Which cheap old Pioneer CDJs for house?

[Puregroove]

Hello, new here.

I'm an old vinyl dj. Looking to pick up a pair of cheap but stable cdjs for just knocking up mixes at home. They might be used for maybe the occasional party, but not really.

I'm concerned really about reliability, build quality, and accuracy of pitch/tight pitch increments, and sound quality I guess.

Don't really use effects that much or looping or any of the new tricks, I just like to make smooth mixes between house tracks. Jackin chicago house, New york house etc. - Sneak, Sanchez, Todd Terry all the old US guys.

Tried doing a mix in a demo of Ableton. Soul destroying. So I figured to save my vinyl I'd rip the vinyl to CD and knock up mixes on the CDJs.

All optins I'm looking at are second hand and all are Pioneer :

200's - I would, I guess, but I just don't like the 0.2% Pitch increments.

400's - these are the main ones I've got my eye on. They are very well priced on ebay etc.

350's - I guess these are newer, but they seem a little expensive.

I've already got an old 100S as it goes, but obviously it's only got 0.5% pitch increments, I have managed to use it in conjunction with a deck. The other option is to buy, say one 850 and use it with this but that setup seems a little weird.

I'm looking to spend about 400, maybe 500 at most. I'm not really playing out or anything at the moment.

Weirdly enough, I still love buying vinyl :) - I just rip it to CD now so I don't wear it out.

Oh yeah forgot to add - I'm not that concerned about memory sticks or mp3's etc. - Usually I just whack one wav file per CD and play like that old style. Maybe I might investigate the memory stick thing if you reckon I should.

[LJay]

500GBP will get you 2nd hand CDJ1000mk3's (if you don't mind them not having USB).

Edit: But I do recommend to use USB sticks. I know I wouldn't be burning cd's. Denon players are also worth considering.

[Irrational_Fear]

500GBP will get you 2nd hand CDJ1000mk3's (if you don't mind them not having USB).

Edit: But I do recommend to use USB sticks. I know I wouldn't be burning cd's. Denon players are also worth considering.

£500 would be pushing it for a pair of mk3s, the cheapest I've seen a pair advertised for was £600, most are £650 - £750 a pair, some even higher. A good choice though, just for CD use. Obviously the Mk1 & Mk2s are cheaper but are quite a step down from the Mk3.

At that budget though I would simply go with a pair of CDJ-400s. Good CD players, they have a usb functionality should you want to use it (albeit not as fast reading as the newer players), and they also support HID control (better than standard midi) of Traktor should you ever want to experiment with software. Will be easy to find a good condition pair for that budget too.

The newer usb-supporting players (both Pioneer & Denon) are all going to cost well over £500 for a pair, but could be worth a look if your budget is flexible. From the requirements you listed though I'd have said a pair of CDJ-400s would be all you'd need.

[TheRabbitMonk]

I would of suggested 100, 200, 400,1000 for a cheap deck. All work well and hold a mix.

[Puregroove]

Ah thanks for the advice there guys, so it's really looking like the 400's I guess. Plenty of the for sale on the bay, it seems.

Here's a turnaround and apologies for not noticing this sooner, but there's a thread from someone else similar to this stating they want to switch to digital, and one guy has recommended getting an old copy of Serato SL1 and using timecoded vinyl. I do actually have a old computer running XP with 2GB of RAM in the same room as my decks, but it's a desktop computer. I wonder whether I should investigate this for knocking up mixes at home? Seems with the timecoded vinyl it would be about 100 quid. Obviously not suitable for playing out. I didn't realise you could run this type of software on a computer so old.

Anyway - cheers, if I go the CD route, I will definitely be shooting for 400's I think. Maybe I ought to look into the Serato thing though? Time to have a think and a nosey around.

I've just not really leaned towards this software on a PC type thing up until now because I guess I don't fancy the idea of potential crashes/freezes 3/4 of a way through a set, that kind of thing.

Edit - I should mention, my setup is two 1210's with an Ecler Nuo 3 mixer.

