which would you pick? cdj 850/900
I’m planning on picking up a pair and in the local market I’ve found 850s for 1400 with individual marathon flight cases or 900s for 1500 without a case.
Which is more worth it?
If you want to use them as standalones, go for the 900s.
I would also go for 900’s they are older models but they have some futures that make them worth more. Link meaning one usb to be used with all cdj’s. Better display and slip mode. And if you plan on using cd’s the 900 has pre read so it loads the waveform faster and the 850 reads it as it’s playing so what you see on display is what is already played unless you have an usb stick connected that has the waveform already analyzed. But if you only plan to use them with some software the 900 don’t give much more then the 850.
900’s are super versatile literally any media except vinyl
900’s. You can find road cases on Craigslist easily for half the price of new.
I mean, 900’s are still around $1100 each brand new. And I think the “link” and “pre-read” functionality is worth the extra $100 dollars you would be paying for. Just organize everything on rekordbox and plop it onto an external hard drive and you can have all your music every time. If you’re not a mobile dj and are just going to be using them at home for practice, you probably wouldn’t need the flight cases. If you are, you can find them off craigslist for like $50 a pop sometimes.
I’d go with the 900’s.
900’s by far. Here is a good list comparing the two.
I had the same dilema. I opted for the 900s with a DJM 700 and RMX 1000 and they’ve just arrived today, minus the RMX 1000 which is on a slow boat from China. Should’ve took a day off work so will now have to wait a few hours before I can unpack them
I have an 850 regret not buying 900, the waveform thing is really annoying and computer syncing is hard. (still haven’t figured it out)
whats wrong with it?
Both the 850 and 900 are great players, the 850 is worth $999 and the 900 is about $1300, so they have their price variance however it depends on what your looking to get out of the player. If you’re looking for more MIDI control, the 850 is just as equivalent to the 900 since they pretty much have the same features. For example if you’re just gonna use Traktor then, I suggest the 850. When it comes to Pioneer’s Rekordbox software and the LINK feature, this is where the difference comes in. For the CDJ 850 you can’t use one USB stick for 2 players, you need 1 USB stick for each of the players but you can still pre-load all your tracks onto the USB stick and organize them as you should so when you load it into the 850, you can play your songs right off of that. The CDJ-900 can use 1 USB stick and simply by hooking in a LAN cable from one player to the other, all your songs can be played from that USB stick, assuming your already organized your music through Rekordbox. This is known as the LINK feature. This feature can also play music right from your computer onto your CDJ-900 simply by hooking your CDJ-900’s into a switch or router, and hooking the switch/router into an available LAN port into your computer. You can then “LINK” the players to Rekordbox, and simply drag and drop the songs to your players, hit the play button, and away you go. If you have the cash, go with the 900’s, if you just want something for MIDI control, go with the 850’s.
Also, “I have an 850 regret not buying 900, the waveform thing is really annoying and computer syncing is hard. (still haven’t figured it out)” … I do notice the difference between the sizes of the waveforms between the players and do admit the 850’s waveform is stronger, however the syncing ability for both players are extremely easy.
900s for sure