IMHO the marketing message to me was, “see it’s so good even girls can use it” which is even more tone deaf.
Im not sure its that deep, its just current to have a wider range of people involved in this sort of thing, people from different cultures, females in environments that are traditionally not frequented by them.
Good on them really.
I’ve watched it with subs, of course.
/off-topic
- Yeah starting on Shogun soon. Just finished The Gentlemen.
Started that yesterday. Struggling a bit with it. Maybe it would pick up.
Not too shocking a price. It’s about the same price as rotary versions of the NXS2, A9, and V10 would go for.
No customization on the channel tone controls or master iso frequency bands.
Limited filters.
I’m not sure what this transformer output design is supposed to be doing. The name and language of describing its sound is like someone’s been reading my online reviews of DJ mixers 
. Usually when I think of the use of transformers on output stages, though, I think of very well-designed and expensive balanced outs, but they’re not talking specifically about the XLRs on this. Nowadays, though, you can simply source the balanced outs from certain arrangements of high-end DACs’ outputs.
It’s using the same DSP stuff as the NXS2, V10, and A9, which is going to mean it doesn’t differentiate its digital to digital sound hugely from those. Iso420 & MP2015, X1700, and DB4 will still produce superior sound, not to mention a bunch of other analog mixers out there that I’d rank just below these four but still above Pioneer. If you’re in the market for a Pioneer mixer, though, and want a rotary, it’s potentially more appealing for some users than the converted others in their lineup.
No master iso bypass? ̶E̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶M̶a̶s̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶S̶o̶u̶n̶d̶s̶ ̶f̶i̶n̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶f̶i̶g̶u̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶.̶ V10 has one.
Weird that the iso boost setting is not in a menu somewhere, on the back, or anywhere else other than next to the knobs right there. That’s literally an install setting, not something you want the DJs messing with.
The combining of the isolator bands with the sends to the little FX section is neat.
Tiny USB-C port?
No SPDIF output?
I think the biggest selling points for it are the nifty digital needle meter that can probably do other stuff later with firmware updates, and the fact it looks like a mini digital STP Vestax Phoenix.
At least they’re actually releasing a digital rotary, though. Both InMusic and A&H have inexplicably stopped their models. Pioneer’s been lambasted for years for stopping their own rotary conversion kits, so this at least placates that.
Edit:
After some further investigation, it looks like the transformer is being used as an analog effect contributing linear harmonic distortion like certain tube (valve) arrangements. I recall the late Tim de Paravicini (of audiophile pre-amp & headphone amp design fame) explaining that he could do a completely transparent-sounding tube design that sounded non-tubey, or instead use stuff other than tubes like FETs and transformers to do much of what tube coloration can.
The Euphonia’s quasi-unity or sweet spot on the channel rotaries being 7ish, which (without the old Pioneer shifting fader unity + master volume + headphone level method they abandoned recently) is likely not the actual digital unity of the mixer, seems like another recipe for inaccuracy, but at least does give people the option to overload the transformer if they want. Still, it’d be better to do these harmonics digital-domain if you’re on a digital mixer.
Anyway, InMusic certainly has experience with adding these optional types of harmonics on their DJ gear. I still think having the PPD 9000 Alesis tube stuff added on Prime would be nice:
It’s an unbelievably beautiful piece of gear that almost nobody will want or need…except Mojaxx. He is so incredibly overjoyed about this! 
Looks cool but I’m fucked without a cross fader lol.
Hah. You might be right. I want a bypassable iso, at least two filters, SPDIF out, and option to not have added harmonics. Think I’d rather have a modified older Pioneer, with the added bonus of their other features.
Rane did say they topped themselves, right? Kind of the pinnacle for them, and their last rotary tests comparably in the most important respects to the Isonoe audiophile analog mixers. If you want rotary, digital, and audiophile sound, you’ll probably just get an MP2015 no matter what. How does Pioneer DJ compete with that? I don’t think they do, and probably don’t need to.
