# Would you rather……
**URL:** https://community.enginedj.com/t/would-you-rather/71224
**Category:** General Area
**Tags:** gear
**Created:** [October 11, 2026, 3:27pm UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/would-you-rather/71224 "2026-10-11T15:27:26Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@STU-C](https://community.enginedj.com/u/STU-C)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2026, 3:27pm UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/would-you-rather/71224/1 "2026-10-11T15:27:26Z")
Have an expensive mixer and cheap players/controllers?
Or a cheap mixer and expensive players/controllers?
Discuss.
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### Author:  [@djliquidice](https://community.enginedj.com/u/djliquidice)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2026, 3:39pm UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/would-you-rather/71224/2 "2026-10-11T15:39:02Z")
Having started with one of those “DJ in a box” kits from Numark, I’d prefer all of my gear to be built well.
Why the differentiation? ☺
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### Author:  [@Reese](https://community.enginedj.com/u/Reese)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2026, 3:40pm UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/would-you-rather/71224/3 "2026-10-11T15:40:34Z")
Curious as well, but mixer is always most important; faders pots sound.
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### Author:  [@STU-C](https://community.enginedj.com/u/STU-C)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2026, 3:41pm UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/would-you-rather/71224/4 "2026-10-11T15:41:25Z")
It’s more of a discussion around which you give more attention to in your setup 😉
‘I want everything to be expensive’ is going to be the obvious answer in an ideal world, but just imagine for a minute your budget wasn’t able to provide that, so where are you pointing your finances first.
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### Author:  [@STU-C](https://community.enginedj.com/u/STU-C)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2026, 3:42pm UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/would-you-rather/71224/5 "2026-10-11T15:42:35Z")
Same for me Reese, I’d rather have a good quality mixer as a priority.
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### Author:  [@Reese](https://community.enginedj.com/u/Reese)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2026, 3:44pm UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/would-you-rather/71224/6 "2026-10-11T15:44:31Z")
My centerpiece is a Xone96 atm.
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### Author:  [@STU-C](https://community.enginedj.com/u/STU-C)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2026, 3:50pm UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/would-you-rather/71224/7 "2026-10-11T15:50:04Z")
Very nice, that’s a kind of ‘end of days’ mixer isnt it, you won’t ever need to replace it.
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### Author:  [@djdragon](https://community.enginedj.com/u/djdragon)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2026, 5:22pm UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/would-you-rather/71224/8 "2026-10-11T17:22:26Z")
Same. Knew there was a reason I like you 😂
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### Author:  [@Reese](https://community.enginedj.com/u/Reese)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2026, 6:08pm UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/would-you-rather/71224/9 "2026-10-11T18:08:17Z")
Color adapted to its neighbors:
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### Author:  [@mufasa](https://community.enginedj.com/u/mufasa)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2026, 6:25pm UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/would-you-rather/71224/10 "2026-10-11T18:25:26Z")
not enough knobs 🤪
quality everything for me, but for the mixer i have set myself a limit of 2k spend max on a mixer (and has to work with serato directly)
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### Author:  [@djdragon](https://community.enginedj.com/u/djdragon)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2026, 6:31pm UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/would-you-rather/71224/11 "2026-10-11T18:31:53Z")
Since we’re doing show & tell 😂
The Denon EQ color knobs were a gimme.
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### Author:  [@STU-C](https://community.enginedj.com/u/STU-C)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2026, 6:40pm UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/would-you-rather/71224/12 "2026-10-11T18:40:18Z")
But if you couldn’t afford to go quality everything, which bit are you choosing to invest in first?
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### Author:  [@blackavenger](https://community.enginedj.com/u/blackavenger)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2026, 6:55pm UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/would-you-rather/71224/13 "2026-10-11T18:55:31Z")
Definitely mixer!
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### Author:  [@mufasa](https://community.enginedj.com/u/mufasa)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2026, 7:14pm UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/would-you-rather/71224/14 "2026-10-11T19:14:40Z")
Show and Tell mode
No colorful knobs
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### Author:  [@STU-C](https://community.enginedj.com/u/STU-C)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2026, 7:24pm UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/would-you-rather/71224/15 "2026-10-11T19:24:56Z")
Definitely mixer for me.
 
I’d swap out the 1210s for some Reloop decks, or use some CDJ-350s or XDJ-700s, but I wouldn’t swap the Radius (or Xone 96, V10, Elara 4,Euphonia etc) for say a Reloop or Numark mixer with 1210s or SC-6000s/3000x
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### Author:  [@Dunno](https://community.enginedj.com/u/Dunno)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2026, 7:54pm UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/would-you-rather/71224/16 "2026-10-11T19:54:11Z")
In my “career” I’ve played on quite a few unconventional setups. Cassette decks, regular Discman players, mixers that were never intended for DJing… if it can play audio, there’s usually a way. 😄
I’d pick the feature-packed mixer over the player every time. A decent mixer gives you EQ, routing and, most importantly, the ability to pre-listen to whatever you connect to it.
For me, music selection comes first. Beatmatching, loops and all the other tricks are nice to have, but they come after that.
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### Author:  [@STU-C](https://community.enginedj.com/u/STU-C)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2026, 8:10pm UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/would-you-rather/71224/17 "2026-10-11T20:10:29Z")
Agreed, I’d rather have a slightly ‘loose’ mix on a cheaper deck than rough sound quality or faders that arent as smooth etc.
I bet if we asked ourselves this as 18/19/20yr olds just starting out it would be the other way, I know for me personally sound quality and quality of the mixer only became a thing as I got older. It was all about trying to get the best decks years back, probably because we thought it would improve our mixing when we weren’t as good.
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### Author:  [@djliquidice](https://community.enginedj.com/u/djliquidice)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2026, 10:50pm UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/would-you-rather/71224/18 "2026-10-11T22:50:55Z")
Given that I tend to move quickly on faders and potentiometers, I would definitely say mixer.
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### Author:  [@KrisONeil](https://community.enginedj.com/u/KrisONeil)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2026, 6:14am UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/would-you-rather/71224/19 "2026-10-12T06:14:56Z")
For me, if the budget only for allowed for good players and a cheap mixer or vice versa, I’d rather play on good players (preferably the SC6000’s) with a cheaper mixer, than a cheap player and good mixer.
I do most of the work on the players, and will generally prioritize a precise pitch, good bending feel, easy looping etc.
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### Author:  [@SlayForMoney](https://community.enginedj.com/u/SlayForMoney)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2026, 6:31am UTC](https://community.enginedj.com/t/would-you-rather/71224/20 "2026-10-12T06:31:12Z")
It’s one of those things where it depends on what is the situation:
- shorterm thinking e.g. you come to a gig and they are supplying equipment - I would rather have a duo of CDJ3000/SC6000 and a 2ch american audio mixer between them with no FX because I can make that work anyway, all I need is a working cue, EQ and faders
- Longterm e.g. I buying gear for myself and budget allows only one or another - then you should go for the best mixer possible and slap a dualdeck CD player from '90 if needed
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