The Lowdown
The Pioneer DJ CDJ-2000NXS is a flagship media player capable of playing music from CDs, USB sticks and SD cards. It’s what you’ll find in all the big clubs around the world as well as on festival stages. Nexus capability means that you can connect up to four CDJ-2000NXS media players for sharing a DJ library from a single thumb drive, and you can hook them up to a DJM-900NXS or DJM-2000NXS mixer for tight tempo-synced effects. Rock-solid stability and playability make the CDJ-2000NXS the club standard.
First Impressions / Setting up
Pioneer’s CDJ-2000NXS is the first CDJ with Wi-Fi capability and native compatibility with rekordbox which has strong mobile capabilities. The device can also play high quality music files WAV and AIFF as well as MP3 and CDs. Four CDJ-2000NXS can be connected via LAN.
Aside from playing CDs, the CDJ-2000NXS can play tracks from an Android or iOS device via rekordbox, USB or SD card. Outputs include stereo RCA and coaxial for digital outputs.
The CDJ-2000NXS looks and feels premium piece of equipment from the large 6.1” LCD screen and springy buttons to the smooth pitch fader and full-size jogwheel. The price tag is hefty for a reason.
Connecting the CDJ-2000NXS is relatively easy with the RCA output being the only connection you need to worry about for the vast majority of performances. You probably won’t even need to fiddle around with it since it’ll already be set up and ready to go when you turn up at the club.
In Use
The LCD screen displays everything you would need during a set and the colors are very well contrasted that navigating through all the information is very intuitive. Going through menus and your library is easy with the Browse Knob which has become synonymous with Pioneer DJ’s media players and higher tier controllers.
Like previous flagship CDJs, the pitch fader, knobs and buttons feel very solid. The Play and Cue buttons have a nice springy response, and the large jogwheel feels great and comes with adjustment knobs.
Several features such as Slip and Beat Sync make transitioning from track to track easier.
The Rekordbox features let you prep a song on your laptop so that when you step into the DJ booth, information such as the waveform, musical key and BPM have already been analysed. You can also make playlists before the gig using Rekordbox.
Despite lots of Amazon reviewers being generally satisfied with the CDJ-2000NXS, a reviewer pointed out that the advanced features of the device make it challenging for new and intermediate DJs who are coming from DJ controllers.
Conclusion
The CDJ has become the most iconic piece of DJ gear in the Electro / EDM era of the 2000s and early 2010s, and that’s because it’s a formidable media player with a build that’s meant to withstand heavy-handed DJ abuse. That’s why you see it in clubs and bars as well as in festivals and concerts all over the world. The price will be out of reach for even professional DJs, which is why these are aimed more at venues and events rather than home DJ use.
