Funkiest CD player ever? Technics SL-DZ1200

I used to use these as a professional DJ in Ibiza. I loved it, as it definitely gave more of that vinyl feeling than the Pioneer CDJs that were around at the time. As you mentioned in your video, it was not without its shortcomings though, the dead-zone was definitely an issue for a lot of people, and refers to the ‘wiggle’ between the top ‘vinyl’ platter and the control platter underneath, due to them making the holes that attach to the two silver pins too big. I managed to work around it for the most part, as I’m more of a mix DJ than a scratch DJ, but yeah this would have made the unit near enough impossible to use for scratch guys. The other features on the unit were ahead of their time, but fell short of what was needed in a professional environment. 192Khz MP3s sound awful when played on a big club system, and the fact that you needed proprietary software (which barely worked) to put them onto a SD card was a nightmare. The looping features would have been great if you were able to match the loop to the tempo of the music you were playing, but as it was, you were just stuck with them at their original tempo, and had to use the platter to keep the music in time to the loop, rather than the other way around. Like you say, it was a solid idea, and I think if Technics/Panasonic had worked these issues out for a mk2 version, it would have done really well, but by that time, there were already much better solutions on the market (Timecode vinyl and more integrated laptop DJ hardware). BTW - I’d love to see you do a video on timecode vinyl, and thanks for taking me back down memory lane with this one! 😁❤

I love the fact that Techmoan always throws in his love for 80s and 90s hiphop in his videos.

You might not be an actual DJ, but your "crate" diversity definitely harkins back to old school DJs who prided themselves on having many types of music in the pursuit of having esoteric samples no one else did. Props

You have a better grasp of the technical side of being a DJ than most new DJs. I'd say you should go deeper into DJ tech and let that part of yourself play. A lot of companies are willing to send gear to people to explore and review. DJ Techmoan is born.

There are lots of DJ’s that have kept up with updating these. They’ve gotten them to near modern standards of use, including fixing the looping features and moving the platter controls to a completely different place, making for a bigger control platter and less latency from the wobble of the moving platter over the motor. They’re really great! Glad to see these getting some shine in 23’.

Matt isn't a DJ but you can tell he's having lots of fun with this thing

This thing is absolutely insane! While I can understand why professionals didn’t love it, man I can only imagine the countless hours I would have spent messing around with one of these in the mid 2000s

As a DJ myself, I found it interesting to hear a little bit about the history of dj gear, this might appeal to other DJs as well.

Ah, one of my all-time favorite tracks from *Candy Apple Blue* starting ca. 6:09 - "Mad About You"! A very appropriate choice, in context. And do-able because CAB lets guys like VWestlife and Mat use their songs in videos without hammering them over copyright. Thus, they get the attention of folks like me, who would never discover their music otherwise, and who have consequently *bought* several of their CDs.

I remember seeing a lot of Trance DJ's in videos from the mid to late 2000's at festivals, night clubs, etc. using these. These look so much cooler than what Pioneer was selling at the time and continues to sell today, as far as I know. By the early 2010's, everyone had moved on to the Pioneer CDJ's or smaller MP3 controller decks hooked to a laptop.

You MUST do the Denon DN-S5000. It can PLAY TWO DIFFERENT tracks off the same CD at the SAME TIME through separate outputs. It was my deck of choice!

Absolutely loved this video! Also blew my mind with the Missy Elliot demo, not quite sure why I'd seemingly never realised that the "gibberish" was actually "I put my thing down, flip it and reverse it" in reverse (and not just her singing nonsense), but here we are!

DJ Techmoan in the house! Presenting us all the classic mixes trying not upset the Clip-Share algorithm. HOT STUFF! 🔥🔥🔥

It came out about 10 years too late, IMHO. If Technics could have gotten it to market in the mid 90s, then they might have made an imprint on the DJ world, and had another "Stratocaster" success (IE, the 1200) on their hands. That said, Matt, that deck is incredible!!! Thanks for sharing that with us!

My older brother used these to make his own mixes as a DJ. If you find this interesting check out the DVD mixers for VJ's or the equipment I have, which is the Korg Entrancer and Kaptivator. I think you would be interested in the way that equipment works in syncing the music bpm to video playback. I did a few shows with my brother using my Korg equipment and a projector in the early 2000's when I was in the Army. I've been a big admirer of your content for years BTW, in fact, you inspired one of my videos, sir.

