MPC2500 Discontinued

Pretty much got definitive confirmation tonight at Guitar Center that the Mpc2500 is getting whacked.

I was talking with a sales rep and asked if they had any new ones in, and he said no and they wont be getting anymore either. I asked if he was for sure, and he said based on the product code in the computer, that he was pretty sure.
Having worked a GC a while back I remember that if something was a certain code that meant it was being discon'd by the manufacturer.

Curiously after I left, I called a different location and confirmed this with the store manager.

So bye bye mpc 2500. the question is NOW WHAT?

If those of you that know I already have a 2500 are wondering why I was looking to buy another..
Its cause mine needs work and I dont feel like sending it in for warranty repair, so I was looking to buy their floor display and pull a swappy swap on a part I needed, then return it. But No returns now on the floor display since its sold as clearance due to no new ones coming in anymore.
which led me to finding all this out.

Akai is fukin up in more ways than one. The fact that there was a bad run of these is one thing.. but when it works well its a DOPE piece of gear. Especially with JJOS. So if there is not a replacement model coming down the pipe.. then what?

Speaking of pipes.. Nukai needs to quit loading theirs up with Phat 20 Slabs of butter. And wake da fuk up.

when it works well its a DOPE piece of gear.

Ain't that the truth. However, I don't think DOPE fits into Akai's business plan these days. I mean, look at the Miniak for f*#ks sake!
It's turning into some kind of monster that just craves money and cuts whatever costs necessary to do so...
"Akai hungry...akai need money...need cheap parts and cheaper foreign labour so Akai get money...Roar!"

Spare parts will be around for a number of years so I still think the 2500 is a good investment. I wonder if the 1k will be next?

Ya, I noticed a price cut, $1,300 now.

viewtopic.php?p=1096136#p1096136

If your local Guitar Center still has one I bet you could offer $1,000 and get it.

My assessment was that the MPC 2500 + JJ OS could be the final peak of the MPC. I got mine before they become scarce like 4000s. People will want them because they're the top machines that run JJ OS.

Akai has become wack like many of their customers; this scene is ending.

Even if they release new models, they'll probably continue the same poor construction, and won't be JJ-compatible. Since Akai has proven their unwillingness or inability to produce quality code, they either have to open source it, or the 2500 is it.

I expect the Beat Thang to be unable to fill the void for techie pros. Eventually as standalone hardware and PC merge, someone will get it right. No, Maschine is not it. Until then, watch for September 13th, grab a 2500, and have fun.

sup yo! just signed up.. have recently started makin the moves towards building up a hip hop focused studio, ditching my other styles (dnb/dubstep) for the time being. So i wanna get a MPC2500, been reading up everything about them and settled on the 25 due to the disses the 5k gets and i dont wanna be **** around with floppys on the 2000xl.. I was gona get a like excellent cond used one off ebay, think i should be paying about £700 instead of £950 new, but now im gettin a bit p'noid bout there being any potential problems and thats why these cats are shifting theirs, coz since poomarks taken over i take it customer support is wack? and dunno what warranty they give or if id get any benefit from that if i buy second hand.. dont wanna spend 700 on a **** mpc but at the same time i need to get one as cheaply as i possibly can due to cash flow problems.. is it quite common for the mpcs to have problems or glitches and is it a pisstake to sort that kinda shiz out? any advice would be dope.. peace

"People will want them because they're the top machines that run JJ OS."

Couldn't have put it better myself. As someone currently on the lookout for an ASR-10 rack I can tell you that having a bit of hardware marked as discontinued is certainly not going to stop me from looking for it. Especially with the internet - there are more than enough opportunities to find spare parts, assistance etc.

I have a 2500 with JJOS and don't regret getting one for a minute. Tuskany I understand what you're saying but the fact is that for all its faults (in particular the jog wheel) - the 2500 is a quality machine and with JJOS is easily the best bit of music making kit I've worked with. I don't particularly want to see you getting ripped off - but if you're expecting to see a flood of mpc 2500's at a cut-down price - you'll be setting yourself up for some dissapointment.

AKAI's new range means nothing to me. If someone else thinks its exactly what they want - then good luck to them. Jamon - I agree with what youre saying although I'd like to add that it may be a very long while before someone really does 'get it right'. Im not sure AKAI by themselves really got it right - as JJOS is pretty much a neccessity for any mpc that can run it. How long before we see this (let's face it, lucky) combination again ?

So I'm frankly ok with running kit marked as obsolete as long as it works and I can get parts if need be.

it aint that im worried bout being dissappointed by anything on the mpc on a fully functional one i just keep reading that there are actual faults with quite a few of them and am a bit concerned with buying one second hand without warranty or whatever, there was another thread in here bout running a test OS on it but all the ones ive seen are so far away i cant really drive to get them to do it, i dunno i just need someone to say nah fuk it get a new one from somewhere or nah itl prob be fine and if there are faults it wont be a huge ordeal to get them sorted

Itl prob be fine.

