Pioneer DJ equipment is one of the most popular brands that people choose when picking out their gear. Pioneer DJ equipment includes mixers, turntables, software, and headphones. They make equipment for professionals. While none of the gear is cheap, they do have products that cost less than $1,000. Most of the gear is between $1,000-$3,000, with some of the equipment costing even more.

The Pioneer DJM-800 Professional DJ Mixer is one of their best selling mixers. It has all of the options that professional DJ’s need. The manufacturer’s suggested retail price is $2,100.00, but you can often find it for cheaper. The audio is high quality because the shortest signal route is used for the analog signal which is digitized at 24 bit/96kHz. It uses a pro A/D converter for this. The DSP is 32-bit so there is only minimal sound quality deterioration. There are a couple of nice features which keeps the sound quality high. One is the rigid chassis which prevents a loud of vibration. The other is the dual-shield structure. This helps it eliminate digital noise.

The Pioneer DJM-800 is beginner-friendly thanks to the Harmonic Tuning feature. This adjusts the pitch so that it is a standard note. This isn’t to say that it does all of the work for the DJ. If you want a harmonic match you still need to know music and which keys match. It is easier, however, to perform a harmonic mix by taking advantage of this feature.

A lot of the effects that DJM-800 mixer has are the common ones, but it does have some that you don’t find in all models. The effects include echo, pan, delay, reverse delay, flanger, transform, reverb, filter, roll, chorus, reverse roll, and robot.

The technical specs and features of the Pioneer DJM-800 are as follows. There are five line inputs, 4 digital inputs, 4 switchachble digital/line inputs, and 5 line inputs. It has four channels. It has two mic inputs and two band mic EQ.  There are three band EQ per channel, ranging from -26dB to +6dB. There are four fader starter inputs. It has a three position adjustable channel and cross fader curve. There are XLR and RCA outputs. Other specs include stereo send and return and headphone monitor auditioning. If it is said to be lacking a feature, that would be rotary channel volume controls and a rotary cross-fader. These are available as an upgrade.

I would say that the DJM-800 is midline in the pioneer DJ equipment. People who don’t need the features of the it, or who can’t afford it, may find what they are looking for in the Pioneer DJM-400. It is about half the price. If you are looking for an upgrade, there is the Pioneer DJM-1000 mixer. It is similar to the 800, but it gets rid of the onboard effects and instead adds a link to directly connect it to the EFX-1000 Performance Effector.