so glad you said this, I thought it was my hearing failing. I have come to the same conclusion,whilst beat matching its so bad for me trying to keep time as I cannot tell one track from the other, I found it helpful to run my headphones thru a little pre amp and run them in mono which clears the mix up a bit. its like I’m learning to dj all over again,compensating for errors I have noticed that songs when analysed on the engine software via a pc seem to be dropping in and out like a compressor is cutting in and out and do not reflect the quality of the original which on my tracktor system seems fine. the quality of this product is not that which I would label “professional”
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Yesterday, I gave up on comparing them to Traktor & had a mix on them for an hour or more, just to see if I enjoyed the experience & it was a resounding noooo, it’s as you said, it gets really confusing to know which track is which, everything gets so dam muddy, I have given up on them, I have been in contact with the store I bought them from & I can return them for 80% refund & the other 20% as a store credit, incredibly disappointing sound quality, hopefully they fix it in the future, but for now, I will stick with a computer, Traktor & turntables, I wanted to get away from using a computer for djing, but don’t have enough trust in media players after this experience…
I’m missing something here, and this is not defending something that I personally can’t hear, but can certainly see in the images above BUT how on Earth is a high frequency muddying your mix? The high ends are the first thing you should be EQing out, as they really don’t play nice together.
The other frequencies have not been mentioned before, so that would be a very different issue.
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Personally I don’t have any problems with it too. Played for maybe 10 years on Pio CDJ’s, then about 2-3 years on Traktor. Bought the 5000’s and kept both setups for a while and mixed between Traktor and SC’s in standalone and never add any problems with it.
Finally abandoned Traktor and I don’t have any problems beatmaching on 5000’s.
Having played a lot on crappy mixers and deteriorated CDJ’s make my 5000’s and Xone DB2 feel like a dream 
I personally only play wav files, no keylock, for me the sound quality is good enough, but if it can be improved, I certainly would like it 
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Difficult topic, because everyone really feels it differently.
I have made the experience with every change of equipment - and there were many. It was an adjustment every time and I always had to get used to it and often found it unpleasant at first.
From a Denon DN-1800F with an old Stageline mixer, to a DJM-600, then many years of SL1210 with Xone 92, to Finalscratch, Traktor with various controllers, to the DB4 and finally the two SC6000Ms - each time I had to “relearn” some skills. It sounded a little different each time and beatmatching was often more difficult for me the first few weeks. For example, the change from the DJM-600 to the Xone 92 was a pain to put it mildly. Subjectively it always sounded somehow “worse” or “more difficult”, objectively it was just a bit different. Moreover, not only the players play a role, but also the mixer and the headphones! Once, for example, have had to get used to new headphones for days - it was devastating.
In the meantime, I have gotten used to the SC6000. Make me use two SL1210s all of a sudden and the drama would start all over again… I would get upset about the warm muddy vinyl-sound and would not being able to tell one track from the other…
I’m just saying, it’s been the same thing for 25 years. New technology = new skills, new habits, new problems. Most of the time it was just a matter of “getting used to it” and it was rather subjective and less due to the devices.
Sorry, that was a long one… 
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not in this case.
Not in this case for ‘You’
Everybody is entitled to their opinion about sound quality.
Whatever is being pitched for poor sound quality is not that noticeable to most. Should they care because you do?
It’s a mixed bag here.
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This topic has been going around in circles for days. Enough now surely.
It’s one guy forcing the point, two or three saying “bud I agree I can hear something, on certain tracks, sometimes”, a couple of others saying “it’s ok as it is but if it can be improved that would be nice, if it can’t then that’s ok too” and considering how many thousands of people must be members of the forum and how many more multiples of that number of members must own primes and aren’t concerned it’s hardly a world devastating cataclysmic party show stopper.
If it can get a nudge great, I’m sure denon will give it a nudge, if they can. If they want to, if they don’t want to, nothing we could say or vote for would make them go against what they want to do.
If it can’t be nudged then nothing we could say or vote for would change something that can’t be nudged if that’s the case.
Bumping the topic every 4 hours is just being discourteous to other forum users who are trying to get their own posts seen and their own questions answered
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It’s been going on for years actually. Denon has continuously improved though and I’m pretty sure they will continue to do so. In the meantime there’s nothing stopping me from djing with prime gear and having people who listen to it enjoy it. But it seems like it’s a show stopper for others. I haven’t seen any videos with djs spinning with prime gear where someone in the comments mentioned that the sound quality ■■■■■.
