I was wondering what size of hard drive can the sc5000 handle (safely and fast) or is there a limit and if we can use a hard drive that is usb powered so we have no need to plug in wall,with the cdj nxs2 i was able to hookup a 2tb wall plugged and it is too slow and falls into sleep mode cause me to have too reboot the deck at times after a while so i did not want this all over again with the sc5000,thanks
Itās an obvious jump into this decades technology.
The SC5000 Prime has 3 x USB ports each with great specs
USB Type-A ports (for USB drives) (Rear-panel ports supply 900 mA for USB 3.0 devices, 500 mA for USB 2.0 devices. Front-panel port supplies 500 mA for USB 2.0 devices only.). The ports are certainly fine with 2TB drives, possibly even larger.
Sleep mode on drives is a nice ego feature but not ideal for DJ use. If you go for a well known make of drive (seagate, maxtor etc) you can often download a free DRIVE SPECIFIC utility from the manufacturers website, which lets you change certain drive characteristics, often including ādisable sleep modeā.
Be careful with the utility. Thereās often many other things which are adjustable (not all are fun!).
Quick note: Seagate drives (and some Western Digital) are notorious for their auto sleep modes that tend to initiate during drive inactivity despite the CPU (or CDJ) being powered onāit used to happen quite frequently when I would be working in my DAW and would cause many headaches with regards to playback issues. If possible, splurge on some proper Samsung SSDās so you wonāt have to worry about sleeping hard disks are those pesky moving components that are highly susceptible to damage. I use a pair with some rock-solid enclosures and theyāve performed wonderfully over the years. Just my two cents. Cheers.
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On the pio forum thereās a discussion going about cdj 2000 nxs2 vs the sc5000 what do you think about their arguments ?
Itās ironicā¦ the person in that thread who said that people were raving about what they donāt know about, doesnt know about the SC5000 either.
The thread over there, starting at the top and working down is a very sad story for Pioneer. Some of the thread participants have already sold their Nexus units (Iām guessing the secondhand value will crashdive as more and more people find out that the Nexus2 isnāt the top unit anymore), others in that thread have said theyāve been asking pioneer for some of the new SC5000 features for years - I wonder if Pioneer selling off āPioneer DJā a couple of years back was the catalyst for that lack of innovation. Others in that thread also mention many many Nexus2 issues and flaws.
A few people there have said that they hope that Pioneer bring out new firmware to add the Denon DJ SC5000 features to the older Nexus2ā¦ whilst a few tweaks, on an extra codec might be something they could hope for, itās impossible for a Nexus2 to be firmware upgraded to a multicore processing unit with all the SC5000 features, functionality and sheer power inside.
Adding the second audio layer from the sc5000 would obviously need additional output sockets of course. Those on that thread, or anywhere else for that matter, who claim that the 5000 is expensive or too expensive against a pioneer Nexus2 have forgotton, or perhaps are in denial of the fact that the dual layer feature on the 5000 isnāt just the old midi controller deck switch option of 2 hardware decks being able to control 4 midi decks on a screen. Buying a single Denon DJ SC5000 for Ā£1449 GBP (about $ā¬1700 ) will connect to TWO different audio channels of your mixerā¦ and you can then play and mix two audio tracks from the one player. So, turntablists, thatāll mean you can loop a backing beat on channel 1 or your mixer and scratch the night away on channel 2 using all the breaks, beats and scratches you want - on just one deckā¦ EDM/beat/harmonic DJs, you can do mixes with two/both tracks playing out as you take āminutesā easing the crossfader over imperceptibly from one track to the otherā¦ on just one deckā¦ how much more would two old nexus2s be, to achieve those same scenarios?
The screen on the 5000 is incredibly responsive, in terms of both the multi touch feature controls and the refresh rate that is FIVE times faster than the nexus. Hhhmmm, at a guess, based on my experience with pc video cards, itās possible that the nexus screen refresh could be increased slightly, if they donāt mind some additional heat generation in the nexus as a result - but that wouldnāt be five times the speed.
Andā¦ going for the BIGGY !!! The feature which most DJs Iāve spoken to are raving about, and whatās pulling the Top 100 DJs over to Denon is the on-board analysing of files live, on-board the 5000 even while itās playing an un-analysed track! Thatās a feature again of the multi-core processor in the 5000ā¦ single core Nexus2 units need not applyā¦
The SC5000 features simply canāt be added to an old unit by firmware. Pioneer could, if theyāre still designing after their company split, come out with a copy of an SC5000 butvthst would be a while new model not just a free firmware update to an old model. Andā¦ if the ā¬$1700 Denon DJ SC5000 unit was copied by pioneerā¦ anyone care to guess how much pioneer would price that model at? My guess is that you could buy a small moon for about the same price that pio would charge for even a shadow of the SC5000.
