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Before I begin, I just would like to start out by saying, unless you are going to be very specific about why a product is "Hands down" the best, or state "the faders and EQ sucks ass," don't even bother making a comment--we want critical reviews here, not ignorant opinions about equipment. People are relying on us to help them make informed desicions about equipment that isn't always very affordable. So without rambling, please think about the effects of posting your unhelpful and unspecific opinions to those who are going to invest a serious amount of cash.
I used to post on this board a LOT and I have a lot of old posts that are worth reposting when the topics come up. Almost 3 years ago, I made a complete and extensive comparison between the DJM-500 and the DJM-600. In short, my conclusion was that the 500 is not worth spending the money on, or rather the 600 is definitly worth the extra money. (Edit: Also, for those who don't get to the bottom of the post, the X1500 is better than the DJM-500) Here is the post in its entirety, with just a few modifications to help clarity:
There are a lot of differences between the two, and as a DJM-600 owner and user of (some of) the functions that make it different, I will explain them here.
The DJM-600 has an extra line input, though the 500 still has two CD inputs, so you can hook up two cd decks to both. (ie 3 cd players for the 600 and only 2 for the 500.)
You can select the resistance levels of your crossfader on the 600, which is useful depending on if you use the crossfader vs the volume sliders to mix with. The different selections has helped me make the transition of the bass much smoother than without this function.
The effects processor on the 600 has a sampler etc, which you can listen to in the headphones (what the effect sounds like with the track before you play it live). You can take loops and beats from other tracks and use them in the tracks you are playing live to crudely "remix" live.
The 600 also has two effects, auto trans and auto filter which can be used for some wiked effects, if used properly! IMO these two are not overused because few know how to use them properly.
Direct beat select allows you, in conjuntion with pioneer cd players, to have the disc start as soon as you start moving the crossfader over to the other side. This is otherwise known as fader start (I believe these things are the same, though I am not absolutely positive). I don't use this myself and see marginal value in its addition.
The DJM-600 has a VERY useful effects depth level knob. If you use flanging, wah, etc. You may notice that it makes the volume spike a bit. You can controle this with the depth level knob. It it a great way to fade in and out of your effects too to make them more subtle!
(one of my favorite features).
The cut off on the eq knobs are a full 6dB lower on the DJM-600
I think that the most important feature that the 600 has over the 500 is that you cannot control the cue/master ratio on the 500! This means that on the 600 you can adjust between 100% cue and 100% master and everywherer in between in your headphones, including effects that you may wish to test out before you go live! The 500 cannot do this, you can only hear 100% cue OR 100% master, there is NO inbetween. I've used a 500 a couple times and it is a big pain in the ass when you have two bass beats that are really similar and you can't fade between master and cue to see if the cue beat is slower or faster. This above any other single reason, is the reason to get the 600 over the 500! Those who have a 600 know what I'm talking about and probably couldn't even imagine using a mixer without this function!
The 600 has a talkover button (which is in a very bad place--for me anyway) that silences the music quite a bit to allow the microphone to be used while the music is still playing. I inadvertantly hit it occassionly while I'm recording and it sucks! Though this is not that big of a deal once you learn not to hit it.
The 600 does NOT have a headphone eq, which in my opinion is not really that useful because you can always use the cue channel eq to add or subtract the frequency ranges that you want.
The 500 has a 1/4" TRS master output (as opposed to RCA in the 600), which you may need and adaptor for if you take your mixer to a club with you. This isn't even more convienent for those hooking it up to their computers (since most computers are 1/8" TRS), but you can always buy a $2 connector at radio shack etc.
The 600 has RCA record outs, so that you can hook up booth monitors to one output, the main speakers to another output, and a third source to record your set. The nice thing about the record out is that it isn't affected by things like the master volume or balance. Only the two line/cd/phone volume sliders that you are using and the crossfader.
