1st time using Numark Mixdeck Express

[musicology]

Having tested using phono output the issue is the same and I have cancelled the order and returned it. In don't think it's faulty though, just pants quality.
I've tried to educate myself about mixers and it appears that if the "shelving" of the frequencies is poorly executed in the mixer ( the bass, mid, and treble frequencies that are allowed to be increased in volume) then the result is poor. So what I am sure is happening here is that when, for example. I turn the bass knob up, it is also turning up a whole chunk of the lower-mid ones up resulting in a muddy and less punchy sound. The overall effect is that I have simply turned the volume up. In fact I am not even sure it's boosting the proper low end of the scale at all!
When I turn up the treble, again everything sounds louder because it's pulling up the high-mid frequencies as well. Not just the proper top end bits.
Before buying the Mixdeck Express, I had actually noticed a lot less clarity when I had tried using my Hercules rmx as the main music source but the Mixdeck Express is even worse.
The main problem with all of this is that you can't find out the actual specs of the mixers installed in combi units so it's really hard to judge if what you're looking at is going to be any good.
I know I'm not going for anything that looks a bit "plasticky" from now on because, as a rule of thumb, it will probably sound exactly how it looks!

[DJ Jules]

I've tried to educate myself about mixers and it appears that if the "shelving" of the frequencies is poorly executed in the mixer ( the bass, mid, and treble frequencies that are allowed to be increased in volume) then the result is poor. So what I am sure is happening here is that when, for example. I turn the bass knob up, it is also turning up a whole chunk of the lower-mid ones up resulting in a muddy and less punchy sound. The overall effect is that I have simply turned the volume up. In fact I am not even sure it's boosting the proper low end of the scale at all!
When I turn up the treble, again everything sounds louder because it's pulling up the high-mid frequencies as well. Not just the proper top end bits.

That's an interesting bit of feedback - I've always found the bass/mid cut and boost to be pretty good on my mixdeck so I do wonder if you got a faulty one. Either way it sounds like returning it was the right thing to do! I agree with your comments about the quality of built in mixers - you don't really know what you're getting unless it's a MIDI mixer (and then it's dependent on the quality of the output sound card!)

I was really apprehensive about buying an all in one unit at first as I've had experience of Numark all in one products before and have generally found their mixers to be pretty noisy and suffer from hum and crackle from now (ironically I'm talking about my experience of the CDMix1 here). But I've been pleased with the reliability and output of the Mixdeck and it's served me well. I am still considering switching to something else, but that's mainly because I really don't use the CD/USB part of the deck at all - just the MIDI - and I can get a top end MIDI controller for the same money as the Mixdeck originally cost.

Julian