It has been over half a year since Denon DJ launched their new Prime series, and by now we expected Pioneer DJ to come back in furious anger and drop the mother of all media players to silence the competition, and its critics, once and for all.
But nothing has happened.
Now September is upon us, and there are plenty of rumors around concerning new Pioneer DJ gear shiny. We already discussed the as good as confirmed release of the XDJ-RX MK2 a few days ago, and today I want to make a strong case for the upcoming XDJ-2000.
Wait, is that a fact?
Nope, not at all. I’m just making this up really but based on a series of points that, when put all together, makes the release of this player almost a certainty.
Let’s elaborate.
Pioneer DJ needs to provide an answer to the SC5000 Prime from Denon DJ
It’s inevitable that Pioneer needs to, at some point, come up with an answer. But I don’t think they will position their future top CDJ player against the SC5000. After all, the SC5000 doesn’t have a CD player and Pioneer DJ is a traditional Japanese company that doesn’t want to shock and awe with radical changes.
So the next top model, costing around 2.5K will be a fully loaded CDJ with a better screen, better processor, better sound than the current CDJ-2000NXS2, and Pioneer DJ will market it above the SC5000 from Denon DJ. It’s a clever way to remain superior, or at least keep the illusion of superiority through pricing…
But there is room in the 2K price range for another sub top model. Here is where the XDJ-2000 comes in, as a direct answer to the SC5000.
It obviously ditches the CD slot, as all XDJ models do. Don’t expect multi-core processing power and onboard track analysis like the SC5000. Pioneer DJ is going to add some premium features to the current XDJ-1000MK2 model, but nothing too radical. Expect to see:
- Performance pads. As this is basically a midi controller with USB and SD card support, performance pads make perfect sense.
- A jog wheel much like the one on the CDJ-2000NXS2, or maybe even the touch capacitive jog wheel from the DDJ-RZ/SZ2.
- Beat jump physical buttons
- More under the hood improvements
It could, eventually, look a bit like this.
It might even have additional buttons around the screen, like the CDJ-2000NXS2, for easy access to the main screen functions, like this:
The last version might be pushing it a bit because that would probably bring it too close to the CDJ top model, and it would make it more expensive. But hey, we can dream!
The DJM-750MK2 needs a player to pair up with
Think about it.
- The DJM-250MK2 and the XDJ-700 are the perfect beginner’s setup
- The DJM-450 and the XDJ-1000MK2 are the intermediate solution, perfect for DJ’s that want to take it a step further and replicate a club installation at home for a reasonable price.
- The DJM-900NXS2 and the CDJ-2000NXS2 sit comfortably on the top of the food chain.
- The DJM-750MK2 and the XDJ-2000 form the perfect solution for the professional DJ that has no need for the absolute best, or to play CDs.
Imagine if Pioneer DJ can price the XDJ-2000 slightly below the SC5000 (to make up for the missing features such as multi-core support and the dual layer feature), say at USD 1.600. That would put the total cost of two XDJ-2000 and 1 DJM-750MK2 at around 4.5K, which is a very sharp price indeed. And don’t they look perfect together?
The CDJ-2000NXS2 workflow is sacred
The reason Pioneer DJ is not going to abandon the overall design of the CDJ-2000NXS2 and, for example, replace the hot cue buttons with performance pads on the bottom of the player is that the workflow is used, supported and expected by thousands of professional DJ’s worldwide.
Not everybody is willing to try new things like Laidback Luke, or Tiësto. Most DJ’s want their CDJ’s to change as little as possible over time so they don’t have to adapt too much. So Pioneer DJ is not going to risk alienating their bread and butter.
Count on them to market every small change on the next CDJ as the next big thing, much like Apple hypes up new iPhone color like if it’s the second coming of Christ.
So, considering this, all the innovation will have to be done on a top of the line XDJ player, that will, slowly but surely, take over the duties of top player, but over a period of several years.
Or nothing is going to happen. We will have to wait and see!
So what do you think, do I have it completely wrong or does my reasoning make sense? Would you buy an XDJ-2000 if Pioneer actually made one? Comment below!
