Kam KCD550 worth my money?

[MeetsMandy]

Now, everywhere I look everyone says 'Stick with Pioneer' because clubs play out using Pioneer and that's all very well said, but I'm an 18 year old student and Currently I have A novation Twitch Controller. I am however looking to step up my game and play cdjs but I'm on a very tight budget, so I've researched and I've came across these: Kam KCD550. Has anyone got any experience playing with these? And do you think they are a good buy for a beginners cdjs? I can Pick up one for £182, so They are cheap. And I know the rule, you get what you pay for.

If anyone else has any other suggestions on what good CDJs I should buy do please let me know.

[makar1]

If you look around, you can pick up a Pioneer CDJ 800 Mk2 for around £200-250 each, which are perfect for practicing for the club setup.

[MeetsMandy]

Thanks bro, Didn't know about these, seen a decent pair on ebay, gunna look to buy some!

[the_bastet]

If you are on a budget, I would highly recommend the Stanton CMP-800's.

They run about £260 new and £175 used.
cmp800_top-lg.jpg

[MeetsMandy]

The pioneers seem very appealing, although I would like to see what peoples opinions on the Stanton compared to the Pioneers?

[KS2]

I've just sold a pair of 800mk2s for £540 but you can probably get some a bit cheaper.

Still selling a Pioneer DJM600 if you're interested and I'm not too far from you. Check out the for sale section if you want to see it. Mint condition.

The way I saw it was if you get comfortable on the Pioneer stuff (specially the bigger models - CDJ800 and up, DJM600 and up) it makes it a lot easier when you get in a club when the pressures on and you're already feeling uncomfortable enough your first time.

[Sushi]

Check out the pioneer refurb site. They've got CDJs. 200s 900s and 1Ks right now.

[kooper1980]

Lets not try and make out like its difficult to get comfortable with a play button, jogwheel and pitch slider. Anything with these three things will get you "comfortable" enough with a club booth environment.

That said the pioneer 800's are decent if you use CDs or timecode. Whereas the stantons are a smaller unit but have USB input and are midi mappable. I'd personally buy the stantons for their greater usage options.

[makar1]

Pitch bending is going to be a little different on the Stantons at least, partly due to the smaller jog wheel.

[KS2]

Lets not try and make out like its difficult to get comfortable with a play button, jogwheel and pitch slider. Anything with these three things will get you "comfortable" enough with a club booth environment.

That said the pioneer 800's are decent if you use CDs or timecode. Whereas the stantons are a smaller unit but have USB input and are midi mappable. I'd personally buy the stantons for their greater usage options.

It's not difficult but it's a lot less stressful the first time you step in to a club to play in front of a few hundred people, knowing that you know exactly what to expect. Most smaller to medium clubs/nights round here will have 1000s so not much point bothering with USB yet in my opinion, unless he wants to have to burn a shed load of CDs later on down the line or start using timecode then. That is if he does want to be looking at playing out soonish.
If not, something USB compatible is definitely worth looking into further as burning and labelling CDs is no fun.