[light-o-matic]

The CDJ200 has 0.02% pitch, not 0.2%... So if you want the most accurate pitch those have it. As well as the CDJ1000 (mk 1/2/3.. I wouldn't buy a used mk1 they will be very old), and the 400 also has .02.. All have this most precise pitch. The 800 mk1/2 have .05, which is actually not too bad, the 100s has 0.1%.. the worst resolution of any player Pioneer made in this century.. but it is actually a sweet deck I loved mine and still happy to play on those they just WORK and are super smooth.

The 200 is actually my least favorite of all those.. I don't like the jog wheel. But any of these decks are really fine for what you need. If you can get good condition 400's at a good price that is probably ideal since you get USB as well.. But if you don't care at all about USB then the 1000mk3 is the ideal for you.. if you cannot afford 1000's loom for 800mk2 they have .05 pitch but really it's not bad, you get used to it. I have owned 800mk2's for years and love them, when I play on even 2000's I set the pitch to 10%/0.05 resolution because I am used to that.

[Puregroove]

The CDJ200 has 0.02% pitch, not 0.2%... So if you want the most accurate pitch those have it. As well as the CDJ1000 (mk 1/2/3.. I wouldn't buy a used mk1 they will be very old), and the 400 also has .02.. All have this most precise pitch. The 800 mk1/2 have .05, which is actually not too bad, the 100s has 0.1%.. the worst resolution of any player Pioneer made in this century.. but it is actually a sweet deck I loved mine and still happy to play on those they just WORK and are super smooth.

The 200 is actually my least favorite of all those.. I don't like the jog wheel. But any of these decks are really fine for what you need. If you can get good condition 400's at a good price that is probably ideal since you get USB as well.. But if you don't care at all about USB then the 1000mk3 is the ideal for you.. if you cannot afford 1000's loom for 800mk2 they have .05 pitch but really it's not bad, you get used to it. I have owned 800mk2's for years and love them, when I play on even 2000's I set the pitch to 10%/0.05 resolution because I am used to that.

Aha thanks for that. Most useful. I really am not too informed about all of this currently being out of the game for quite a while.

I agree about the 100 - they're cute little buggers, eh? Mine's also never let me down in any way. I used to play it alongside a turntable and ride pitch to compensate for the rather blocky pitch increments.

What is it that you don't like about the jog wheel on the 200's? Is it inaccurate feeling, or flimsy? I do notice that a pair of 200's on ebay comes to about 250 or 300 quid which is pretty cheap. They kind of look like the 100's with a few added bits.

Have you any comment on the Serato SL1 thing? Would I get slightly better sound from the CDJ's?

This is not turning out to be as easy a decision as I thought. There's just so much damn kit around lol.

[light-o-matic]

I agree about the 100 - they're cute little buggers, eh? Mine's also never let me down in any way. I used to play it alongside a turntable and ride pitch to compensate for the rather blocky pitch increments.
...
What is it that you don't like about the jog wheel on the 200's? Is it inaccurate feeling, or flimsy?
...
Have you any comment on the Serato SL1 thing? Would I get slightly better sound from the CDJ's?


Haha yea, riding the pitch on the 100S.. exactly, that is the deal.. but I am used to it, it's not so bad.

Re the 200, yea, everything about the deck is just fine except for the jog.. which is kind of wobbly, but more to the point it's very loose compared to the other Pioneer decks. Eg. on the 100 and most of the other decks you can correct pitch with a little shove, but with the 200 you have to place your fingers on the wheel and TURN.. not shove. If you shove, it will spin and you'll go way too far. It takes a more gentle touch. I actually own a pair of 200's now.. I got them in a funny way.. I had three 100S's but two were broken.. and I had one 200 I had picked up cheap. My friend had one of each. So we agreed to a swap.. I gave him my more sought after 100S, and I took his 200. He thought he got the better deal, I thought I got the better deal :) But actually it worked out for both of us, because I used those decks alongside my 800mk2's and made my peace with them, and now I'm comfortable playing on the 200 any time, it's a good deck, once you get the feel of it. Tho personally for me I'd rather play on an 800mk2 than a 200.. even though the pitch is not as accurate. As I said, I use the 10% mode (.05) on these decks anyway, my fingers are used to it, to switch to a smaller pitch range would just be a distraction not a help for me. But this may not apply to your situation.

