Just found this thread in July 2017 and thought I’d chime in with some info.
I researched the Pioneer DDJ-SX2 and the Denon MCX8000 & MC 7000 for a while before making my purchase. As I am not playing live anymore, I don’t have as much pull toward the Pioneer brand that most DJs do. That being said I had not ever laid my hands on any Denon DJ equipment, until now. I come from the mid 90’s rave era, OG 2 technics 1200 MKII’s and actual vinyl with music on it, stopped playing live in 01-02 as everyone went digital, I did not follow. I did however have my fair share of time playing with Pioneer mixers and CDJs. I personally have always thought Pioneer makes great equipment, but very pretty pricey for what they offer. No matter what Pioneer is several hundred more for a comparable product, they are proud.
So, I found a Pioneer DDJ-SX2 and Denon MCX8000 & 7000s open and setup at a music store and decided to mess around. I immediately found these differences.
1. The Denon MCX8000 and MC7000 seem to have a bit more latency with the Jog-wheels than the Pioneer DDJ-SX2 but they were still pretty sweet.
2. The Denon controllers feel better to me though. The all metal case, faders, buttons and everything felt better to me personally. The Pioneer felt cheap and very plasticky, no resistance whatsoever on any of the faders or pitch adjustments and the knobs and everything just feel better to me on the Denon.
I ended up purchasing the Denon MCX8000 and absolutely love it other than the latency (which someone has now told me that can be adjusted in Serato.) It feels and looks great and has all of the features the DDJ-SX2 has and more. I did however crash the sound card on the first day I had it. I set a loop,live sliced on that loop, tweaked the filter knob, added an effect, and then it crashed. If someone like me who has not played live in 16 years can load that thing up so bad that the sound card/processor craps out and the unit has to be restarted, there’s an issue. I will be contacting Denon Customer Support to see if there is anything that I am doing wrong and/or if I’m not running incorrect/incompatible versions of software etc.
Long story short, I like the make and feel of the Denon but if it doesn’t work perfectly, I may have to switch to the Pioneer.
-X
