For DJing what are you happy you bought and what do you regret buying?

[MIXMASTERMACHOM]

Just thought I would have some fun hopefully today. What's the one thing you've glad you bought for your DJ business and what do you wish you never would have bought. For me I hate I bought those JBL JRX 125 speakers. They didn't sound bad but I had an issue with the little pin hole in the back. Once you saw the hole start to light up that meant you were pushing them extremely hard and need to lower the volume before you blow something. I kept blowing the crossovers. I finally sold them and bought a pair of Yamaha S215's. Great buy for me.

The thing I love I bought are the pair of Yorkville 801p subs. Best subs I've ever had. They are super heavy but they kick some major butt! I also love my Yamaha DSR 115 tops.

 

[robare99]

For me, my best purchase to date has been my 5x12 gear trailer. Don't really regret any purchases. I was very lucky to have a great salesman at Long & McQuade who set me up with the heart of my rig 12 years ago.

Yorkville Unity15's over LS800p's

I had to make a few different moves on my light rig. It was a bit of an evolution. I had a vision and like I said, pieces were bought & then sold as I upgraded until I ended up with everything playing nice together.

 

[IceBurghDJ]

Pr15 speakers - got a deal but probably won't use them anymore..so for the 2 or 3 times I used them they were expensive.
I bought a roadcase to hold 6R and mixer/controller on top..it's sitting in a shed to never be used again.
Obey 40 was probably the most useless buy.

I need to have a garage sale...

Fave...yamaha stagepas 600, etx18sp because it rocks..not sure how much i'll actully get to use it as it's overkill for most things i do.

 

[Cap Capello]

Best purchase was the Bose L1 line array systems, the third best overall business decision in my career.

Worst purchase was the Creative Imagineering GS-III game show in 1996.

 

[tunes4046]

Best purchase my first "DJ" laptop no more cd's to carry has extended my career by a lot, worst purchase some American Audio powered subs,

 

[robare99]

Oh yeah. An obey70 was a useless purchase, but it was handy in that it made me realize I needed a proper DMX solution and I went with DMXIS.

I also picked up a BBE Sonic Maximizer which made a good doorstop until I sold it.

 

[B-Sharp]

Best purchase: A tie between a Bose L1 system (thanks, Cap!) and the Pioneer DDJ-SZ controller. Both of them get lots of looks from guests. The system sounds great almost everywhere I bring it, and the controller makes DJing more of an art vs. something a guy does behind a big case.

Worst purchases: Too many to name in 29 years of DJing. Off the top of my head, in no particular order: Truss totems, a Fender Passport system, a Blisslight, anything to do with karaoke, anything that seemed like a good deal yet required 2x the setup time, and an Audio-Technica wireless microphone that had a range of about two feet.

 

[steve149]

Most of my bests and worsts were mixers or speakers ...

Best (at the time) was my Yorkville Unity System (with Unity Subs) and the QSC PLX2 rack that powered it. If I still did live sound and had a better back, I would still be rocking them. 2nd best was a Soundcraft FX16 mixer that I used for everything for a while. I went through a LOT of great gear (A&H GL2400/24, Presonus 16.4.2, Rane MP25, aforementioned QSC PLX3602/3102/2502), Audio-Technica 3000 series wireless mics (5 of them).

Worst was a bunch of cheap outboard gear I experimented with .. Behringer effect unit, Phonic effect unit, Behringer compressor .. All replaced with better gear (Lexicon, TC Electronics, TC Helicon).

 

[DJ Ricky B]

Best Purchase:
Beats by Dre Laptop...It has been my best laptop so far
Yamaha C112V passive speakers. Purchased them almost 10 years ago, and they still work great!
Alto TS110As. Great value, and they have been great speakers
American Audio 8go BT battery powered speaker - Light weight, and very useful for cocktail hour and small ceremonies
Harper Dolly/Cart from Wal Mart - Cost $38.99, and still works well after 6 years

Good Purchase:
Most of everything else involved with the DJ Business

Mediocre purchase:
Jamstands Cart - Saves space, but after 2 years it needs to be replaced

Worst purchase:
Chauvet Obey40 DMX Controller - Waste of money...never really used it
Blizzard Wicycles. Way too expensive, and didn't work right...Waste of about $800.
A pair of $129 Sinheisser Headphones - They sounded great, but after only 7 months of gigging they broke and fell apart.

 

[steve149]

A pair of $129 Sinheisser Headphones - They sounded great, but after only 7 months of gigging they broke and fell apart.

See .. if you bought the name-brand Sennheisers .. I think it would be different

I have used the Sennheiser HD280 Pro for years now .. still look/work as new. Though some Sinheissers are "tempting".

 

[Valerie Hicks]

Recently bought a couple Revo4's....they are for sale if anyone is interested. Quite possibly the only purchase that never even made a gig; just not something we found to be a good addition to our system (mostly because we don't feel they will keep up with the rest of our lights in terms of brightness)

Best purchase would have to be the semi. Second best would be our latest mixer purchase which gave us better versatility in inputs, improved sound quality. Third probably our Edirol V8 video mixer.

 

[DJ Ricky B]

See .. if you bought the name-brand Sennheisers .. I think it would be different

I have used the Sennheiser HD280 Pro for years now .. still look/work as new. Though some Sinheissers are "tempting".

LOL...I loved the sound of those head phones. Ever since then I have advocated purchasing cheap head phones. Right now I have two pair of $10 Skull Candy headphones. They work, and both have been carried in my bag for 2 years, and no breaking yet. I have considered buying some noise cancelling headphones, but at the same time I only wear my head phone briefly to cue up songs...they don't stay on my head.

 

[Fred Wright]

Biggest purchase regret was a Gemini CD coffin rig. Paid close to a grand for it back in 2000; it never was all that great. Wouldn't play some discs, the mixer mic preamp started cutting out a couple years later. Unloaded it on Fleabay for less than half what it cost us.

Best purchase was a Pioneer dually CD deck.

 

[DJ SVO]

My 3 DJ Mixers
RANE MP44
A&H S2R
Pioneer DJM-5000

 

[Jeff Romard]

and an Audio-Technica wireless microphone that had a range of about two feet.

Got to agree on the AT wireless it was horrible. The only saving grace is that I paid very little for it a musician friend was getting out of the business and unloading it. I think I only paid $75 for it. I replaced it with a Sennheiser which I loved and that got stolen and then replaced that with an used SM 58 wireless that I picked up used for $100.00

Ironically one of the best purchases I ever made was an AT wired mic. I've had it for 26 years and it's still as good as new

 

[dunlopj]

...the third best overall business decision in my career.

Aww come on Cap. You can't lay that out here and not let us know what number two was...

 

[steve149]

Worst purchases: ..... and an Audio-Technica wireless microphone that had a range of about two feet.

Got to agree on the AT wireless it was horrible. The only saving grace is that I paid very little for it a musician friend was getting out of the business and unloading it. I think I only paid $75 for it.

Curious which model they were as my AT wireless have been one of my best purchases.

My Audio Technica 3000 series UHF mics have been outstanding .. no dropouts, long-range (used them out to 150'+).

 

[Jeff Romard]

It was this one Steve. It was a VHF but still in all I should have got more range out of it. On a good day I would get 20 Feet

 

[ittigger]

Best: Vehicle - moving my stuff around by bicycle would suck. Seriously, best would probably be Serato.

Worst: Fog machines - they pretty much stay in their boxes all year long.

 

[SEDJ]

Worst, most of my current, ok, now ex current DJ gear( yes, I got new toys on the way)
Good, Gemeni CD player I bought in 2005, still working
Best, Denon MC6000