FWIW, I’ve been in this game for two decades and started on a pair of Tech1200’s and a DJM 300. Have been a Pioneer/Pioneer DJ consumer ever since. I’ve played on nearly every bit of hardware they’ve released, so this review isn’t based on bashing the brand, rather, my observations having been an active user/purchaser of their products for over 20 years, including this one.
I wanted a replacement for my NXS2 system which I why I made the investment after doing a ton of research (apparently not enough).
Pros: The build quality is premium. No cheap plastic enclosure, everything is solid metal and feels has a great feel. Love the matte finish and shiny plastic invites fingerprints a plenty.
The glass touchscreen is fantastic and a solid upgrade compared to the plastic found with the CDJ 3000 and other similar contemporaries with onboard screens. While sound quality is certainly subjective, the output sounds great, and all the effects are equivalent to that of the flagship pioneer, DJ mixers (A9). The touch screen offers a lot of real estate and offers great flexibility/features with certain functions, such as track preview and various customizable layout options.
Speaking of touch, the touchscreen is well implemented, and there is little to no lag when swiping through lists, or even when using the touch FX (more on that later). I also like having a separate screen for each deck at the top of the unit. While not as crisp as the center screen, it gives you all of the information you need. It feels more natural switching between decks for relevant information versus always looking at the center screen. The faders all feel great and buttons and knobs are sturdy. The customizable LED ring color, while a bit gimmicky, is pretty sweet. At first I thought this purchase would easily replace my NXS2 system setup. However…
Cons: speaking of gimmicky, the touch FX system is just that: an odd gimmick. While it is OK to use, when playing a single track, win in the process of mixing two tracks together it becomes quite useless and not a catalyst of creativity. It seems as though it is being used as a substitute for the time division pad and Low/Mid/High FX section buttons found on the DJM/XDJ models. TBH, even having these functions as part of the screen UI would be acceptable and preferred (for me) over the touchpad. Their inexplicable absence is questionable.
Which brings me to one of my biggest gripes with the Quad: the omission of basic beat fix found on multiple lower tier hardware systems/controllers such as Low Echo and Mobius. Selling a $3k standalone unit that lacks basic features found on the XZ, FLX10, etc. is pretty much the most Pioneer DJ-like move ever as they’ve got in the habit of releasing products that conveniently lack features a common sense developer/engineer would include. I can live without the Mobius effect, but having zero means to filter out low frequencies for the Echo effect (aside from the previously mentioned Touch FX) makes Echo quite useless as the kick will always dominate the effect every time and create a muddy wreck when mixing. At the very least, I would’ve expected a setting for the user to set a fixed frequency to cut for the echo, something similar to what is found with the S11 . This is not the case
Furthermore, this seems like a fix that could be implemented through a system/firmware update, and while pioneer DJ has touted the power of the built-in computer/processor of the Quad, they have yet to deliver on anything that shows the advantage of having such a thing in the system as there have been zero updates that have added/enhanced the UX/UI.
And then, of course, there is the lack of a dedicated mono split switch. As someone who uses custom IEMs exclusively for hearing loss reasons, I constantly switch between stereo/mono split when cueing. Having to menu dive, albeit not too deep, instead of having a simple button on the hardware to make the change is absurd as, again, we’re talking about a $3k piece of gear and yet another Pioneer move omitting what should be a very basic option on a very expensive bit of kit.
Prior to this review I reached out to Pioneer with questions and suggestions including multiple approaches that would involve minimal change. And in a response that is the most Pio DJ response ever, they wrote “There is no Low Echo on the Opus Quad. I’ll pass this along our product planners for consideration.” I would’ve preferred either a firm no it’s not happening or, best case, a general roadmap or affirmation that additions are in the works but no release date has been set.
TL;DR: The Opus Quad is a good system that’s held back from being great due to omissions of basic options found on numerous models below this price range. There’s a lot of power under hood that may or may not even fully realized during its lifespan. If a future update brings these features, I will gladly update this review.
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