Made the move from Denon to pioneer

After 12 months of being a Denon fan I’ve now made the switch to a pioneer set up the prime 2 served me well and I can honestly say the support and skills I’ve learned and had from it and this community has to be given a 10 out of 10 only recently as I’ve noticed a few things not as it should be with the controller and numerous channel faders snaps I’ve fallen out of love with it so I had to give the pioneer a try So I just want to say thank you to you all for the past 12 months of support and time everyone gives to help each other on here :partying_face::partying_face:

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Bravo, that is an honest and constructive opinion. No ranting, no complaints. Simple, easy and honest. Thank You for that. But if we can still help You somehow here, You are always welcome back.

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Which unit did you go for?

Went for the rx3 pal

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Thank you pal

Ah nice, had a play around with one in the shop… I think the platters feel better than that Opus thing.

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I did the same step with rx3 ! although i still have prime 4 sc live 4 and mixstream pro ! Even though I’ve never loved Pioneer I have to say that the RX3 is a great car with some shortcomings! one and soundswitch the other streaming ! as for rekordbox I still struggle with track search during dj sets! however I don’t think about abandoning denon I will wait to see if they improve the software which still has some shortcomings ! and who knows maybe there will be a new product and it’s not said that you don’t buy that too! regarding the forum its a great thing from denon , the pioneer forum is very embarrassing ! I add another lack of pioneer! since I have nearly a thousand music videos purchased for videomix , I realized that unlike engine that reads them without problems , they are not supported on the rx3 !!

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To be fair I wish I would have opted for the prime 4 in the first place my mate has one and I did find it far superior to the 2 but it’s done now no other regrets😉

A lot of people ask me why I went for the 2 over the 4 and it’s purely down to portability… I don’t regret it at all when I see the size of the P4, I can fit my 2 on pretty much any small surface in a bar.

RX3 do key change other than simple master tempo?

Sometimes it’s not about the features or the future proofing. Sometimes it’s just important to have a retro machine with concrete faders

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I know you are trying to be sarcastic but I don’t think you realize how much this is true: I would gladly sacrifice some of the features of Denon all-in-one standalones for a better build quality.

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Nope - not in a sarcastic place at all. Especially not right now for various reasons.

When I was buying Flightcases a couple of years ago …. Hear me out, it’s relevant …. The flightcase guy said there are three features in Flightcases:

  • Build Quality

^ Price

  • Lead time (build /delivery time)

He told me to pick any two of the above. He also said that I could pick all three but it’s gonna cost

With DJ gear it’s the same

Some items are designed for …… well let’s wind back 30 or 40 years. Back to scratch mixers. 200 bucks, no mic channel, no midi (lol) no usb (double lol), no pretty LED ladder lights, no eq on anything, no paddles, no transforming switches, no fx, no display, no Hampster switch. What you had was a metal box made out of the same stuff that airplane black box flight data recorders are made from, a crossfader which a Sherman tank could roll over without denting it, and two channel faders which inbound fighter jets could land on as an alternative to an aircraft carrier.

For people who want both (tank compatible faders AND some good features NOW then there’s Rane items. But some people want Rane at a Denon price and wonder why it doesn’t happen.

Quick run down

Pioneer. Maybe a little better built in their faders but not in any other aspect, especially buttons and connectors - especially usb connectors - fair number of features on day one but mainly bug fixes are all you’re ever going to see later from them for your model, as they’d rather put new features on new models - if pio can make you swap your entire console every 2 years to get features, you’ll never see the buttons and connectors fail after 3 years, coz you won’t have that aged unit then. Also, half the price is there just to make you think it’s top of the range.

Rane: built like a tank - leaves all other brands standing still in terms of robustness and some deep deep niche features …: but firmware is more akin to pioneer philosophy of just mainly bug fixes, priced like a gold space shuttle but worth it. It’s the mighty one… built to be dropped from orbit and still work, stunning features, but it’s going to be priced accordingly.

Denon: built like a decent upper range family car - a great number of “appeals to the masses” features AND every few months there are more and more and more features added by firmware - you might see every letter of labelling fall off in the time you have it, but that’s because the firmware updates kept you enriched and excited for so long without you having to swap models - so you’ll have one model for 10 years.

The problems start when people want a Porsche for the cost of the GMC

Okay, it’s not as tri-cut as that - there’s all sorts of steps and stages to insert Numark and Stanton and Citronic etc into all sorts of middle grounds - but that’s the variety aspect

If you want “it all” then its going to cost. If you do it on a budget, it won’t do it all.

Also think on this, (no-one in particular) if you buy a $1000 widget that does 50 things… start by thinking that each thing budgets in at about $20. Bs k when I found thing’s hilarious, I’d read things like “I broke my flipper-flapper on my $1000 widget” - the flipper-flapper is one thing on a model offering 49 other things… in a world of averages, you’ve not broken a $1000 flipper-flapper - you broke a $20 one.

I think Denon/Inmusic need to seriously look at having replaceable faders in their future models however. Ive never broke a single fader in my life but i understand some people use them much more robustly than i do, and a simple removable plate and replaceable faders would cull a lot of the complaints seen on here.

I do also think people should aim to look after their gear a little more in some cases too (some of the pictures ive seen posted on here are horrific, despite what people claim around ‘babying’ their gear).

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The RX range has pads much lower than the Denon Prime 2 and 4, no possibility of installing an SSD internally! Their screens are less fluid in terms of scrolling and in terms of research it is not instantaneous (tested with the copy of my musical content “88 go and almost 9000 titles” identical SSD (to the one installed in my P4) During the test the SSD was mounted in an entry-level USB3 box, ah I forgot the history of the format on the RX3, fortunately the ExFat is finally supported!), limited number of channels: 2 channels + one auxiliary, very very rare update and without new function, you want new functionality… you will have to buy the latest product!

I also would like to add that with the gigs I’ve started getting all use pioneer systems aswell I get lost everytime I step up in them so this was another major factor in my decision to get a Pioneer controller it’s part of the evolution journey into DJing I’m on so it will either be a good decision or a bad one time will tell but like I said I’ve finally outgrown the prime 2 it has served me very very well and in no way am I knocking it

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No Touch FX, No sampler ! :star_struck:

That is one thing that DjMell alludes to, with the Pioneer devices its going to be very much a ‘what you see is what you get’ approach, whereas Denon items will continue to enjoy updates and upgrades long after your purchase. The Pioneer approach traditionally is to keep buying their latest gear if you want to keep up with features.

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We had our disputes but I am 100% with you on that.

Replaceable faders and more sturdy play/pause buttons please. The rest is perfectly fine for its tier class (upper midrange). They already adressed the tiny and overburdened menu button on the Prime 4, by separating it into three chunky menu, view and lighting buttons on the Live 2/4, for example.

And yes, I never understood how badly some people treat their devices. Tools or not, they are still expensive electronics and deserve some more care.

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Yeah its a fairly simple way of prolonging the life of a device by having them replaceable, up-faders are easily the most used parts of a mixer section. Hoping the next gen Prime units have them at the very least.

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