Question for experienced DJs

If they are not blown or wasted, they should be OK. Those things hold up pretty long usually and the price seems really good.
If you are really on a budget why go for the S4?

Whilst I respect your opinion Terry, you’re always raggin’ on the S4. Its build quality and jogs could be better but its still extremely functional, well laid out and intuitive and its Traktor integration is still the tightest available. As long as you don’t go beating up your gear (and yes I realise this eventually happens if well used and travels with you), the S4 is just fine. Controllers at this stage are only going to last a few years anyways, even the more durably designed ones as the buoild quality is still nothing close to a Technics turntable or even a Pioneer CDJ. I use mine several nights a week, every week and have yet to have a problem and know many Traktor DJs who do also. Sound quality between controllers is close to negligible once you’re in the club and have the music cranked up. maybe more noticeable on monitor for sure.

Indeed at the end of the day it is about personal choice and how much you want to spend for what feature(s).

Always try to negotiate a lower price whether its DJ gear or a new TV or whatever. A few years ago I worked in an electronics superstore and got pretty clued in to the mark ups and what not. The only thing to be aware of is often DJ equipment only has a very small mark up compared to other electronics but this may have changed a bit as its all mass produced and has less mechanical parts, similar guts inside etc.

I now had my hands on a 4Trak for an hour and have to say this is some nice piece of machinery.
I am by all means no fan of Traktor, but the integration, tightness of the jogs and overall integration of the 4Trak impressed me. It is definitely worth its money and at least looks wise even a step up from the NS6, although they are mostly the same.

Steelo, post: 24412, member: 1368 wrote: Whilst I respect your opinion Terry, you’re always raggin’ on the S4. Its build quality and jogs could be better but its still extremely functional, well laid out and intuitive and its Traktor integration is still the tightest available. As long as you don’t go beating up your gear (and yes I realise this eventually happens if well used and travels with you), the S4 is just fine. Controllers at this stage are only going to last a few years anyways, even the more durably designed ones as the buoild quality is still nothing close to a Technics turntable or even a Pioneer CDJ. I use mine several nights a week, every week and have yet to have a problem and know many Traktor DJs who do also. Sound quality between controllers is close to negligible once you’re in the club and have the music cranked up. maybe more noticeable on monitor for sure.

+1 on this I gig usually at least 4-8 times a month and i have never had an issue with my S4…but i do playout on Serato and CDJs when i cannot use my S4…but these days its just not the same without my S4 and midi fighter.

The soundcard on the S4 is totally fine…its tweaking the settings within Traktor to ensure that you are getting proper sound thats not compressed…Taking off Limiter, set your master vol to -10db, Disable Autogain, and set headroom to 0, no keylock. and you are getting proper uncompressed sound imo.

Yeah i have played with the Xone EQ but i havent spent the time to totally remap my S4 to use the low EQ. I read a few articles saying that using anything other than the Classic EQ will compress the sound more…I did some tests on my Studio Monitors but i couldnt really hear any difference in the SQ, even when i recorded a mix.

With that said the only gripe i still have with the Traktor EQ settings is that it doesnt do a full kill.

IMO nothing beats a real mixer, but its such a pita to have to bring CDJs, laptop and remembering my timecode CDs, and using serato cuz lets be real here the HID for Traktor sucks balls. I just upgraded to 2.5.1 but i havent had to test the HID functions yet so that may be a game changer for me