"The breakthrough was caused by the arrival of the DN-S3500 CD/MP3 player," he says, and to date high profile venues such as Silk, Styx, Plush, Sin City and Places have given main booth space to the tabletop players - as has George Said's legendary La Grotta on the neighbouring island of Gozo.
Other Denon tabletop devices, including the award-winning DN-S5000, can be found in venues like Clique, Sugar Shake, 121 (the former Moskito), The Edge and Freeze - while yet more are happy to rent in Denon's flagship DN-S3500 from hire companies such as Visage Sound and Tricky Sounds.
Stefan Farrugia believes in starting at grass roots level - and has ensured that both the Rype Promo DJ School and Visage Electronics will catch the DJ early as they gain their first hands-on experience on a rig containing the feature-rich Denon DN-S3500 and DN-X1500 mixer.
It was DJ J. Joy, who co-owns the Rype Promo DJ School with colleague Alvin Gee (and also works at the Honey Club in Brighton), who set the ball rolling for Denon DJ last year when he became the first endorsee for Denon DJ. Since then Futuretech has endorsed other popular DJs such as Carl Bee, Steve Caesar, Sub C and Cecil McCarthy, who are all officially sponsored by Denon DJ and use the DN-X1500 mixers and HP1000 headphones in addition to the players.
The Futuretech proprietor said: "Our sales strategy has been based entirely on Denon's superior feature-set. If owners aren't persuaded by me then they quickly listen to their DJs, who are sold on the rotating platter and effects contained in the DN-S3500."
But generally the owners are positive. "We switched to the Denon DJ DNS3500, and now all our DJs are happy; these players bring the best out of the sound system," say the Places operators. And their counterparts at Plush Club add: "At last no more skipping machines; I have never heard bass notes sound so clear as on the DN-S2500."
(Lee Baldock)