I remember wanting a set of these so badly when I had my recording studio. Had completely forgotten they were ever made until I saw this video today! Thank you for the nostalgia!

This piece of equipment is amazing. I had no idea something like this even existed. Thank you for showcasing this!

This thing is incredible. Mat you did an amazing job using it!

Your matching of the sample and the CD was quite good .especially for someone who isn't into dj'ing.

As someone who just recently got into DJ'ing with a DDJ-FLX4, I am always intrigued by how many of the DJ functions were well established even back in the days and is still very prevalent in today's DJ world.

This thing is AWESOME! I always thought the dots on the parameter of the wheel were aesthetic. Thanks for teaching me that! I'd love to learn more about DJ turn tables!

Mat, I watch these videos because I enjoy your narration and I do enjoy _weird_ tech.
This is the first piece of audio gear you've ever shown that I would really, really want -- and am now considering getting -- just to *play* with. And it even looks cool!

This is really cool. Didn’t know there were CD versions. Amazing tech.

I used to DJ on these but the sound was very digital when slowing down the platter/CD. I sold them to head into Pioneer territory. I saw an update for the firmware for the SL-DZ1200 that eliminated the awful digital artifacts, which made me want these again. They do look stunning.

I remember when these came out. Very cool looking and worked pretty well, except for the limitations. Granted when they came out, most people weren't using flash drives as 2gb was cost prohibitive for most, and CDs were still the main way to buy pre-recorded music. Technics also made these to visually complement the SL-1200 series. The CD players at the time were quite poor in features and aesthetics comparatively. I think the CDJ 200/300s were pretty common place with the CDJ-800 on it's way out, if not owned by the highest of spenders back then.

I purchased one a couple years ago just to be a neat cd player to sort match my normal record turntable. I was pretty amazed what it does. Wish the SD card functions weren’t so limited other wise I’d use it a lot more.

I always wondered if there was something like this. I even dabbled at trying to DJ once and would have loved a machine like this (was during the height of CDs). Thanks Mat!

That's awesome. Who else would love to hear a Techmoan DJ set? He could scratch with all the weird stuff he has.

Very well done. I worked in Music retail for years and sold bunches of these. Your demo and description was excellent. They are very fun machines!

I'm something of an expert in these, having been a DJ in the 2000's. Clubs were pretty quickly swamped with "CDJs" as everyone called them (after the Pioneer version). I used various versions of these for years until Serrato technology superseded them. The DZ1200 never got anywhere near the Pioneers in terms of market saturation - they were seen as much less able to withstand the abuse that shared decks have to endure, although I suspect that was more to do with the aesthetics than actual sturdiness. CDJs were rock-solid though.
The main benefit of the larger platter on the DZ1200s was really only relevant to 'turntablist'-style DJs (scratching, juggling etc) and in those days you wouldn't be allowed near a scratch competition with a CD player, so they just weren't useful.

It was very beautiful and the feeling of mixing with a vinyl turntable was very realistic, but it was insanely expensive and not so fast reading the CD compared to other "club" CD players.

I had this choice!
I was coming off vinyl and needed some CD decks and it was these or the CDJ's - I REALLY wanted these as they matched my 1210's - but unfortunately the "club standard" was and still is with pioneer equipment. And considering you were using them at the club - you really needed the same gear to practice on! I have had a good play with these in the past and they were great fun, but i'm glad i went the way I did!
Great video mat, a one close to my heart!

As always, excellent video, not only it managed to keep me completely interested and amused but it also shed some light on the intricacies of the DJ labor. Really, I can't say enough about how good this channel is.

Yeah, I always found it odd that Technics sat on the sideline for as long as they did with the digital shift in DJing. The reality was, the Pioneer set up became the defacto club setup around the world. That’s how it goes sometimes. Plus, those Pioneer’s are hardy af.

As a former '70s DJ, I never knew these existed. WOW💥 What a great episode - Thanx 👍

12:54 The article mentions the very first thing i noticed: the “laggy platter response” ☹️ The 1200s were renowned for getting to speed nearly instantly once the platter was released, a MUST for accurate scratching and cutting… this seems to have response on par with a mid-budget belt-drive 😳
Edit: Outstanding Golden-age track selection as always, Mat 😎

It is such a shame that Technics stopped this project and didn't evolve this great piece of equipment. It would have been good for competition on the market. Fortunately Denon is doing really good with their new line of media players these days.

