Denon SC 2900

[Lao Ma]

I just saw that the Denon SC 2900
had a price drop in germany from 799 to 460 Euros.
For that price it looks really nice!
Anyone has experience with that one!?

Cheers
Lao Ma

[Irrational Fear]

Yeah the new price is crazy.

I traded in my CDJ900s for a pair of these about 18 months ago, absolutely love them. They are essentially identical to the CDJ900s but add hot cues, jog wheel tension adjust, separate start/stop time adjusts, and in my opinion a superior jog-wheel (it is mounted on a central spindle rather than the plastic wheeled 'bearings' system used in CDJs so it is significantly smoother).

The only thing they lack from the CDJ900s is HID support for Traktor, however the standard midi integration is extremely good.

You can use them across all formats, they can be linked together over a network to share usb drives or linked directly to a computer and play files directly from Denon's Engine software (as the high-end CDJs can with Rekordbox). They also allow connection of an iPad to use as a giant browsing screen if you don't want to use a laptop.

They aren't in the same league as the CDJ2000s due to the lack of a built-in full colour screen, but think of them as a CDJ900 with the extra features mentioned above, for a significantly lower price. They are also built fantastically well and I've had no issues in the 18 months I've owned them.

There's an extremely in-depth review of them here over on DJ Forums: http://www.djforums.com/forums/showt...-SC2900-Review

[Lao Ma]

Sounds nice,thanks.
From what i've heard so far seems to be a very good player!
If you use them home,is it a big differnce in workflow if you go to a club and use Pioneers?

[Irrational Fear]

Well I'd owned my CDJ900s for a year or so before I swapped, and I still use Pioneer players from time to time now- and I can tell you there is zero difference in work flow between them.

The details are cosmetic. There is a difference in the way the hot-cues work on 2900s vs the 2000s but it's not rocket science. Everything else functions as you'd expect- play, Cue, loop in & out, auto loop, loop adjust, browsing tracks, jog wheel, pitch range adjust, key lock/master tempo etc.

If you look at the top view of the players you will see that although some of the buttons are different shapes etc they still all fall in the same place across the players. When I first got mine I'd never used a Denon player in my life and there was zero adjustment period or anything like that- if you've used any kind of DJ CD player you can use any of those.

The biggest difference in workflow is that the high-end Pioneer players use Rekordbox whilst the Denon 2900 & 3900 use Engine. Both bits of software do exactly the same thing, work in (as far as I can tell) the same way, and aside from the odd cosmetic difference are pretty much identical- to me it's like the same program in two different skins.

Obviously I use Engine with my players but I still maintain a copy of Rekordbox on my system so I can export playlists anytime I want to play on CDJs. Given it takes a matter of minutes to update my music library into either it is no big deal maintaining both.

So yeah there is no difference in work flow between the two- they function in the same way. The only difference is the software they use to analyse your tracks (for quantizing, setting loop/cue points etc)- Rekordbox with Pioneer and Engine with Denon- but both bits of software are free so it's no hardship to maintain both should you wish.

Obviously if it's anything like around here then the software point is irrelevant anyway as everywhere still has CDJ-1000mk3s which only play CDs!

The best thing to do would be to go and have a play on both types of player and see what you think.

[Thumper]

Mine should be arriving tomorrow morning. £585 for the pair which is frankly insane. never owned cd decks before - looking forward to getting into them. Mind you, I have to buy a new mixer now too.....

[iambiggles]

Mine should be arriving tomorrow morning. £585 for the pair which is frankly insane. never owned cd decks before - looking forward to getting into them. Mind you, I have to buy a new mixer now too.....

£585??? Where did you get that deal from? New or used? I'd be tempted to get a spare pair of cd decks for that money!

[Thumper]

New.

I got them from here:

http://www.djstore.com/item/cd/densc2900.htm

BUT! I notice the price has gone up by two hundred for the pair. No idea why. I paid £600 for the decks and Saturday delivery. Certainly wasn't any indication that this was some sort of special offer. Maybe they made a mistake and simply honoured it, unlikely as that sounds!

So - £585 for two brand new CD decks. Not bad.

[Thumper]

Now I'm paranoid.....My luck is NEVER this good....

[Thumper]

Well they're here and seem to work. Very nice feeling decks. Gonna have to dig out my horrible, knackered 18 year old mixer for a bit of a sesh this afternoon if I've got time.

[SlayForMoney]

Yeah the new price is crazy.

I traded in my CDJ900s for a pair of these about 18 months ago, absolutely love them. They are essentially identical to the CDJ900s but add hot cues, jog wheel tension adjust, separate start/stop time adjusts, and in my opinion a superior jog-wheel (it is mounted on a central spindle rather than the plastic wheeled 'bearings' system used in CDJs so it is significantly smoother).

The only thing they lack from the CDJ900s is HID support for Traktor, however the standard midi integration is extremely good.

You can use them across all formats, they can be linked together over a network to share usb drives or linked directly to a computer and play files directly from Denon's Engine software (as the high-end CDJs can with Rekordbox). They also allow connection of an iPad to use as a giant browsing screen if you don't want to use a laptop.

They aren't in the same league as the CDJ2000s due to the lack of a built-in full colour screen, but think of them as a CDJ900 with the extra features mentioned above, for a significantly lower price. They are also built fantastically well and I've had no issues in the 18 months I've owned them.

There's an extremely in-depth review of them here over on DJ Forums: http://www.djforums.com/forums/showt...-SC2900-Review

And they also have Hybrid mode to compensate for the lack of HID support (in case regular midi isn't good enough for you) - if you scratch a lot