I used a CDJ2000 nexus setup for years at our residency, with a DJM-900. It definitely did the job but as you say searching was terrible and the Pioneer looping system feels so archaic when you compare to loop encoders you get on good controllers and Prime gear.
The link port broke so had to use 2 USBs until it was repaired (great for people who rely on sync lol), the platters stopped working properly and the cue/play buttons had to be replaced several times.
I still preferred my DDJ-SX2 and Serato rig to the CDJ one, it just felt much better as an all round experience. And my humble opinion, I always felt the overall sound was better on the RCF system installed at the venue, I think it was generally a bit clearer.
Rockchip SoCs have never been future-proof. They’re inexpensive SoCs designed for specific, relatively resource-efficient uses, such as entry-level tablets/smartphones, budget smart TVs, Android TV boxes, etc.
An RK3288 cost around $45 in 2016, so imagine how much it costs today—probably less than $30. To have something relatively future-proof with some performance leeway, manufacturers would have to move upmarket and integrate SoCs with an average price between $150 and $200. Manufacturers who choose Rockchip do so primarily to increase profit margins while maintaining very low prices.
RK3288 in a case and MoBo is between $450-$750 CAD on Mouser, used chip with MoBo on EBay is about $207 USD. The processor only with no MoBo is $50 USD. Thinking that “oh it’s only this much, how hard can it be”, isn’t how specific task hardware R&D works. Chip and DSP prices haven’t dropped, in fact they go up 3%-10% annually, materials and manufacturing isn’t getting cheaper either.
I’ll give you an example, let’s make a 128x128 Dante based audio DSP with 8 analog in and 16 analog out, GPIO, backup power supply, add firmware design and users end software design. Let’s add two (2) different DSP based audio amplifiers that would complement the system. From my experience, 10 million Euro, without marketing yet. You need 2 platform prototypes for R&D? 1 million Euro.
You still need a team of software engineers to get it to market, then the marketing budget and pray you’ve made something to fill a market gap to initially recoup and make a profit.
Denon has made the Prime ecosystem for a 10+ year roadmap, we’re coming up on year 8 with the release of the SC5000. The fact that the software is continually updated and features added to the hardware is a miracle of good engineering and a dedicated team. We’re not seeing incremental hardware upgrades like AT/Pioneer, we’re benefiting from a forward thinking team and a solid roadmap. IMHO so far, they are future proof.
I’m not saying otherwise; Denon has done a tremendous job on the RK3288 platform over the course of updates, which have brought some interesting new features.
When I say that Rockchips aren’t future-proof, it’s more in the sense that the computing power reserve is very limited. With this type of processor, you don’t have enough headroom to anticipate the arrival of new features requiring complex algorithms, for example.
The arrival of the STEMs feature, for example, which Denon couldn’t anticipate at the time the hardware was chosen/designed by the development team, is a perfect example to illustrate my point. They did try to make it work in real time on the Prime 4+ betas, and we saw the results. The limits of what this platform could do in terms of computing power have simply reached their limits.
Of course, this doesn’t prevent updates from being made to other features or functions that don’t require as much computing power.
What I mean is that, with the rapid evolution of AI algorithms and calculations, we’re not immune to the possibility that within two or three years, new STEM 3.0 algorithms will appear that are even more precise but also require more computing power. Not just for STEMs, by the way.
Rockchip processors are chosen because they are inexpensive and meet the product’s intended use during its design. But they are not the best choice for anticipating the arrival of new, power-intensive features.
I’m not saying that manufacturers should include ultra-powerful processors equivalent to the i7/i9/Ryzen at €500, which would be ridiculous…
But I think that when you buy a €2,500 unit that’s designed to run a scalable OS, there should be something inside other than a $50 CPU. Something with a certain amount of computing power in reserve, around €150, seems legitimate to me for devices at this price.
The fact that Alphatheta uses €50 processors is almost understandable (although given the price they sell their equipment, it’s debatable), because their policy isn’t to have a long-term upgradeable OS. They prefer to release new hardware anyway and force users to upgrade their equipment to get new features.
But when a company like Denon has a policy based on a scalable OS and a long-term vision, it seems a bit weak to me.
