Pioneer CDJ

CDJ is a term used to describe a CD player made by Pioneer Electronics, that operates similarly to a vinyl turntable for the purposes of DJing. Originally, the term referred to the CDJ-500 by Pioneer Electronics, but now includes the whole line of Pioneer CD-turntables.

The Pioneer CDJ-400, CDJ-800, CDJ-1000 (including the Mark 2 and Mark 3) have vinyl mode and a virtual platter that allows the operator to manually manipulate music on a CD as if it were on a turntable, while lesser models (CDJ-100S, CDJ-200) are essentially little more than plain CD players. While still having the options to manipulate the CD, they lack the accuracy and vinyl modes of the later models.

The CDJ-1000 was the main model to find mass usage in both clubs and amongst domestic users, especially from the second version of the model, the CDJ-1000MK2.

The latest model is the CDJ-400 which incorporates the main new feature of having a USB input and control abilities on the player. However it is not as functional as the CDJ-1000MK3, hence the number 400 being assigned to the machine.

Additionally, Pioneer make mixers such as the DJM series (including the DJM-500, DJM-600, DJM-800, and the DJM-1000) which have an increasing amount of cueing facilities and effects that can be applied to any channel, often in association with the control wire plugged in between mixer and CDJ-type CD player, so that either can be conrolled remotely by the other