DJzone DJ Magazine

When American Audio came out with its landmark SDJ-1 professional dual SD player, life suddenly got easier for mobile DJs. They could put their entire digital music library on an SD card the size of a postage stamp and play it back as they would CDs, without having to lug around expensive laptops, exterior hard drives or external MP3 players.

Now with American Audio’s introduction of the amazing next-generation version -- the SDJ-2 -- going mobile has gotten even easier. That’s because a built-in digital mixer has been added to the unit, positioned right between its two SD players. By eliminating the need to carry an external mixer, the SDJ-2 makes the mobile DJ’s load even lighter still!

“Our new, all-in-one SDJ-2, gives DJs everything they need to mix up, manipulate and playback digital tracks from an SD card in one compact, easy-to-use unit that weighs only 4.5 lbs.,” said Tom Freret, national sales manager for American Audio. “You don’t even have to bring along a mixer because it’s got its own digital mixer built right in. The SDJ-2 makes transporting and setting up your gear a breeze. All that’s required is to hook up the unit to a pair of powered speakers, pop in your SD card, and you’re ready to gig.”

The SDJ-2 comes with balanced ¼” TRS outputs that let you send the signal directly to powered speakers or power amplifiers. In addition to its built-in mixer, DJs will also appreciate some of the other new features on the SDJ-2, like its convenient headphone jack, added in response to customers’ requests. Additionally, the SDJ-2 has the ability to support high-capacity SDHC cards up to 32GB (as well as standard SD cards), allowing you to store an even more gargantuan music library on a little square you can hold between your thumb and forefinger! In addition to SD cards, the SDJ-2 can also play music from USB flash memory.

Like its revolutionary predecessor, the SDJ-2 offers full playback control similar to that found on most high-quality professional CD players. It includes a long list of must-have features for DJs, including Tempo Lock, Seamless Loop, Auto BPM Counter, Fader Q Start, Pitch Control (+/-4%, +/-8% or +/-16%), and Pitch Bend. Like American Audio’s MP3 disc players, the SDJ-2 has Advanced Cueing with track search by frame, and allows you to search the SD card for the next song while the current one is playing. Music from either SD can be played on either side, and there are 3 cue buttons for each player.

Extremely easy to operate, the SDJ-2 doesn’t require users to learn any difficult software. A bright LCD display on each side informs DJs of all functions as they’re occurring, including a Cue Indicator, Folder Indicator, Time Display, Elapsed/Remain Indicator, Auto BPM Indicator and more.

The SDJ-1 is ultra fast with no boot up time, and because there are no moving parts there’s nothing to break down, which makes it super reliable. It gives users a lot of configuration options, too, being equipped with balanced TRS and RCA mixed outputs, for connecting directly to an amplifier or powered speakers. Additionally, it has independent RCA outputs for each SD player to send the signal to a preamp mixer.

Weighing just 4.5 lbs., the SDJ-2 measures 19”L x 3”W x 5.25”H and is rack mountable in 3 rack spaces. The MSRP of the SDJ-2 is $599.95.