Home > Consumer Reviews > Ion iCD03 DJ CD Player Mixing Kit

This is a good starter dj unit if this is your first time buying dj equipment. It is not the best value though. ION has a dj kit that is also avalible from AMAZON.COM. It is extrememly similar and runs a "touch" more expensive (last time i checked only about $20 more) BUT it includes a pair of starter speakers. This one does not. The ion one does not say in the product description that it does include speakers but trust me, it does. The speakers ION includes are not the best ones but atleast they are something to get you started. They are sufficient enough for practicing in your room or at maybe a small club.

I got this kit about a year or so ago and since then have used it quite a bit. It does it's job well but as far as features go, the iCD03 is somewhat lacking.

The CD players are very nice, with easy to read LED displays, quick seek functions, and pitch control. Unlike the iCD02 kit, these CD players are not part of one large unit, allowing more functionality to the system. However, these players will skip with even the lightest bump so keep any bass fluctuations to a minimum around these.

The mixer is what I have the biggest problem with. Way too basic to make anything sound professional. No adjustments for LOWs, MIDs, or HIGHs at all. In the end, all you can do with it is a basic fade-in/fade-out between inputs and that's about it. This technique will be ok for a while until you want to increase your level of skill which this kit doesn't allow to do (by itself anyway). My biggest frustration was the fact that the headphone jack simply stopped working completely. After then, I couldn't hear the music I was playing at all.

The manual is horrible. The most vague instructions I've ever heard in my life. You can stare at the LED and see options like "Continuous play" and the manual makes absolutely no mention of it or how to use it. Really disappointing.

Overall, you get what you pay for.

HOWEVER, I changed my system a bit and am very happy with it. My advice is to get the Plug+Play DJ kit as well in addition to this. Switch the new mixer with the one from this kit because the new mixer has knobs for HIGHs, LOWs, and MIDs. You can hook up the 2 CD players along with the DJ turntables that come with the Plug+Play kit into the new mixer. Now you have much more equipment to work with and a better mixer as well. Although I'm again changing my mixer to a nice Gemini, the setup with both kits is very nice and much better than this one alone.

My 10 year old son purchased this as his first DJ kit. It is perfect for a beginner. It plays both R/W and WO CD's fine. The seek times are fast, and sound quality quite good. The user guide is not very good with poor explanations and poorly written. The product seems robust.

Ion Audio dj set is quite good for that amount of money. No problems so far.

This is one of the best mixing systems I have used, it easy to use and fun to play around with.