I'm in the boat with the rest of the guys, I had Push 1 for 2 years and now with Push 2 I have almost no complaints about quality.
I guess the perception is personal but also being a tech guy and an engineer and owning more tech gear than i'd care to list I find many points completely the opposite for me:
All knobs have different tightness, they are wobbly and some of them produce feeling like they get stuck and then when you go on they are scratching either against housing or itself.
Certainly not the case on mine. While there may be some slight variance in resistance between some of them they all feel firm and do not wobble or grind against the case. The tempo is the only one that's a little "wobbly" but that is a different kind of pot from the others and not an issue IMO.
The NI Komplete Kontrol keyboard suffers the same variances in controls too with some more firm than others. While it's a little annoying it's not something I get upset about, more like "hm, that one moves a little easier than that one, fancy that" then back to earth.
jitter due to electrical noise.
-> (Push 2 Firmware update v 0.51: introduces an improvement for potentiomenters, to prevent jitter due to electrical noise.)
Obviously affects some users under some conditions but have not seen this myself either. Have had this occur on other controllers and turned out to be the USB extension cable or grounding between myself and the conductive controls which was easily resolved.
On push 1 after 2 years of really abusing it, twisting knobs hard, easy without thinking from what angle to hold it they are still rock solid, on push2 after after using it only for 2 hours i dont think they will survive more than 2-3 months of easy twisting...
Many have owned Push 2 since release and yet I am to hear of any issues with the breakdown of the Pots. Issues with Pads on Push 1 saw a large number of posts from users on the forums here in regards to the LED lighting. There is very little discussion about issues ongoing here apart from the pad triggering velocity issue which I also have not experienced myself.
Buttons .. ?? Can i even call it button ? Its some old fashion calculator switch in rubbery raincoat intended to be pressed very gently just few times in their life .. I wonder is there some warranty on under used worn out rubber on buttons ?.
I know what you mean with buttons having a "squishy" feel but I don't find this to be an issue and in fact prefer the actual click from these instead of the large rubber buttons of the P1. The LED illumination is way better on these buttons and I for one like the more recessed feeling of the buttons. I am sure they are more durable than you think.
Housing... have you noticed how Push 1 is neutral under light, push 2 isn't, it act almost like traffic sign when you point light to it....
I operate in a darkened room so see no issue here. The face of P2 is metal whereas P1 was plastic and most people find the metal faceplate a welcome addition since it guards against the issues of P1 being scratched when being transported. Possibly the way the brushed metal finish reflects light creates this issue? That's more a cosmetic thing and nothing to do with build quality really.
Display... Ahh in era of retina, uhd, phablets , tablets, iphones, touchscreens they couldnt even get some decent PWM for display ...
??? Seems like you are looking for something wrong with every aspect because that seems a bit of a stretch of a complaint. The display is nothing short of brilliant for something like Push and compared to P1 is a huge advancement. It's high res, smooth operating and very functional with its use of text, overlays and colour.. Colour is a hard thing to get right with something like the Push display and take that from someone who is heavily colourblind with Red/Blue and cannot even see the difference between pads on a Launchpad that are playing/recording... I need a special modded script to change that. I have no such issues with Push2 both display and pads.
And the most intriguing for me is why choose white colour for navigating buttons when its known for couple of years now that white\blue light can be very distracting, confusing for human mind/eye ....
Thats news to me. Be happy to take in a medical review that explains the pros/cons of white/blue light being distracting, it is certainly more noticeable being higher in energy obviously but distracting, not when you have a bunch of brightly coloured pads there its not. I certainly do not find it an issue when driving at night having white lights coming at me all the time. On Push (again as someone who does not see Red light well) the while function buttons are great because I can see the arrows and signals on Push easily even with pads all lit up where on Push 1 I had to physically look at the buttons because of the really dim backlight.
Ok... i can go on, on cause there are so many bad engineer decisions on Push2 ....
I notice the complete opposite. Of course not everyone will love every aspect, you seem to not like many aspects but I do not believe much of what you have said is due to bad engineering. From the sounds of your Pots it appears you may have some manufacturing issues with your Push which is different from an engineering perspective. The design and even subtle changes seem to work for the better for most of the users here.
The only good side of Push 2 is sampling and pads which are amazing.
Maybe also:
- Better browser
- Better LED backlighting for pads, more uniform and more vibrant
- More robust overall package
- Graphical icon display of control elements for live instruments
- More control and feedback for live instruments
- Better overall display in general
- Mixer display
....
If I were to complain about anything it would simply be the lack of management around ordering/labelling controls for VSTs (but that is more of a Live thing), the LED and display suffer badly when not connected to a PSU, though a non issue for me and the touch strip is not as good IMO as the last push because the metal face seems to cause erratic behaviour if you touch it when using the strip sometimes.