If there are faults it wont be a huge ordeal to get them sorted.

If you haven't checked it out already - look at this

http://www.mpcstuff.com/mpc2500stuff.html

it should go some way to reassuring you.

M

nice1 man

@Tuskany

If you have a PC: Ableton Suite 8 + Controller
If you have a Mac: Apple Logic Studio 2 + Controller

yeah dont get me wrong.. Im not abandoning my 25k anytime soon. I love it.

Im just pissed that akai is abandoning it given what it is and could continue to be with THEIR support.
(I in-vision sh!t like a MPC2500 MKII with 1GB ram, 10,000 sample limit, ability to connect monitor, etc.
why cant they?)

OH and when I said SUPPORT.. i mean recognition of bad parts runs like defective AD/DA converters, and CPU Boards, and LCDs and what not. all because they cut cost on already cheap parts.

The MPC 2500 I have was originally purchased in FEB of THIS YEAR. I bought it used last week of June or so.

SO when I got it .. it was but FOUR months old. I KNEW when I bought it that the screen had a line out.. for 700 bucks I said F it. figured it was no biggie as I wanted Blue or white anyway right..

Well a few days later after random use I notice a crackling from the right jacks and a popping noise from the left.. The rest is history and is logged here on the forum. (search CRACKLING if ur interesting in knowing more)
After calling Akai and doing some digging with others, I found that this was a KNOWN FUKIN PROBLEM!

Meaning.. ok we cheaped out on parts.. a large run of the machine may or MAY NOT be defective(in their words).
and dont worry we will TAKE CARE OF IT.. ... IF.... its STILL under Warranty. if not ur fuct!

A company that gives half a sh!t would fix it ANYTIME is started the KNOWN ISSUE BEHAVIOR..
and the RIGHT THING to do is to issue a FUKIN RECALL on models made between the dates that "said defective parts" were used.
But we all know that will never happen.

The way they figure.. the LESS ppl that realize they have the issue, the cheaper it is for them.
And MORE over.. the more ppl that KNOW they have the issue but are NOT WILLING to ship their mpc BACK to akai, the better..for them.. of course.
I fall into that last category. The idea of having my mpc bouncing around a Fed-Ex truck from ATL to Jersey just makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. Not to mention if I wanna get it there fast to prevent the possibility of damage in shipping, to do overnight or just next day is 50-100 bucks outta my pocket. The ONLY upside to that, is that Akai will MATCH your shipping method when they return it to you. gee thanks akai!!!
Its funny... its cheaper 4 them to pay to ship units back and forth under warranty than it is to buy good parts off the jump, despite how many thousands of units get sent back and forth for repair.

But these days they assume you wont get the work done.
Its like the whole rebate mentality. Sell something at a discount, but only thru a rebate "those lazy bastards will never send that rebate form in". Im sure this is the reason that NUkai got rid of 3rd party authorized repair centers as well.
There is a place here in ATL called CTG that used to do auth repair work for Akai (and they STILL DO for every other PROFESSIONAL company). SO If u had warranty coverage AKAI would pay these ppl to fix your device LOCALLY. I know, because I got my 2000 classic fixed twice for FREE like that, under warranty. But ever since NuMark bought em out, they stopped it. Now there is TWO repair centers in the US. AKAIs in jersey and VST on the west coast.
I guarantee you if Akai had a West Coast Repair center, VST would be over. for akai stuff anyway.


ANYWAY.. disclaimer.. I JUST woke up, so im cranky as fuk.. and gotta go..
P.S. PC's are NOT the answer to everything. im so tired of hearing I should abandon all my gear.

Stock up on spares guys!

Personally I'm gonna get some new pad sensors, a few buttons and a q-link fader sometime in the next 6 months. Seems like they'l be the first parts to go.. but yeah, pretty sad that they're discontinuing what seems to be their last decent MPC.

@ Tuskany...

I bought my nearly new 2500 with an 80gig hard drive, full ram and disc drive for £700. It turned out to be a great deal, so keep a lookout and you may just encounter someone who is reluctantly selling for a good price.

Triple-X: sorry you had a bad experience with the MPC2500. Mine was rock solid out of the box and nothing sounds like it. Maybe other MPC's do, but no other current gear has that compressed lo-fi hot-level sound. I seem to remember the EPS-16 amd ASR's did though. I've recently tried taking the samples from a favourite MPC kit over to PC and its all weak, thin and crap. But if you send the PC out to the MPC in, it gets that sound. Something about the MPC outs colors it

It really is probably time that the 2500 was discontinued. For all the complaints about it a few years back comparing it to the 2000 and 60, the MPC2500 really is/was the best mix of solid drum machine with modern storage options. Because there isn't a successor with the guts of an MPC, the 2500 will just go up in value. There will be 2500's in 20 years time still bangin'

I didn't get the 2500 because it was the leading edge of technology, that's the point. Its good technology, not just the latest. Its your instrument.

B

cheers for replies to me.. sorry for hijacking the thread a little..