As far as the Serato Scratch thing.. SL1.. yea clearly if you are comfortable with vinyl and would prefer to stick with it, that's the solution for you. I have never owned the SL1 so have not made critical comparisons of the sound quality but I have heard people playing them and never had cause to complain. I think that the bigger factor in your sound quality would be the way you rip your vinyl.. if you are not using a hifi cart and quality preamp as well as a good quality ADC (sound card) to rip your vinyl then you are going to lose quality. In theory, if you DJ with typical DJ carts like M44-7's that are more famous for solid tracking than for sound quality, but rip with a better chain of gear (starting with a hifi cartridge), you could capture sound off your vinyl that's better than you usually get when you are DJing, and thus when you play back through your digital setup you will end up as good or better off...

In theory.

Anyway, I cannot tell ya which way to go. Clearly Serato is the most direct path and once you understand it the most comfortable so far as mixing.. but it involves having your computer on the table there with you and SL1 with you every time you play and dealing with the computer as you play. But once you select the next track you can mix like vinyl. Whereas CD is more like vinyl in that it is just your discs and the decks and you, no computer to look at. You can flip through a cd book... You go out to play and it's just a cd case and headphones in your bag, no need to crawl around the DJ playing before you and after you getting things plugged in and out.

[Puregroove]

...

Very useful info. All I can say is thank you very much for taking the time to write that, it's most useful. I reckon I'm kind of torn between cheapo 200's, slightly more for 400's or Serato currently. I'm gonna have to watch loads of youtube vids I think, try and get the jist of all of those things. Especially this quirky jog wheel on the 200's.

This gear isn't really revolve around playing out to be honest. I'm an old fart, and probably no one wants to hear my stuff anymore :( but I do like knocking up mixes for soundcloud and stuff, and maybe there's a couple of parties a year I get asked to do by people of my generation.

The way I rip my vinyl, for the record (haha geddit?) is through 1210's with Ortofon Elliptical DJ stylii through the nuo3 set on flat and just into the soundcard and audacity. I have found pretty satisfactory results like this. I suspect my rips are only 16-bit though as the soundcard is 16 bit I think.

At my stage, as an ex-DJ, I'm slightly more concerned nowadays about spending my money on the actual records, rather than splashing out on really expensive equipment, as I don't see it going out of the house that much.

[TheRabbitMonk]

I've also owned a 200. I didn't have any issues with the job wheel.
I use to sort of swish, quite aggressive strokes to keep the tracks beat matched.
I thought it was a very decent player and sold it for a 1000.
Quite basic, but you could mix and loop you tracks with 3fx to play with.
I was actually pretty sad to let it go really.

[TheRabbitMonk]

Eg. on the 100 and most of the other decks you can correct pitch with a little shove, but with the 200 you have to place your fingers on the wheel and TURN.. not shove. If you shove, it will spin and you'll go way too far. It takes a more gentle touch.
I actually own a pair of 200's now.. I got them in a funny way.. I had three 100S's but two were broken.. and I had one 200 I had picked up cheap. My friend had one of each. So we agreed to a swap.. I gave him my more sought after 100S, and I took his 200. He thought he got the better deal, I thought I got the better deal But actually it worked out for both of us,

switch to a smaller pitch range would just be a distraction.



Similar experience.

my mate i lived with also had a 100s and we use to swap or lend each others. kept my 200 but did like his 100s. i actually thought it was better to mix on, easier to keep matched?
Can barely remember now but do remember not having any issues with it and that half the battle sometimes.

one thing i would say is a picture of the 200 doesn't do it justice, its actually surprising nice looking decks and does its job. I would actually go for the 400's knowing what i know now and the fact you can scratch, but you do have your 12's for that.
at the end of the day you just need 2 ways to play tracks, and mix any combination will get you what you want.