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I agree, there is always an adjustment period to new equipment…
About a year ago I went from the original Traktor S4 controller & then back to my roots with a couple of Technics 1210Mk7 turntables & the Xone 96 mixer, there was an adjustment period there, but I was inspired by it, because the sound quality was far superior to the previous setup, adjustment periods & sound quality are two different things.
The post was never designed to offend owners, I originally posted to find out what I could do to improve the sound quality & see if digital output would improve that, I wanted to exhaust every possible option before deciding to return them, because I have beating waiting a long time for stock of these to arrive in Australia. It turns out they are not for me, it doesn’t mean they are not for anyone else, I’m sure they will sell very well, but I will stick to my guns & trust my ears regardless of what anyone else thinks or tells me.
Anyway, I’m not sure I’m going to post anymore about this, clearly we are all different & all getting over this debate, I am comfortable with the decision I have made to return them & anyone who can’t hear the difference doesn’t need to worry about it, just enjoy them.
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Riod and me are 2 already 
exactly and that’s what companies usually communicate. unfortunately denon does not. a simple answer like “yes, it’s on our schedule” or “no, that’s not something we’re gonna work on anytime soon” would clarify this instantly and would make any further tiresome discussions unnecessary.
exactly.
that sums it up well i think.
Then you should be returning you prime gear also?
I recommend that anybody who doesn’t like the sound to take the hit and get rid of it. That way when Denon makes improvements and everybody satisfied you have to take another hit to buy it back again.
Does anybody know why there is a roll off in the first place?
I heard it’s the same reason why the cdj3000 has it also and I am looking forward to more tests to see if it is true.
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Somebody can make a test with a CDJ3000 ? In comparison
From what I can gather it is to smooth out the time stretching algorithm. It can/does introduce artefacts and this helps suppress this by rolling off the higher frequencies.
Keeping the roll-off even when the keylock is off helps the sound be consistent between the two modes as it would sound quite different so it’s always on.
I could wrong but that is the impression I got from what has been said before both in here and in other places online.
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So this is what happens when you don’t have a high frequency roll off ?
So pioneer will be adding high frequency roll off to hide the hiss that denons don’t suffer from ?
Denon should offer the option of
no roll off but hisses
or
no hiss but has roll off
In the menu options
The more I read about this infinitesimally small issue, it’s reads exactly like a car that’s sold thousands of thousands of models, and everyone is happy with the top speed of 170 mph.
Everyone, that is, except for Karen, who every few hours telephones, emails, and tweets the manufacturer, the garage, the newspapers, and anyone who’ll listen to her when she says that 170mph isn’t enough, she needs it to do 170.0001mph. Four hours later, same, four hours later, same…
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oh i did, but kept one just in case. but if 1.6 doesn’t bring any changes in that regard the last one will be gone as well.
yeah i read something like that as well. assuming that’s true, it’s particularly pointless for people like me, who don’t use keylock at all. i.e. we suffer from keylock problems although we don’t even want it.
Yes, Denon should just add an option “Keylock anti-alias filter”: ON/AUTO/OFF
ON: Always on (like currently) AUTO: Only on when keylock is activated OFF: Always off
This should not be too difficult to implement.
Just checked frequency response for my XDJ1000Mk2 using RightMark Audo Analyzer: Just a flat line up to 20KHz (the DJM900 introduces a slight deviation of +/- 0.2dB). So the SC5/6k would be definitive a step backwards in sound quality.
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It’s not a surprise and I really think the CDJ 3000 is just as flat as the Nexus 2 or XDJ line products
I don’t understand why we have this roll off filter in 2021 when a basic Berhinger soundcard make better results et better accuracy for transparent output analog and digital
At least why Denon DJ who aware of this problem since 2017 don’t correct this in the new SC6000
Can we have an official explanation ?
Because… there’s an advance key lock system which allows DJs far wider range pitch mixing without all the usual warbling audio artefacts which ordinary old key lock timestretch algorithms didn’t have. The old algorithms sounded plain nasty when you went above around 8%
The new timestretch algorithms allow DJs to experiment successfully in far far wider pitch ranges and still keep the music and vocals sounding as unaffected by timestretch as possible.
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