One of the best moments of my life was when an older friend encouraged me to buy two Technics turntables and a mixer in my freshman year of college. At the time, I was flat broke and the cost seemed insane to me. He convinced me to take on extra shifts at my job, bite the bullet, and just “make it happen” even though I was a poor college student living on ramen.
In short? It was the best decision of my life.
In those days, it was immediately clear what equipment was needed for a serious DJ. Technics were the de-facto standard for vinyl DJs. These days, there are many, many more competitors on the market. Ranging from cheap, entry-level controllers all the way up to Pioneer CDJ-2000NXS2, it’s clear that you can spend either a few hundred getting started or north of $6,000.
While I don’t believe that you need to start by spending $6,000 on beginner DJ equipment, I also don’t believe that the cheapest controller is worth the money either. I’ve spent years looking at the options and I believe I’ve found the perfect choice for something that’s serious enough to work for you but that won’t break the bank.
That said, if you’re in a position where you CAN spend the money, you can’t possibly go wrong with buying the industry standard Pioneer CDJ-2000NXS2 and DJM-900 system.
Simply put, virtually every club and festival in the world uses this system, so if your goal is to someday be playing these venues, eventually you WILL have to understand how to use this setup. So why buy something today that won’t translate to the “pro” gear later?
What does a beginner DJ need?
Here’s the equipment a beginner DJ needs to get started: DJ Turntables (both vinyl and CD), a laptop with DJ software, mixers, controllers, speakers, and headphones.