The DJ world has been dominated by just a handful of industry standards, and those standards are largely defined by the booth. Essentially if it’s good enough for the pros, then it’s good enough for the rest of us.
The most recent and enduring standard has been the Pioneer CDJ. Starting with the CDJ-1000, we’ve seen various iterations, up to the current CDJ-2000NX2. But it’s fair to say that other than the venerable Technics 1200, they dominate the DJ market without equal.
So for a company to pick a fight on another’s home turf, one that traditionally has a long-standing record of coming a distant second in many previous spats, is either insane, monumentally stubborn, or displaying genuine confidence that their all new competitive offering has more that a cat in hell’s chance of turning a few heads.
To dream the impossible dream
18 months ago, I saw renders of the first iterations of the Denon DJ Prime range. It wasn’t called Prime back then, but from memory was just about the same as it is now. The information was scant, but the confidence was high. “You know you’re still playing for second place right?” I said. My scoff was met with a silent but familiar wry grin. It’s one I’d seen many times before, but this one was different. With hindsight, clearly I hadn’t been given the complete picture.
I came away from that meeting excited by what I had seen, but still doubting Denon DJ’s confidence. After all, they’ve had over a decade of arguably better units, and still always been the bridesmaid. But there is one huge difference this time around, and that’s being part of inMusic and everything that being a component of a well oiled and supremely experienced DJ machine has to offer.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BV2Tj4PlOh5/?taken-by=worx
Welcome to the brave new world
And now it’s all here, and we’ve been playing with it all for far longer than we should. The reviews should have been out quite some time ago, but births, burglaries, and general life bamboozlement got in the way. And being typically English, I apologise for these things despite being beyond my control.
Fear not however, for what we will deliver over the coming pages is the definitive set of reviews for these most important of pieces. You’ll experience every one of our emotions — from curiosity to anger to delight, and a few stops in-between. We pull no punches, neither in our abject frustrations nor in our absolute joy either. It’s quite the roller coaster ride, but it’s structured in a way that you get the stomach churning 360s over and done with first, and finish with the hands in the air gleeful screams.
We’re pushing this out over a full week. Boo I hear you cry, and yes it’s a shameless bid to maximise traffic of course (you can’t blame us). But there’s a huge amount to take in with each piece, and we’d rather that you focus on each article and review in turn. Here’s the schedule (the links will get updated when we release the articles):
MONDAY
Welcome to Denon DJ Prime Week (this piece)
Engine Prime Preview
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
Dan’s wild night with the Prime setup
So… will you #changeyourrider?
Again, we’re sorry it’s taken so long. But in our opinion it’s better to be late and definitive. It’s too important a release to get wrong. The first piece will be up in a bit.
*gets comfortable*
“And here we go…”
Hells yeah. Where’s ma popcorn? Ok… *gets comfortable*
Will there be any discussion of prime support for the Demon MCX8000? I believe you posted here months ago that Denon said they would provide support to include prime for that unit.
Not in this set of reviews. Our focus was the new hardware and software.
Please include in your review if you would recommend the Denon DJ SC5000 firmware update v1.0.3. I haven’t updated my firmware since I have read some issues with the update. TIA
My feeling was that 1.0.3 performs a lot better than 1.0.
There’s still room for improvement, though :)
As reviewers, we’re obliged to use the very latest version of whatever is on offer. And recommending is a subjective call anyway. Importing rekordbox and being Serato DJ enabled immediately makes it considerably better.
What are the issues that concern you?
More network issues from the SC5000s to X1800 Mixer?
Can you at least act as a voice for us to pass on the fact that many are still disappointed with their (Lack)support of their supposed Flagship All in one the MCX8000?
You and a few other sites have the power to hold them to what they say. However, it seems that most sites are star struck by the newest face..Prime Series. It definitely leaves a bad taste to even try anything new from them when they have left so many waiting for so long on their previous Flagship.
I hope there will be a cheaper model of the sc5000
There is Denon SC3000
Actually no. That was an idea for a future product posted by Digital DJ Tips, but doesn’t exist in real life. https://www.digitaldjtips.com/2018/01/gear-prophecy-3-denon-dj-sc3000/
Funnily enough, Denon already made an SC3000 in 1981. It was a speaker. https://www.denon.jp/jp/museum/products/sc3000.html
You’re right, my mistake. I saw the image but did not read the article. Thank you for the correction.
Why do the tops of the TT’s sit lower than the players and mixer? That would drive me insane.
It was in the design brief.
Feature (essential): Must drive Anthony Alonso insane.
It had the added benefit of doing exactly the same thing to me. Apparently if you adjust the feet, it levels up.
Would love to get some insight on how the VL-12 tracks tempo and the resolution of the pitch fader. This is done easily using timecode and looking at a deck in Traktor Scratch
Both of the the top spec Super OEMs I’ve used appear to have digital faders and are limited to 0.1% increments (Numark TTX, Stanton ST-150s) . Most of the Technics TTs have analogue pitch faders and can seemingly get to as low as 0.03%. That little difference makes long mixes vastly simpler.
I’m also interested in that. Nobody has ever covered the tempo resolution so far and wow to flutter in practice on any of the turntables that are available on the market. So please Mark if you are reading this, give us some details about the pitch fader and its actual resolution.