Anyway, I hope that I summed it up pretty well here. I would say that the price for the 600 is well worth it, and as liquid said, it looks better too! Being that the price differece is about $400 MSRP, I'm sure that you can close that gap a bit. I bought mine for $1050 USD almost 1.5 years ago from www.pssl.com (note, this would be close to 4.5 years ago from the date of THIS post 13 July 2005) [End of original post]
Some comments on the crossfaders of the Pioneer, I have owned my mixer for quite some time, yet have not had a single problem with any of my faders. I do not take especially good care of them, but I do not abuse them either. I clean them thoroughly with an air gun a few times a year and always protect them when I move the equipment. Until someone can comment on precisely WHY they "suck ass" I say they are good crossfaders--and remember, it is a replaceable part too, so if you've had one for a while and it doesn't perform well, it was MEANT to be replaced several times over the live of the mixer.
So then it still comes down to which is better the DJM-600 or the Denon X1500. I'll do my best to review and compare both of them, but I have not personally used the Denon.
So here are the "Main Features" that Denon taughts on their spec sheet:
8 input sources that are freely assignable to any channel. The DJM-600 also has 8 inputs, though they are hardlined. I take the "freely assignable" to mean that you can change your inputs to any of the 4 channels (up/down faders) with only a flip of a switch or a press of a button. This mean that there is no wire changing. I woulud see this as being a plus if it is a club mixer, though in your own bedroom it is of marginal utility. Also, the more wires in your mixer the worse sound quality you can expect. I'm not saying that you will be able to hear this difference, but from a theoretical audiophile perspective, you don't want more wires and switches than absolutely necessary.
The next is the 45mm Penny-Giles crosfader with contour function (the 600 also has the contour function as noted above). So, other than the actual mechanical performance of the crossfader and the materials from which it is made, I think that the DJM-600 excels in this area. Before I get into why I think Pioneer's 70 mm crossfader is better let me state that I cannot find enough information (nor will I spend too many hours finding out about this one single piece of unimportant information) on the performance of the cross fader to compare the two. Pioneer doesn't have a spec sheet for which cross fader they use (if they do and I missed it, I'll take a look) and Penny Giles does have a bit of information, but it looks like other than the quality of metal used etc, there is nothing major about a cross fader that would indicate to me that one can be SO MUCH better than another as long as it is made with quality materials.
*deep breat* Sorry, I digress. Anyway, I think that the longer the crossfader is (for trance mixing) the better since it gives the cross fader LESS sensitivity to movement. Again, I have posted EXTENSIVELY about this in the past, but on another site. The link to a detailed explaination of why you want faders and platters to be as wide, long etc as possible (within reason) can be found within the depths of this post: (warning: This linked-post is best read after you finish THIS thread. The link leads you to a post that will probably take about 45min to an hour to read both Dj Lithium's (of DI.FM) post and my retort--though it is VERY worth while.)
http://www.globaldjbroadcast.com/fo...php?threadid=52
The main points of difference with the sampler/effects are a couple different effects and the sampler allows you to use pitch control on the samples. This feature surpasses the DJM-600, which does not allow pitch control on samples that are taken. Honestly though, in either mixer's case, these samplers suck and if you are going to really use them extensively, you'll want an off-board sampler/effects processor.
The autostart and auto/manual BPM functions are the same or near same on both mixers.
The X1500 has an SPDIF out (Sony/Panasonic Digital InterFace) connection which allows pure digital recording to occur on the basis that you have a digital input and music source to start with. The kicker is that even though everything starts off digital on a CD, it has no digital connection from the CD player to the Mixer--therefore I wouldn't base its digital ability as a reason to buy this mixer over others. You ALWAYS have to ask yourself where the weakest connection is. If having everything completely digital is important to you, this mixer cannot hold up its end of the bargin. Now, to be fair, neither can the DJM-600, and in fact its internal wiring and outputs are analog, not digital--but the question comes to be: Can your ears really tell the difference? Can anyone elses? One last comment on digital circuitry: Having digital circuitry will help reduce noise, but this will only apply when you are spining with well-mastered CD audio. The noise floor from a vinyl input is way higher (ie more audible) than any noise ever coming off of an even mediocre piece of electronics.
