MEP-7000 User Interview:
Wendell Davis of Full Swing Entertainment Reviews Pioneer’s Flagship Media Player!

I’ve been using Pioneer products from day one. I currently own a pair of CDJ 700s, a pair of CDJ 1000s, two Pioneer DJM 500s, one DJM 3000, I even have an original CDJ 500 and not to mention my new MEP 7000. (I had a pair of CDJ 500 IIs which I sold a few years back) I was drawn to Pioneer products early because they seemed to be the first company that truly had a strong understanding of the modern DJ’s needs and a strong sense of design and usability. I’m most drawn to Pioneer’s product based on the intuitiveness of their equipment. Their product’s designs are well thought out, and built with quality components. Other manufacturers are too focused on throwing features into a machine without the attention to design or quality.

The MEP 7000 is the machine I’ve been waiting on for years, and while there are a plethora of USB control devices out there already, I simply was waiting for Pioneer to make their iteration. As always, my expectations were met from a design perspective and I know the quality and reliability are there. I was looking to downsize my mobile setup from the CDJ-1000 coffin style layout, to something more compact with the versatility to play a wide array of formats.

Absolutely, I currently run Serato on my mobile unit with my CDJ 1000s, and now I really don’t have to. This is the most feature rich, well thought out dual machine to come out in years. The color screen nullifies the need for a laptop, and the fact that so many formats are supported is huge. I wouldn’t expect to see too many of these units in clubs only because club DJs will prefer the large jog shuttle on the CDJ 1000s/800s, and the price tag will scare away many mobiles jocks. But, for those willing to take the plunge, this will be the machine they buy.

I think the video out is a huge feature although since I’m not necessarily a Karaoke jock I won’t get much use out of it. For me the USB/mp3 compatibility and its size are the big selling points to me. Needless to say, the screen is a huge offering for this type of device, something that the competition hasn’t addressed yet either.

I’ve used it for one event thus far, and it performed flawlessly. I’ll use this unit mainly for corporate and wedding work in the future.

I’ll make greatest use out of a pair of external drives that will store all of my music. The beauty is the ability to have DVDs or flash drives as backups, and if I need to play a real CD on the spot, I can do that too. For karaoke jocks, the CG+G feature will make this device a big winner as well. I do also plan on continuing my use of Serato. The biggest win for me on this unit upon my experimenting is that I could run Serato and USB simultaneously from 2 channels on my mixer. This provides me with the ability to use a laptop for its screen size if need be, and music from USB all in the same mix. As a mobile jock, this gives you backups to your backup’s backups!

I think Pioneer has done a great job at developing industry standard products from day one. The CDJ 500 revolutionized the way mobile jocks were able to play and mix their music. While the CDJ 1000 wasn’t the first CD player to add a scratch feature, it was the first to get not only the effect right, but also was designed with the tactile requirements of the club and mobile DJ. The MEP 7000, brings this legacy to the future of mobile disc jockeying.

Kudos to Pioneer for their ability to equally emphasize design, quality and rich feature sets, in lieu of hastily putting out inferior products. For some, the price tag can’t justify the buy, for those of us that get it, Pioneer products are worth the wait, and worth their weight at the same time!