|
CDJ 800mk2's REVIEWED! (not another ridiculous thread)
Well, like I mentioned before I finally got my pair of brand spankin new CDJ800mk2's. First of all, I want to mention that I've been thinking about it for a while and after playing with the 1000's (which were out of my price range) decided to "settle" on the 800's. I had been mixing on my 200's in 10% pitch accuracy mode to see whether adjusting from .02 to .05 would be a problem and it wasn't which was the final point in the decision to dish out for the pair.
I bought the pair from AGI which is back up and running, and ofcourse they gave me an amazing deal ($1518 for the pair and a RRCDJ12 flight coffin).
Firstly the jog dial, an absolute pleasure to work with. Personally I find it the best tension of any jog dial I've played with including the 1000mk2's which it's supposed to be modelled after (but that could just be my perception). The pitch slider is the same length as the 1000's and 200's and I therefore didn't have any problems adjusting the pitch.
My initial impressions after getting everything rigged up was simply WOW. The vinyl mode on the mk2's offers everything CDJ mode has with exception to stutter mode...meaning you can cue in the same way but still use the platter to manipulate the track. Probably my favorite feature right now is the quick return function which is absolutely great for mixing. I'm not a scratch DJ but I can understand why hip-hop dj's would appreciate the quick return as well. It's an amazing function and has basically replaced my "tap-cue" style of cueing.
I've only had them for about 3 days now and am thoroughly impressed in every regard for the 800mk2's. I honestly think that the 1000's and 800's are basically the same in most senses with exception to a couple of things:
1) the 800mk2 has built in memory instead of a memory card slot (the 1000's have this). up to 800 cds can store over 10 cue points for each cd (an amazing feature).
2) quick return...'nuff said
3) auto-looping...although i use my DJM800's roll sampler instead of onboard CDJ looping I can see why this would be useful to the JZ-wannabe's out there. The placement of the autolooping functions replaces where the 1000 has hot cues. You are not missing anything by not having the hot cues as you can scroll through cues memorized by the unit. Unless you are big on sampling you aren't missing out on anything. in my opinion
4) 0.05 vs .02? it's not even an issue so i'm not goign to talk about this....anyone who has a problem with this clearly CANNOT beatmatch
the display is nice and big and is layed out in a similiar way to the 1000's. No waveform but as a DJ you should know you're tracks anyways so this is not an issue (atleast not for me...).
I'm using the digital coax outputs to hook up to my djm800 and they are just as amazing in sound quality as the digital outs on my cdj200's. Now that I mention the 200's something i'd like to note: tracks I've purchase from the Vonyc store previously show up as like 54min's long my cdj200's. on the 800mk2's they actually show up as the actual track length! strange...
another thing is that anyone who has played on any pioneer CDJ will immediately be able to pick it up and just play...there's is nothing drastically changed in the design and it probably took me less than an hour or two get used to some subtle changes that come with getting new units.
I'm drawing a blank right now as to what else I noticed or liked about the 800mk2's up to this point so I'll add later if features come to mind. Feel free to ask any questions and I will be sure to answer.
I've concluded that the 800mk2's are definately worth their price tag and are built in quality and function identically to the 1000's. In fact, I have to stress that i am SO HAPPY I didn't wait longer to buy a pair of 1000mk3's as it would have been a waste of money as the 800's and 1000's are nearly identical with exception for a few minute things. the new pioneer product smell alone is worth the buy 
EDIT:
Here are some pictures as promised! I'll be sure to include more later on these are preliminary with my friend's camera...(not embedded because they are large resolution).
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4
Picture 5
I know the quality isn't great by any means but it's what I could do considering my time constraints these days.
Cheers!
___________________
http://www.djandrewgarcia.com
Last edited by SPAWNmaster on Apr-13-2007 at 20:08
| 