After watching this video I was inspired to acquire a pair of more useable Denon DN-S3500. Something I've been wanting for years.
I can confirm they're great and using a pair of CDJ's to be lots of fun.
Also very good for me learning to play synth/piano as I can cue and repeat the sections I wish to play (as well as the DJ-ing fun).

Many of the features on this unit are still on modern DJ players today. I personally moved onto the latest DenonDJ kit which is cutting edge compared to the likes of Pioneer that have been dragging their heels for the last 10 years.

Always loved the look and feel of these, I have had Technics 1210s since the late 90s and these felt very similar. I already had Pioneer CDJ-500S units by the time this came out, so could never justify buying one, they look really slick though.

Perhaps the most fully featured CD player I've ever seen. And just aesthetically I love the idea of the CD player which looks like a record player.

17:04 I'm glad to see that you included the Denon DJ brand of media decks in your video. They had the first motorized stand alone DJ deck about 23 tears ago, about 4 years before the DZ. It was called the DN-S5000. Denon's more recent models, the SC5000M and SC6000M (both with motorized platters), are at a whole new level. Their Denon DJ Prime series of all-in-one controllers are also pretty cool. It's simply amazing what is now available to DJ's around the world.

This is my favorite video by you so far....was an aspiring DJ back in 04! Gonna get me one of this, thanks for sharing!

This video was quite funny. The jokes were spot on. I laughed out loud a couple times. The only thing I missed was an explanation on how you can play your CDs backwards and how can this device imitate vinyl scratching so well on a digital file.

This is so great looking, and I loved watching you play around with it. In 2004 I was in my sophomore year of college and had just gotten very interested in instrumental hip-hop. I wanted to buy some DJ equipment to have fun with, no real plan but it was very exciting. While researching models, I learned about the upcoming "Numark CDX mp3 cd turntable". It is in many ways exactly the same as this Technics model from the video, but with more features and came out a year earlier. What really set it apart, at the time and I think still, is that the platter is a full 12" vinyl record. A real record, bolted into place, for maximum "authentic feel". You could install any record you wanted onto the CDX (it had no way to play the audio from the record, it was just for aesthetics) and I installed two picture disc records onto mine. I loved that the platter had the same torque as a regular turntable, so many of the CDJ type players had tiny platters that didn't even spin under their own power, let alone replicate a full record. It pretty much had all the same features you showed here, with the other biggest difference being it could play an mp3-cd, giving you a large library to work with. I had a lot of fun playing around with them for a few years, but in 2007 or so I had to face the fact that I was never going to be any kind of DJ. So I managed to sell them for basically exactly what I paid for them 3 years prior. It was the right choice, but damn if they weren't fun to play with, and watching you use this Technics model was very nostalgic. Such cool technology!

Great video - always thought you would enjoy this device! A lot of these problems got fixed in firmware updates but by that point it was too late. Technics were already too late to the CDJ party and releasing a device that didn't even perform to the standard of the CDJ1000 they were trying to tempt DJs away from was never going to work.

So weird to see this on Tech Moan this is still cutting-edge DJ tech in my old-ass eyes lol

One of my favourite Techmoan videos so far, what a fascinating device. I never imagined that a CD DJ deck would work so well.

Very interesting! The idea of transitional devices that make it possible to step into new technologies without having to re-learn everything has been around for decades. For example, when Monotype Corporation introduced their Monophoto phototypesetting systems in 1950s/60s, the machines were based on old hot metal typesetting equipment's construction, with the typesetting machine (a.k.a. keyboard) virtually unchanged.

This is the most gorgeous of all the turntables/CDJ//DJ Media players imo. An updated version of this from Technics would be a gamechanger.

I believe there was a software update for these back in the day that resolved most of those issues, yours may have been updated! Also being a Technics I imagine it's sound is first class when just playing a CD! Would love to get one.

I am so impressed with the technology that's gone into this. It's an amazing piece of equipment.

I really like the videos where you show tech that I use in my daily life (cameras, music players, dash cams, things like that) but I also really enjoy seeing things like this. It's something I didn't know existed a few minutes ago, but now I want one for no reason at all.

Thanks for your brilliant presentation. I bought my minty DZ1200 for 25% of current resale price (or 10% of original price), but that was 8 years ago when everyone was on Pioneer devices. I knew the Technics deck was ultra cool and I still hold on to it. Being used beside my SL1200Mk2 and 3s.

