Buying CDJ's

[narrah]

I was looking eventually to buy a pair of cdj 1000's MK3. I will be in th US for work in the coming months and wanted to ask what the general price for them in th US is? Is there a particular outlet that you guys prefer in th US.?

[Lantau]

Have you thought about getting CDJ-900's instead? If you're looking to buy new they're very similarly priced (in the UK at least) and you get all sorts of goodies over the 1000's

[narrah]

Ok, Yep CDJ 900's - I will look into it.

[Xonetacular]

Go for the CDJ-1000 MK3s, they are fantastic and while the new ones are nice, they are way over priced and only make sense if you are a bedroom or mobile DJ. Clubs don't have them and 99% will not have the 2000s for at least a few years or more until their 1000s break. I asked the managers of some of the biggest clubs in NYC if they planned on upgrading and every single one of them said they have no reason or plans to. Money is tight and many clubs still have CDJ-1000M MK1s and MK2s. It is kind of pointless if you are a club DJ or Dj at clubs now and then since you're not going to be able to pop in your flash drive of hard drive.

Stick to CDJ-1000s unless you never plan on playing out or always bring your own gear. The release of the new models hasn't affected the price and used price much at all. Of course if you have a lot of extra cash to burn you could get 2000s and still keep CDs but I ahve a feeling from your original post you are concerned about money, plus having 2000s or 900s at home might make someone who uses 1000s at clubs lazy about burning CDs if they are using USB drives at home.

Your best bet is to buy them off craigslist (you can test them fully and test them out in person before buying) or ebay. They generally go for 800-900 each used. There are few pieces/types of gear that makes sense to buy new.

[Lantau]

Xone definitely has a point about playing out (the same reason most people wouldn't buy Vestax turntables, despite being better in many ways you just didn't find any in clubs)

I've bought most of my DJ kit over the years 2nd hand and it's a good way to go, but bear in mind if you are buying new that many of the controls on the 800's, 900's, 1000's and 2000's are identical so provided you burn those CD's when you head out you should be in familiar country

[DJZILCH]

yeah bro
seriously, forget the dawn of new species gimmick (cdj900)
get the cdj1000mk3

it is build much better than the cdj900

and as a traktor user (you do dont you?), who needs the problematic Pioneer REKORD BOX?

I have a copy of rekordbox off my mate who bought a pair of cdj2000s and i must say - it is a piece of crap at the moment, the "quantized loops" arent quantized, when you import a lot of files at once it is also prone to crashes

My bet is : use Traktor + timecode and as a backup use CDJ1000MK3 + SD Card Cue points - the sdcards can be used on cdj2000s as well so you are safe!

I come from vinyl and cdjs so i always bring a full wallet of CDs (hotcued + a pair of sdcards with the cue points + waveform data) along with my traktor setup. No time to setup traktor timecodes before the previous dj? no problem! Slap on some cds and plug in the sdcards and you're good to go

cdj1000mk3's will still be dominant in the clubs for a few years i reckon

[mmauve]

My vote goes for the CDJ-900's.

Traktor Pro 1.2.3 implemented template mappings for the 900 and 2000 and you don't really need time code with that. And if you wanted to use timecode, I'd ask B33SON about that one as he just posted a thread regarding Cue point accuracy. To my recollection, it was never resolved, and deducted it was a bug that needed to be ironed out by NI.

Depending on where you go, used price on craigslist goes between $900-$1100 and the price of the CDJ-900 new is $1299, and the CDJ-1000 MK3 new is $1,497.99. If you can find a good deal on the 1000's used, by all means, go for the best deal. Personally, The differences performance wise are practically nill, it's all the same pitch resolution, jog wheel, cue functionality, and CD support. They just added MIDI support, a USB port, Slip Mode (which is fun), and a loop slicer, along with an RJ-45 relay to share resources between two decks. Oh, and DVD support, but frankly I didn't see much of a big deal with that one. It's cheaper, and plays both sides of the field.

Also, it's the responsibility of the DJ anyway to have a fallback, so if you show up to a gig with only a flash drive assuming they got a 900/2000, you just learned a hard lesson lol. It's the same thing with doing the MIDI setup live, you always carry a fallback just in case of a technical issue. I keep a booklet of burned CD's that are up to date at all times.

[narrah]

Ok, getting a few different opinions here! Whatever I buy it will be new... The situation will be that ill be coming home from work on my way home to Indonesia. DJ gear is expensive in Indonesia and while I have the opportunity to grab some gear in the states ill do it. Another plus is that the Aussie dollar is doing well against the US atm, so I dare say Ill be getting a cheaper price than if I bought in Australia and definitely cheaper than Indonesia.

I imagine ill stop somewhere like Houston, New Orleans or LA.... Ill walk in to whatever store is closest and offers a decent price and grap myself a cdj.

[BradCee]

surely if we're discussing the money saving/value options, i.e 900 instead of 1000 - similar price more features. why not look at the 800's? as lantau said, the controls are identical so get 800's, save some cash and you'll still be fine on 1000's. sorted

[mmauve]

surely if we're discussing the money saving/value options, i.e 900 instead of 1000 - similar price more features. why not look at the 800's? as lantau said, the controls are identical so get 800's, save some cash and you'll still be fine on 1000's. sorted

For sure, the 800 MK2 is solid as well. It's all about paying incremental increases for things which are of relevance to your style.