I was stuck between the Numark NVII and this. If you've used CDJs or other standalone decks and gotten comfortable with them, only then will you understand the feeling of limitations in controllers. The Numark NVII does a good job of trying to be CDJs, the built in screens are just amazing and mean you can keep laser focused on mixing instead of taking your head up to look at a screen. However, Serato seem to be the EA of DJing software - "we have the features you want, but it will cost you extra on top of the original purchase!" You have to pay extra for DVS, FX & filter models in a lot of cases so do your research!
Contrast this to Native Instruments and Traktor. They give you everything, for one initial price. DVS, a massive selection of FX - assignable to 3 tracks for each deck and also a mixer FX section where you have 4 FX switches plus an additional filter switch! There are a nice few filter models which can be changed in Traktor, which I recommend. On first launch, the "EQ Selection" will be set to "Classic". Click the settings cog, go to the "Mixer" tab and experiment. I recommend the "P600" and the Filter Type "Ladder" for that natural resonance sweep without distortion.
The Haptic feedback technology is really, really interesting. The torque is just like a turntable, no joke, it is. However, I haven't gotten used to it enough to be able to truly judge it.
Finally - the unit is really well built, it just has a premium feel. The lighting is well balanced and the controls and commands are more intuitive as you continue to use it.
The only issue I have had so far is sometimes the mini-screen for the waveform and track information just stays saying Traktor until I turn the unit off and back on (while Traktor is running). Reproducible bug and I'm sure it will be solved in time.
It's an extremely honourable offering. I'm just bummed I didn't grab it for €759 before it rose in price to €899!
EDIT (1/10/22): The screen bug doesn't appear to have happened for a while. I have the option to send statistics and reports ON and I recommend you do too, otherwise it's slower for these problems to get fixed!
