you apply a little ingenuity.
The effects work well. 2-5 on the phaser, a little down on the mixer's treble, and a touch of extra bass matches to the sound of the Whitelabel cartridges.
The pitch resolution is about .025% at 6% range and .05 or better on all the other ranges.
Firmware upgrades are easy.
Bad:
The extensive calibration procedure necessary to prevent skips, freezes, or accidental closing of the tray.
MIDI is poor if you are attempting to sync to an actual CD song playing on that deck.
Pitching down with keylock on (keying up) will cause enough distortion of the sound as to make the function worthless unless you are keying down and/or pitching up. Keylock is more useful for locking after you've pitched to your beatmatch speed and you want to hide the pitch bending you'll be doing.
The pitch accuracy is poor to the point that actual useable resolution is only about twice the resolution at the lower settings. So for 6% you'll get closer to .05%, and on the others it's closer to about .1% in the real world. This is due to the pitch wavering by one unit increment in either direction. 25% is fairly stable to .1% of its actual resolution, but you really need to baby-sit the 100% range.
I do not like how the display doesn't actually show the true pitch resolution. The percent range should have a one hundredth digit to show you the actual setting, not rounded to the nearest .1%. In the lower ranges the 1 in "100" is not used, so they could have simply moved things over when in any other range. Perhaps Numark was worried people would freak out when they saw the exact pitch quantity wavering. If you cover up that portion of the display with some non-residue studio tape, that can make things more intuitive for mixing.
Finally, Numark's CD players (at least the Axis 8's I own) appear to be missing a Low-Pass filter to lop off the highest frequencies at the post-DAC filter stage, or they implemented the wrong one. If you do a frequency test sweep on the unit it will show a strong upward slope on the top few octaves that will make CD's much brighter than they should be. At 20khz it's more than 5dB louder than it should be, and I find that quite troubling.
I went through 8 Axis 8's and one additional repair before I got two that worked correctly and was instrumental in helping the company nail down problems with the design, particularly the MIDI system. But there are still obviously some design choices I'm displeased with, so I would like to just give it 3 stars and be kind to it only for being cheap. The MIDI system, however, bumps it back up to 4 stars for me.
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