Pick an achievable market. They’re competing with the Master Sounds, the Ecler Warm 2 & 4, Condesa, etc. Especially for those using Serato or digital DJ media players who also want coloration and rotary, now they have something under this same company umbrella to choose. Buyers don’t need to look too far outside this safe nest, don’t need to wait for InMusic or A&H to get around to anything, or for Superstereo and Formula Sound to ever build the hybrid models they promised way back.
If they’re hardcore vinyl-only analog hounds, I don’t think they give Pioneer DJ / Alpha Theta a consideration, anyway. Given how their digital competition isn’t doing much in this market, it’s actually not a bad strategy. They might capture a significant chunk of the rotary market.
Edit:
No Ethernet preview for the CDJ-3000.
Going further over the specs and block diagrams, I have more reservations, such as the fact Alpha Theta is not clearly explaining where the DACs are, but I can make some educated guesses.
̶I̶t̶ ̶l̶o̶o̶k̶s̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶h̶e̶a̶d̶p̶h̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶m̶i̶x̶b̶u̶s̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶s̶p̶l̶i̶t̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶a̶l̶l̶ ̶a̶n̶a̶l̶o̶g̶.̶ ̶ Sourcing the cue master before the master level pot was a mistake. They should have gone back to the method prior to the V10 given the use of this transformer effector as it would have allowed them to even put “Clean” at 7 on the channel pots and 10 on the master level, and then “Effect” at 10 on the channel pots and 7 on the master level. Assuming you’re running the meters properly (bouncing symmetrically around 0dBVu), you can expect what that labeling would say. Anyway, their mix level meter (separate from the master meter) will obviously also help to see saturation.
The DJM-1000 to 900NXS2 did this unity adjustment digital domain without any mixbus effector influenced by the level run into that pre-master mixbus just so that you could choose your unity (between 7 and 10) and have an appropriate level in the headphones. Using analog for the headphone stage and sourcing the master level after the transformer, there is zero benefit here having the master level in the headphones fixed like Numark, Rane, Denon, and now Pioneer DJ do it. Adjustable channel unity dependent on the master level (between 7 and 10) would be even more useful for this Euphonia than the pre-V10 mixers. In this case, ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶E̶u̶p̶h̶o̶n̶i̶a̶ ̶m̶a̶s̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶l̶e̶v̶e̶l̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶j̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶a̶ ̶r̶e̶p̶l̶a̶c̶e̶m̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶a̶m̶p̶’̶s̶ ̶p̶o̶t̶, and if you’re messing around with the varying saturation for the transformer effector, you’ll get inconsistent headphone master levels. ̶I̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶t̶e̶x̶t̶,̶ ̶I̶’̶m̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶s̶u̶r̶e̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶y̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶n̶k̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶m̶a̶s̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶m̶e̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶s̶u̶p̶p̶o̶s̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶s̶h̶o̶w̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶y̶o̶u̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶.̶
Edit:
I missed a detail on the first block diagram. The transformer seems to be on its own send with DAC, and then an ADC puts it back into the digital domain. Potentially that means a utility setting might be possible to bypass the transformer. The master level might be digital domain and the headphones mix entirely digital domain, too, which means they could conceivably change the headphone master feed to be post-master-level, or at least add that option. If this is all indeed the case, then it’s odd they didn’t just have a “Trans Saturation” dry/wet knob specifically for that purpose, and then the current headphone master sourcing would actually make sense.
Edit:
I have listened to a pair of high bitrate lossless clips recorded to an interface and ones that were sent through various mixers including the Euphonia & recorded to the same interface. The V10 is more reference/source. The Rane even more so, like it’s just the interface with that source content. If measured, you’d only get a little added phase distortion from the Rane tone controls’ filters. The core sound to me on the Euphonia is arguably roughly halfway between the NXS2/A9 & V10 if the two were at other sides of a continuum, but the transformer definitely does something.
The saturation difference is most obvious looking at a spectrograph and especially at the raw waveforms. Most evident on higher amplitude portions and peaks, giving it a subtle expander effect or very crude analog version of declipping plus coloration harmonics. At first blush, it sounds like it’s mostly V-shaped added harmonics distribution, but looking at the waveforms and spectrum it’s apparent the mids are getting them, too. Perhaps just sounds that way because the kick and presence regions are both just more obvious to the ear, and those are where the music’s peaks are getting more of these harmonics. It’s a bit like what happens with something passed through some tube emulators or, you’re right, like a Urei. I think it’s more refined-sounding than a Urei, though, and the expander sensation is welcome.
