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Ok i never come on here anymore, but let me put in my 2 cents.....
I have two Numark TT's....... Recently i asked myself the same questiosn you did - i ended up getting 2 American DJ Pro Scratches....
Let me just say that i love them. Like you, i went to my local DJ store, tried out the CDJ100, 700, 1000, and the ProScratch. Pretty much everything you said was accurate.... The only thing a 1000 can do that the Pro Scratch can't do is a touch and go - i.e. when you press your hand on the jog wheel of a 1000, the cd stops - as if you've stopped the vinyl..... the Pro Scratch doesn't do that. But you can cue up with a pro scratch (i.e. spin it a lil' faster to match beats..) The jog wheel "acts" as the record and lets you adjust the pitch.... in ADDITION to the pitch control - plus you have pitch bend too...... you have 3 banks of memory for looping for each CD you use.... you have 6 sound effects, my *favorite* being the Skid/Coast... which is in essence playing a record player, then just turning the player off or hitting "stop" on the TT..... the CD (in the american DJ pro scratch), will actually slow down over a period of 3-4 seconds (and this is adjustable), so it SOUNDS like you're spinning on TT's.... and again, you can scratch.... scratching is harder on here than real TT's, but you can do it, and quite effectively...
as a matter of fact, when you purchase one, included in the box is a video from American DJ... they sponsor a big dj on the circuit, "DJ Skillz", and they have a video clip of him using 2 Pro Scratch and doing a "DJ competition" with them....... sounds JUST like TT's, and seems to work great.
I mainly spin trance and don't scratch, but i've been trying to do a backspin on them.... seems like it will work, but then again, i never "perfected" the backspin on the TT's... I currently run all 4 in my room - 2 ProScratches and 2 Numark TT's... with a Numark mixer, hooked up to 2 JBL Eon 15's..... & using 2 Martin MX-1's with an MC-1 controller.... sound quality is great from the CD players - you can't even tell a difference when i go from one TT to a CD player....
As far as ease of use, its STILL Easier to mix on the TT's, (mainly because you can do lead-arounds with your fingers, and touch-and-go's....), but my point is that i like the Pro Scratches BETTER than the CDJ100's or 700's..... because you can't use the jog wheels on those to get the effects you can on the Pro Scratch. I would get the CDJ1000's if money isn't an issue - but i'd be afraid to do anything near them, costing sooo much.
I haven't had any technical problems with these two Pro Scratch's, and yes, American DJ has been known not to make the best stuff in the past, and i've owned American DJ stuff in the past, but the feel i've gotten from using this equipment, let me tell you that if it didn't have "American DJ" written across the top, i'd never guess it was made by them....... it feels like the Pioneers (NOT the 1000 - that feels like a TT all the way!)..... Basically this American DJ Pro Scratch feels like a LOT better quality than their other shit.
These things are like half the size of a TT (versus the CDJ1000's being the size of a TT)...... the only thing i like the CDJ1000's over the Pro Scratch's is the fact the jog wheel on that is literally the size of a platter.... i LOVE that..... other than that the only things it can do over the american DJ is sampling stuff....
but the Pro Scratch again has like 6 effects (including a Pan you adjust from left-right to front-back, etc.), the necessary Flanger, then there's an "echo-delay" you can do - which (depending on how much you spin the jog wheel), will sample the music over itself, as if there's an echo.... which is a REALLY cool effect if you are doing the Skid/Coast effect which is the equivalent to turning off a record player while the music is playing - you hit the Skid WITH the echo, and it sounds fookin awesome...
And you can use the 3 memory banks as cue points - you can take a 10 track CD, lets say..... and set a "cue" point at the beginning of track #2...... and WHILE you're playing track #1 (right before the end), you can hit a "special fx" button, select a cue point you want to GO to AFTER the effects take place, and push as many of the 6 special effects the Pro Scratch does.... usually a good combo of 2-3 works best).. and when you're ready to activate them, you push another button, "enter", and the 3 effects will happen (in my case i do a skid/pan/echo....... and they do this INTO your Cue point (in this case the next track)..... it makes for a COOL mix if you wanted to mix 2 tracks on the same CD (obviously you can't go from player to player....) so yeah, there are ways to get around that.
as far as the vinyl vs. CD debate, i still prefer vinyl..... but man, these CD players are hella phat! the only reason i got them, should be noted, is b/c there are just so many records you can't get on vinyl - i.e. not released yet, sold out in stores, costs too much..... so much easier to download high quality vinyl rips of songs over the internet...... thats the ONLY reason i got them.
and i'm 100% happy with them.
hope my info helped..... again, there's a LOT of programming you can do with these, (they have DSP - digital signal processing), and all kidns of other programming shit..... so watch that user video they send you a couple of times, and you have to STUDY that manual -
but well worth the $680 i spent (340 each).
Cheers!
-ABT-
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Peace.
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- i got CDJ-100's
