Pioneer DJM 850

[djkidmt]

i paid 1500$ flat for my djm-900. i dont get how there is any room for a dumbed down djm-850 for $2k msrp, even at $1400 retail for the 850 the djm-900 is still a far better value. maybe they just want a matching mixer for the cdj-850k and get rid of the 700 line

[guiltyblade]

well they do want to get rid of the 700 for sure.

[keeb]

all it's missing from the Nexus is Quantize, digital inputs, 2 color FX, and an xpad...heck the 850 even has the new beat color fx, something i think we got ripped off from the 900 unless the quantizing would make that feature obsolete but i doubt it.

xpad - something that allows you to add another level of tweaking (another LFO, frequency cutoff on the reverb, changing the frequency of melodic's repetition...) to several of the effects as well as instant switching from say, 1/1 to 1/2 without having to hit 3/4. It seems like a small thing but it's actually pretty damn huge in actual usage.

The two color FX it's missing happen to be post-fader. Not everybody loves them, but they're a nice way to add an effect trail without relying on the beat effects.

Digital inputs are pretty nice if you're using CDJs; you skip a DAC step, lower latency, increase quality, reduce interference... Not such a small thing, really.

"Beat Color FX" is Pio's way of *trying* to replace the x-pad with what looks like a terrible workaround. As I understand it, it takes the knob from usage for color effects and uses it to adjust what the x-pad does on the 900, but only for two (?) of the effects. Even if you still get control over the color effects, you're using one knob for two purposes - something that I'm happy to avoid since switching away from my midi-only setup.

Quantizing makes little difference if you don't use it, obviously. However, having the feature on the mixer allows you to actually use Rekordbox to its fullest - not having to adjust BPM manually on the beat effects section anymore, and having on-air status rings show up with CDJ 2000s. It's not huge now, but I'm glad my mixer has it for down the road when Pioneer adds features to it instead of saying "pfft, I don't need that" and realizing how much I actually do want it later on.

The xpad alone is enough to make me glad I bought the 900 before hearing about the 850. I may even still be within my return period, but I'm not about to give up my 900 for an 850 which will cost nearly as much and will have lost several of the features I quite enjoy on the 900.

[Weststar]

Anyone get a chance to play with this bad boy? My tax return is coming, and I'd like to hear some opinions.

[wampaone]

For anothr 200 or so id go for the 900day man, i love mine!! The xpad and difital inputs are well worth it.

[manchild]

Right now this mixer seems like it's in a weird price range, but I think that's only because it just came out. Wait a few months for it to settle to it's real street price. I'm betting Pioneer built this mixer specifically just to kick Denon in the balls. When the 850 settles in at around 1100-1200 street value I'm guessing, people arent gonna want spend the extra money on the x1700 and for a couple hundred more they'll choose it over the x1600

[Weststar]

For anothr 200 or so id go for the 900day man, i love mine!! The xpad and difital inputs are well worth it.

Here's the catch, I don't use CDJs at home, so digital inputs aren't much of a concern for me. Although the xpad is nice, I don't think it's worth $200 extra dollars. Also, with the 850, you get the beat color effects, which honestly seem pretty nice as far as I can tell.

Right now this mixer seems like it's in a weird price range, but I think that's only because it just came out. Wait a few months for it to settle to it's real street price. I'm betting Pioneer built this mixer specifically just to kick Denon in the balls. When the 850 settles in at around 1100-1200 street value I'm guessing, people arent gonna want spend the extra money on the x1700 and for a couple hundred more they'll choose it over the x1600

While I completely agree with you in regards to the price possibly dropping, I'm somewhat in need of a new mixer now, and the 850 just seems like the most attractive option to me at the moment. My Vestax has served me well for the last 5 years, but it's starting to show it's age more and more everyday.

[keeb]

Here's the catch, I don't use CDJs at home, so digital inputs aren't much of a concern for me. Although the xpad is nice, I don't think it's worth $200 extra dollars. Also, with the 850, you get the beat color effects, which honestly seem pretty nice as far as I can tell.



While I completely agree with you in regards to the price possibly dropping, I'm somewhat in need of a new mixer now, and the 850 just seems like the most attractive option to me at the moment. My Vestax has served me well for the last 5 years, but it's starting to show it's age more and more everyday.

If you're set on getting it, we probably won't convince you otherwise. However, here are the reasons I wouldn't buy an 850:

1) Rekordbox is huge as far as potential club use is concerned. You may not use it, but if you want to set your mixer up at a club and other DJs are going to need to use it before/after you, this could be a deal-breaker. Not the biggest deal, but it is a concern.

2) The x-pad isn't just for tweaking effect values while being able to skip over beat values. For one, sliproll is phenomenally more useful with the x-pad for momentary triggers than the yellow button. For another, the x-pad adjusts values like reverb filter cutoff and the secondary LFO on the flanger/phaser/filter so it's kind of a big deal. The beat effects look okay, but they probably aren't going to work as advertised or reliably if the gate/comp on the 900 is any indication.

3) Spiral. It's one of my favorite effects on the 900. The up echo on the 850 might compare, but only for using the spiral for builds, not breakdowns.

4) Loss of space/dub echo. Not a big deal (they don't sound amazing) but the can be used creatively. Bigger deal here is that they're the only post-fader color effects. So if you want anything post fader on the 850, it's going to have to come from the beat effects section - meaning either the echo or the reverb that's kind of gimped without a filter cutoff. I'm not sure if any of the "beat color effects" become post-fader, so this point may be off though - you may want to double-check on that.

5) Digital inputs. While they may not matter to you now, they may very well matter to you in the future. Whether it's that you get CDJs, or someone wants to use them on your mixer and you don't have them available, or you get too much noise on your RCA connections.

6) Selector switches (phono/line/usb). It's a small detail, but the ones on the 900 are much nicer.


Really, I don't care what you decide; but it's worth thinking those points over.

[fullenglishpint]

As far as I'm concerned, if you're going to be dropping that much cash on a Pio mixer you might as well go for the TOTR. I've convinced myself I don't want certain features before, and regretted it not long after.