I agree 100%. If I make it to miami this spring, we're going to have to get drunk together or something.
CDJs feel weird. They feel different than controllers, and they really feel different compared to vinyl. If you've only played on them in Guitar Center, don't base your decision on that…most of GC's floor stuff is broken.
Also, don't judge them until you've played with them in a loud environment (monitors are fine, but not where you can hear whispers). The slight noise that the platters make was the most irking thing about them for me…and that completely disappears at real booth volumes.
But…IMHO, no platters I've felt on controllers (ns7, vci-100, s2, s4, several of the cheap pieces of crap people keep saying are good for beginners as if an s4 wasn't insanely cheaper than remotely comparable hardware) come close when you're actually mixing.
And the 850 is–for me–the absolute bottom end of acceptable. And it's pushing it. That's why I got rid of my CDJ-200s for next to nothing and why I don't own CDJs…they're not worth the price right now, and–honestly–I doubt they will be.
If I parse this correctly, your statement commits the logical fallacy of affirming the consequent.
I also think it's crap. No one knows what a CDJ should feel like. They're all based on sorta-kinda emulating the way people interacted with vinyl records, and none of them feel like a vinyl record. By most estimations, the Numark CDX and Technics SL-DZ1200 got the closest (one by spinning a piece of vinyl, the other by using a Technics turntable motor to spin this metal and plastic monstrosity of a platter) and both of them were complete sales flops because they really fucking sucked in just about every way.
I really was hoping the DZ1200s were going to be good, though…they were really pretty.
Not even close. Touch one of each for 10 seconds, and if you can't feel a difference, I hope you finger your girlfriend by sight.
I don't think that feeling cheap is a matter of opinion.
Having a preference is, and it's completely valid. Whether or not something seems worth its price is also a preference and also completely valid.
And, well…I honestly think that all DJ gear feels kinda cheap compared to a lot of music, recording, and live sound gear. Like…a lot of it. It's also a shit-ton cheaper considering what we expect the gear to do compared to the capabilities that are out there.
In short…no, Pioneer CDJs (the 1000 and 2000 series) do not feel cheap…they just feel like CDJs and are kind of a different animal than what a lot of people compare them to. They're not worth it for me because I can think of a lot of other things that I'd like to put $3600 towards.
And, seriously, how did Technics think that the DZ's platter design was a good idea. It's like they thought scratch DJs were actually moving the platter instead of the just the record. Thing felt weird.
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