Gemini DJ CDJ-700

So far I absolutely love this unit. Over the past 2 years or so, Gemini have seem to have turn a corner in the quality of there products. However, it's not a Pioneer. But it is a close facsimile. And I love that. People have been saying that Gemini has a lot of "balls" copying the Pioneer. I say good for Gemini. Besides who the hell cares who they copy from. I call that capitalism. And for $400 if you want a new media deck that plays CD's and takes a USB stick, and plays them well, then this is a great buy for the price. For this is a great upgrade from my obsolete Denon DNS-1000 which don't have USB, and has a tiny jog wheel.
Now I read reviews criticizing the quality of the all plastic form of this unit. To those, I have a tip: if you don't throw this unit against a brick wall or drop it from a 2 story building, it should last for many years to come. Put it in a good case or coffin and you'll find that it should be durable enough for transport if you need to take it anywhere. Besides the mostly plastic form factor helps to keep the cost factor down.
I hate CD's. There limited in there capacity, and they take up space, and cost more money then an mp3. You can put all your music from any year on a thumb nail device and have it instantly ditching those CD's. Its that simply. And that's one big reason why I bought this unit. You can also use an SD cards as well. Nice! And it's a midi controller as well though I haven't use it in midi mode yet. Nice! The jog wheel is huge. It measure almost 8 inch in diameter. It has a nice sturdy feel to it. Has a rubber lining with finger placement all around the outside of it. There's a torque adjustment as well. Now on the lightest setting, it might still feel heavy for those scratchers out there. So this unit might not work well for those with that talent. But if your a BPM mixer like me, then the jog wheel and this unit as a whole will feel just fine. And oh yeah; it's jog wheel looks exactly like one other jog wheel out there on the market right now. Right down to the LCD display in the middle. Nice! The touch sensitive screen is a nice feature but I don't find myself using it to actually browse for files. The screen can also display wave form. That's where the screen could be a little bit larger. But again, cost factor.
The sound from this unit is incredible. Whether it's CD, USB, or SD, the sound is crisp and clear. The Gemini has a coaxial digital out which I use with my Denon DNX-900 mixer making the sound twice as loud then using the regular RCA's. This unit also works just fine with my Mixvibes Cross Pack and the time coded CD's which I originally bought for my old Denons. And there's a usb on the back for use with any DJ software.
Now if I were opening a big club tomorrow, I'm probably stocking the DJ booth with either a pair of Pioneer CDJ's or Denon SC's and not a pair of Gemini CDJ-700's. The Pioneers and the Denons are the "Technics" of CD/Media decks without question. But if you need to equip your you small home studio, or maybe a small venue, small bar, do a small house party out in the Hamptons, put your 18 month old in DJ training, etc... or maybe you just want to make an upgrade without deleting your bank account, then this table top deck is plenty capable.
People should stop making the comparison between the Pioneer and the Gemini. Although the Gemini closely resembles the CDJ-900, Pioneer CDJ's are high end products, with super high end prices. The Gemini is more like second class. But it works. And if it doesn't break down, all the better. And by the way, the Pioneers also break down and occasionally have bugs as well. They call the CDJ-700 a professional media controller. Again I'm not sure if I'm using this unit at a large venue but I wouldn't be afraid to try. Its very well put together and feels solid enough. Control layouts are conveniently placed and easy to use. Its puts out excellent sound, and has all the media options you would want to use. And for $400. It's a no-brainer. Just remember to update that firmware first thing before using...

The CDJ 700 is a table top unit from Gemini and it is average at best. The quality of it was not as good as I though it should have been coming from Gemini. I understood that it was priced pretty low but coming from some of the other units that I have used from them in this price range it was a little disappointing.
Using this player was very simple and there was no set up process. The manual may help you understand how to work with the navigation and small amount of features available but for the most part I was able to figure it out on my own so I know anyone else can. The jog wheel on it is 5 inches which is pretty big considering the whole size of this unit is not very big. They do claim that the job wheel has a “vinyl” feel too it which is not true at all. Any one that has used real vinyl will know this right away when they first get their hands on this unit.
The screen that is on it is full color and it is a little bigger than 3 inches making it a good size to see what you need to see and still keep it portable. The contrast on the screen is very good though and it is easy to see in any lighting condition.
You can use this player with a PC and a Mac and not worry about any issues. It supports MIDI and USB devices. It will play CD’s, CD-R’s, and CD’s with MP3 files on it, not CD-RW’s or DVD’s though. The CD-RW’s was a problem for me as a lot of my digital music on CD’s from around 2002 are on CD-RW disk.
The output audio quality was surprisingly good though considering the price and the overall build of this unit. It gets pretty loud and the audio is very clean and precise. I recommend this to users that do not want to spend a lot of money, but still want to get good sound quality because goo sound quality matters just as much as anything else. But if you can afford to spend a little more money I do recommend going with a better unit from Gemini!

I use it for one hour
yes, I used a lot of stuff, all Piopio (except 2000), the Denon DNS-3500, C304 of Stanton, the Axis 9, and the vinyl (Technics.. etc.)
Looks like the CDJ 900, it seems to respond well to CD, I did not need to trimming the bottom tray of light (exactly 3 hours).
The first mix in are .. you can not read out the cd (like Denon protection) .. fangler is not the top .. but hey, I'll have to read the doc (not oh well!) To better ie the pilot). slightly less than Piopio fishing, but by increasing the gain on the table, it never shows up ..
She quickly takes the cd (4-5sec), 1sec to change the title, for a jump of 10 titles, 5sec, time to press the "Next" button, or click 10 + 1 sec, fast enough ..
I have not yet made the maj 4.1 (version 3.2.2 I think)
Good quality / price ratio
For now, yes .. still some testing to do yet ..
See you soon.
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