The EQs on the X1500 allow for parametric control (ie non-linear, which is good and has been an industry standard since well before I got into Djing years and years ago.
One neat thing about the X1500 is that you can save you custom settings to the mixer via internal memory. Now, what exact settings you can save, I'm not sure, but it's probably along the lines of which channels you designate for inputs (ie you always like the channel 1 to be CD player 1 and channel 2 to be CD player 2 etc.)
The headphone output is a split cue, just like DJM-600 and is honestly the only type of cue that I find acceptable to mix with when under non-club conditions.
The frequency response of both mixers is 20Hz to 20,000Hz and is standard CD quality frequency response. Other mixers such as Allen&Heath and Raine put out mixers that are much more capable of reproducing wider frequencies, but you have to ask yourself if you mixer is your limiting factor in your system. I won't go into depth on this in this post...
So now we come down to the hardcore electronics of the mixer.
For the most part, the CD/Line, Mic and phono connection are equivalent. The phono on the pioneer has a slight advantage, which would be for turntables only. The SNR (signal to noise ratio) is better by several dB (decibels) on every connection for the Pioneer. Now, since the X1500 has all digital internal circuitry, they are probably about even.
The channel equalizers are a big area of difference. The Pioneer can pump up to +12dB on each frequency range (high/mid/low) as opposed to Denon's +10dB/+10db/+6dB (high/mid/low). This equates to being able to adjust the bass, which is THE most important factor in DJ EQing, much more loudly than the Denon allows. Now, then Denon can adjust much quieter than the Pioneer (Pioneer is -26/-26/-26dB where as Denon is -33/-40/-40dB for high/mid/low. While this means that you can get quite quiet with the Denon, when the hell would you want such absolute silence for a specific frequency? If you are in a club, -26dB is plenty to lower the silence of a specific frequency--remember, if you want complete silence in all frequencies you would use the channel fader, not the channel EQs. And for mixing, anything that you can't do on your mixer, you can do using post-production software to master your mix if you are really that concerned about it (or are such an audiophile that you can actually distinguish it!).
Also the Pioneer selects a better high frequency to adjust (13kHz, 1kHz and 70Hz versus Denon's 15KHz, 1kHz and 60Hz) then Denon, but Denon selects a better low frequency range. (This difference is pretty minor IMO.)
To comment on the effects and importance of the decibel levels, let me itterate for those of you who do not understand the decibel rating. Decibels are like how we rate earthquakes. Each decible means a 10-fold increase or decrease in sound. This means that it is logrithmic, not linear. The difference between 80 dB and 81 dB is 10-fold, though the difference between 80 dB and 82 dB is 100-fold!
So there you have it, the complete story of the differences between the two mixers. So what is MY conclusion? I personally like the DJM-600 better because of the few minor differences in sound quality. To include price in the argument, one must account for the price per performance of each mixer. Here is what I found the best prices to be (really quickly from www.pssl.com) DJM-600 = $1100 and the Denon-X1500 = $900 the DJM-500 = $900. The Denon is priced accordingly to its slightly inferiority to the DJM-600. I paid $1050 4.5 years ago and this attests to the high quality of the mixer! I'm sure you can find a better price if you search deep enough. Now, one thing that I would certainly do is purchase the X1500 over the DJM-500. The sound qualities that you give up (if you are trained enough to notice them) are not worth some of the better functions of the Denon, especially the split cueing.
Anyway, I think I'm done! (Finally!) I'd appreciate your comments, though I'd be suprised if more than a few read this post in its entirety! If you did, Kudos!
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When you dance, the DJ takes you on a journey, but he or she is usually not the focus of your experience at a club or festival or wherever you hear the music. Dancing is. Music is.
Last edited by Dj Flesch on Jul-14-2005 at 03:43
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