The midrange harmonics seem pretty tame to me, though. Along with the reduced microphonics, I can see this getting less congested than tubes with dense source material when pushed, but what the Euphonia does to the sound seems more simplified tonally than tubes, ignoring the slight expanding quality. Maybe you can’t do exactly what transformers do with tubes and vice versa. The Pioneer digital mixer beat bloom has an added touch of thump overlaying & obscuring it instead. The high hats aren’t more polite (the NXS2-onward have been polite) or more grating & tinny (pre-NXS2), but like the original transient is both slightly dulled and with more associated side-energy, yet coming off as strangely less synthetic. I was not expecting barely softened attack and added harmonics to seem less artificial. Anyway, some who just rabidly find the Pioneer mixer sound objectionable (bloom in the lows, synthetic highs, etc) will probably prefer what the transformer is doing to it.
I still don’t totally get why they didn’t allow us to source the USB main out pre-DAC apart from the transformer, and I don’t get why they left out a SPDIF or AES/EBU digital out to also bypass the transformer and choose our own DAC stage. Now that I’ve realized they’re looping the transformer out (trans send) through an ADC stage back into the mix, it’s an even weirder bunch of choices. Maybe they really wanted to make a certain impression with people and didn’t want you to be able to bypass any of it… iso, DAC, or transformer. You go onto a Euphonia, and it’s going to impart a certain sound. Heck, maybe they didn’t want people able to easily demonstrate that the pre-DAC & pre-transformer digital bit stream is not largely different than their other recent models.
Like I’ve previously said, also a lot of other weird choices on this… almost like it’s 17 years ago Vestax or Ecler. Though, back then there was a lot more innovation and competition than there was until just recently. At least someone is doing something. A coloration and slight expander effect being done in the analog domain with a transformer mixed back into a digital mixer is not something I would have guessed in a bazillion years.
Unity on the channels is max, not 7. Doesn’t bother me, but their reps are giving incorrect information, sort of like myths Rane spread on the MP2015.
Here is the block diagram indicating the transformer is on a DAC send → Transformer → ADC receive back into the mixer:
Here’s what it looks like when you (presumably) hard limit into the Trans Send and also clip into the master out:
Fair enough. When is Inmusic coming with a decent mixer outside of all in ones? Or did they completely abandon the club style equipment?
That I do not know.
1 Like
BTW, can all you see this post on YT from me, or am I shadow banned?
I only see my replies to his replies if I log in.
Anyway, this is a very relevant discussion to the digital levels stuff in the recording levels threads.
1 Like
I think I know what happened, you wrote so much its crashed the Youtube server.
2 Likes
Hah hah.
Seriously, though, I had no idea that YT Red and/or Premium accounts had the ability to manually flag to shadow ban. I know you can also highlight or pin posts, because every account can do that, but I’ve never paid for YT account features. It was funny my response was highlighted. For a moment, I actually thought he was doing a mea culpa.
Me not seeing my own replies has been going on for a couple of months now, if you sort by newest then open it up you will see them, then sort by top again and they disappear.
Im not sure it’s him doing anything btw, as there is only one reply to your comment showing, he wouldn’t delete his own comments would he.
Are you able to see my replies to his replies? I only see them when I log into YouTube and I am the author of these comments. I see my first posts, but that’s it.
I tried logging out of Edge and using Firefox that’s already not logged in, and sure enough my replies to his replies don’t show. If I log in, they show, but that’s probably because I’m the author if that’s indeed a manual shadow ban flag.
Wait, you see his reply to my comment but not my second post in each thread (my reply to his reply)?
It could just be a certain word that has caused it, like for example you cant use the word Amazon or more ridiculously you cant say Google (The company who own the platform) as both are classed as flagged words that will get a comment deleted.
Bizarre. Well, maybe there’s an automated explanation, too, for the temporary ‘highlight’ flag one of my responses also had.