The CDJ-400 and CDJ-800 Side BY Side.

0:00 I have asked to do a comparison between these two guys

Alright folks, Jonathan here. I have asked to do a comparison between these two guys. It's the CDJ-800 and the new CDJ-400. So I'm going to do one in my own nutty way. And bearing in mind this is my way, I did it my way, so it's probably not the best one. But then again, it'll give you some sort of general idea as to what to expect and what the differences and the similarities are between the two. First of all, the actual size. For people out there who've never... Being close to one of these guys, there's a CD. I would say you've seen a CD. That is the size of the actual 800 in relation to a CD. From one side to the other we could basically have one, two and say a third CDs. As opposed to the 400, the CD there fits exactly inside the jog wheel.

1:56 Pitch controls, in my mind, seem to be the same

Just about one and three quarters of the size of a CD across length. One, two, and say a third of the 800 we're looking at one, two, and let's say we're looking at two thirds. So there you go. Right, first of all they both have vinyl mode. Identical. What is vinyl mode? A vinyl turntable, when you put your hand on the platter of a vinyl turntable, move it backwards and forwards, you can actually manipulate the music with your hand. You can do exactly the same with both of these. So volume up, both in vinyl mode, here we go. Oh, we're in trans there, sorry, that's why you've got that funny effect. Now they both feel identical. OK, the jog wheel here is slightly smaller on the 400. But whatever, I mean, you know, unless you're going to start doing mad turntablism coming from side to side, I don't think that really matters. Pitch controls, in my mind, seem to be the same. Let's have a look. I mean, they're the same feel. You know, the one doesn't really feel rougher than the other, it doesn't feel harder. They both seem to have the same smoothness.

They both have master tempo, basically what that will mean is that if you want to keep the same tone, the same key, the same feel of the track but you need to speed it up or slow it down, if you press the master tempo then when you decrease or that way the speed, it will stay the same key. When you increase the speed, it will stay the same key as well. Now they both have reverse, so in other words when you press the reverse button, the track will go backwards. MP3 format, in other words you can play MP3s on the two of them. What else now, what are we looking at? Right, OK, yeah, the 400, one of the most important things that I do like, and that is with regards to 400, you could turn up literally to a venue with no CDs at all, you could stick your iPod in here, this USB connection, and you could basically play an entire record collection or CD collection.

4:24 We get this on the 400, we don't get this on the 800

There's a feature I do like on this, we have to go off vinyl mode and we hit the button here where we have something called roll. Now have a listen to this, this is quite cool. Now we get this on the 400, we don't get this on the 800. Have a listen. Basically what it's doing, when you press it, it will actually sample that tiny beat. So when you're pressing it on the bass beat, you'll get like so. Or the high beat. And what it will do, it will roll that particular beat in time with the track. So if we speed it up or slow it down, now the 800 doesn't have that. So, I mean here's the deal. This was made quite a while ago. This has made quite recently. So, I mean, logic tells me that even though there's a lot of technology in the 800, as time moves on, things get bigger, faster, stronger and goodness knows what, there's going to be more technology in this. My own personal opinion, I prefer this one far more than 400 because it's more user-friendly. There's lots more gizmos and gadgets to mess around with. Bit of an insight for you, one next to the other. Alright, we haven't delved in depth.

But he'll give you a general idea. Hope that's been a help. Practice and enjoy.

This transcript was produced automatically from the audio of the video and may contain mistakes.