Brand overview: Numark

Numark

For more than 40 years, Numark has combined an understanding of DJs’ needs with cutting-edge technologies to create products that continually lead the way. Numark has quite literally innovated its way to the top, engineering performance tools for the entire spectrum of the DJ world, from hobbyists to professionals.

One of a handful of original DJ brands, Numark was founded in Edison, New Jersey by Harry and Robert Kotovsky in 1971. At the time, Numark developed a significant following for its mixers, turntables, and speaker enclosures and was considered to be one of the leading manufacturers in the DJ industry during the age of Disco.

In the 80s the company made its mark again, introducing the world’s first mixer with a built-in sampler, the DM1775. Before the DM1775, DJs were limited to techniques like prerecording drops on a cassette and then utilizing the rewind button and counter on an external cassette deck to cue the drop. The DM1775 had the ability to record and playback samples instantly, allowing DJs to do their own drops on the fly by sampling a beat, sound effect, or even their own voice.

In 1990, Numark continued to innovate, introducing the world’s first dual-well CD player, the CD-5020. With a rack-mountable two-component design—dual CD drive below and a separate top-facing control surface above —the CD-5020 set the mold for virtually every dual CD DJ system from then on and marked a dramatic change in the way DJs interacted with music. The world of DJing had moved into what the company’s soon-to-be CEO would call “the transitional stage” from analog to digital sourcing of music.

In 1991, Jack O’Donnell, the former head of sales and marketing for Stanton Magnetics, purchased Numark. By concentrating even more relentlessly on technology and innovation, Numark began to challenge the status quo on multiple fronts, creating DJ equipment with cutting-edge industrial design and functionality. Numark quickly became a standout in a DJ market that, at that time, was limited to mixers, turntables, and CD players. Today, even with a much more varied offering, Numark is still known for producing products with solid build quality, sleek looks, and intuitive layouts.

As the 1990’s progressed, some DJs began to use computers for their music source instead of CDs or vinyl. Rather than running from this change or dismissing it as a peripheral market, Numark embraced this innovative concept and built upon it by introducing one of the first DJ computer software controllers, the DMC-1. The DMC-1 replicated the two-component, rack-mount design and control surface of dual CD players like CD-5020, so DJs were able to make a seamless transition from using CDs to controlling software.