Similarly, not mentioned in the Pioneers leavers thread at the time that I read it, the huge leap in Master Tempo / Key Lock performance on the SC5000 - it sounds flaming impressive to a degree thatās far better than what Iāve heard from DJ software and even DAW apps - thatās again down to the multicore processing on the SC5000 - not something thatās going to be added to a 5 year old Unit via a final firmware upload.
My own personal opinion and thought: Got a pioneer nexus 2? Sell it quick before others in the market for high technology DJ equipment hear about the Denon DJ SC5000 Primeā¦ if they havenāt heard about it already.
O, and all of the above postā¦? Is just about 3 or 4 of the features of the SC5000ā¦ itās got loads more besides ā¦ some of which havenāt even been covered anywhere yet!
In summary: #ChangeYourRider
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Might comment more laterā¦
But I think that MDB bloke (Martin) should probably be on a government watch list somewhereā¦Seems the sort that is easily radicalised! I may feel the need to go over and wind him up a bitā¦If I can be bothered.
I am following both Forum. Currently I have 2x XDJ-1000 MK1 and at the time I was buying them they provided all I needed. Basically I am open minded and therefore I am closely following all about the new SC5000 - they are really interesting. But for now I stick with my units and I donāt care if the prices for the used units may decrease.
Here are the reasons for it:
- The SC5000 are new in the market and when spending about 3600ā¬ for a pair, I am not in favour to be an early adopter. The guys who are - hats up! It would not work without you - but I am not brave enough.
- As of today most of the Clubs having Pioneer Players. If Denon wants to win this place it might need time as from a Business Point of view existing Equipment does not get replaced fast. I am not saying it will not but it would need time.
- All my library is maintained in rekordbox. To move into the world of Denon I would need an easy and relyable way to convert the data. I will potentially not spend hundreds of hours to redo everything. Even using rekordbuddy to go from rekordbox to Serato and from there to Engine Prime right now is not an Option for me as I got lots of dynamic BPM analysed tracks, rekordbuddy doesnāt support. Converting the DB for me could be the most critical dependency to move to a new platform. Denon probably need to look into this.
- Engine Prime - this is release 1.0 - so it is just the beginning. I will wait and see how this is progressing. You are capturing already a lot of suggestions, but we will see how the development is moving and how fast it develops - certainly a challenge.
For sure there will be not a lot of SC5000 like updates for the current Pioneer lineup as there might be too many limitations for Hardware or Software in those units - I am not a technical expert, therefore I am guessing - but now the Pioneer development knows where the journey might go and we will see it with future product releases.
Finally competition is good for the market but I am far away to declare a āwinnerā already today.
Therefore I am not agreeing to statements like āsell your unit now before you will not get any money for itā - as said I am not brave enough 
The future will give us the answer.
So - Keep pushing to deliver the expectations you were generating.
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Damn, that ā ā ā ā ā ! So are you saying that the front USB will only support USB 2.0 thumb drives/speeds?
Yeah, if you look at the color of the plugs themselves, the front plugs are white while the ones on the back are blue. Blue plugs normally mean USB 3.0.
This isnāt 100% true, but 99% of time it holds true.
Plug the (supplied in the box!) USB extender cable in the back and route it under the unit to the front. Done.
I tested the SC5000 last weekend with a USB 3.0 thumbdrive prepared with Engine Prime and it worked without any issues.
Maybe the front port supports only 2.0 speed but that is not a limitation, USB 2.0 speed is much faster then needed for FLAC or WAV files.
Yeah, that will work, but they put (2) 3.0 ports on it, why not make it (3)?!? Itās not a deal breaker, but a little bit of a disappointment.
Specs are like this: USB Type-A ports (for USB drives) (Rear-panel ports supply 900 mA for USB 3.0 devices, 500 mA for USB 2.0 devices. Frontpanel port supplies 500 mA for USB 2.0 devices only. USB Type-B port is also USB3
Not sure of the exact reason, but keep following things in mind:
- The front USB is on a different Printed Circuit Board than the ones on the back. The USB in the front + SD slot needs to communicate trough a flat cable with the CPU board. The 2 USB slots are located on the CPU board if iām correct.
- Could also be limitations of the internal USB Hub Controller
A USB2.0 will do the job correctly, as they could transfer 60 MB a second. USB3.X sticks will work automatically on this port. If you need the power of 900 mA in the front for USB 3.0 devices you can extend with an extension cable.
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