You completely understood my point.
Ten years ago, hardware was important because many things were handled by hardware; effects, for example, were managed by DSPs or similar devices.
Nowadays, the only thing that’s truly important in terms of hardware (aside from the audio circuitry, which obviously needs to be high quality) is the CPU/GPU/RAM combination. This is because more and more features that were once handled by hardware are now managed by software.
Denon DJ even did this themselves by disabling the DSP and completely rewriting the effects in software within Engine OS.
Add to that the management of the Zplane timestretch algorithm (also managed by software) + perhaps tomorrow stem separation algorithms + in a few years, a revolutionary new AI-based algorithm that will bring a new feature we haven’t even considered today, etc., etc…
So today, what really matters is the software.
The problem with standalone products is that key components like the SoC/CPU chosen by manufacturers are already modest and often several years old to reduce costs.
The RK3588, which is rumored to be the next generation of Denon DJ equipment, remains a cheap, entry-level processor that already dates back to 2020. This SoC is already 5 years old, can you believe it! 5 years in the world of CPU technology, in an era where AI is progressing at an exponential rate, is an eternity.
So standalone products are future-proof, but only to a certain extent. Adding resource-efficient features is fine, but adding new features based on heavy algorithms or requiring intensive GPU processing/decoding is a different story.
With a laptop equipped with a decent CPU/GPU combination, you don’t even have to ask the question; the available computing power is immense in comparison, whereas the SoC of a standalone product is already obsolete and offers little headroom.