Matt, you inspire me as a Hip-Hop artist more than 80% of gear videos I find on youtube. This thing has crazy potential and I almost regret knowing it exists because I have to touch one now

I own one of these and used it in tandem with my SL1200s for sampling and mixing a long time ago. It lives on as It's a really nice piece of kit that sounds better than my old Marantz CD52-SE for playing the limited amount of CDs I bother with these days. I paid 200 euro for mine when it was new and heavily discounted.

I really dig the Candy Apple Blue you threw in there! From someone who is a DJ (and plays synthwave) I really appreciate that.

This is sooo badass!! I started DJing in 2006 and knew stuff like this existed but never would have ever had the money have the money to pay for something like this, but I may have to seek something like this out, if anything to scratch the itch. Great showcase of some awesome equipment! :D

As a younger DJ, these things are wild. I learned to mix on some budget friendly Numark CDJs that cost about $200 or $250 each in 2008 or so. Pretty crazy that the cost came down so quickly with this type of gear.
Also, I do love the chrome look. There are a few older Vestax DJ mixers from the early 2000s that have a similar look. I always figured they would get covered in fingerprints and need constant cleaning!

The platter is going to be a bit more complex than just simply controlling the CD, It's likely not playing from the CD directly but the CD is read into a sizeable buffer which gets topped up/updated from the CD as necessary.

My cousin used to do CD DJs like the Pioneer CDJ because he recorded lots of music on CDs and he’s not a fan of vinyl because of its bulkiness and high costs. Those things were really fun to use at events!

In genres like Deep & Chicago House and Drum´n´Bass, the more technical DJs play double drops, which means cueing and mixing both records in order to match their track structure. When track A enters into the break, track B starts the intro, so both track beats drop at the same time. The technique was hard to pull off on SL-1210 MK2 and required a lot of skill and good ears, not only because both tracks play alongside for minutes, but also because the Technics drive and pitch fader required constant adjustments. These problems never existed with digital turntables. Although I played in a lot of clubs over the years, I never had to use the DZ1200 because the CDJs were pretty much industry standard.

Great review. I love what you do. I hated those things because the sound was full of artifacts ESPECIALLY when scratching. The top of that thing was taped because it wobbled like crazy. I actually had 10 inch vinyl fitted on mine. The sound was the killer for me. It is a beautiful unit but the sound and the platter wobble was a killer.
You are great man.

I love it. Admittedly I'm no dj. But for someone like my father who grew up on vinyl and wants something more modern that reminds him of those style of turntables he would also probably love it. Its high time that dj's stopped hogging the interesting looking tech and they made their way to the home.

As a former Pioneer warrenty repair tech in the early 90s, i did work on the dj model that u have shown. Most repairs were replacing the lazer block because they had been dropped and the lens was no longer at a 90 degree angle to the disc.

I used to enjoy mixing on these, though they weren't always the most reliable of things. The dead zones were something that tended to develop if I remember rightly, they were always great new in my experience but occurred later down the line.

I used to work at a lot of raves all over and as we went from 1210 mk2's the pioneer cdj's quickly asserted themselves as the industry standard. Amongst hundreds of household name dj's accross the genres Techno Legend Dave Clarke was the only one who had these on his rider. Pioneer first to market changed the game. Technics became the Nokia in a world of apple and Samsung in the DJ equipment game.

What a funky machine! Looks fun to play around with, for a while. Also helpful for scanning your CD collection for backwards satanic messages!🤘BTW, nice "shout out" to Facebook! 😅

Even a completely knackered one would make gorgeous wall mounted tech art in a mancave, that's testament to great design. Love the look. If I had one, I'd use a proper SL1200 rubber mat, cut appropriately and adhered to that platter or a plastic lookalike, keep that classic Technics lineage. Brill video. I even commented about this video on the video for Breathe by Blu Cantrell!

Back in 2005 when I was in the market for a CD DJ device to accompany my vinyl turntables, I was amazed when I saw this in the showroom. I wanted one so badly, but the price was insane at the time. I ended up settling for a Pioneer CDJ-200. Seeing this again bought back so many memories of my bedroom DJ'ing years.

I've had one of these for years. It's actually pretty solid and has a lot of features. As others have said, it has some oddities with digital artefacts but I believe they fixed that with a firmware update. It also takes SD cards. It sits next to two SL1200s and a SH-MZ1200, all gathering dust.

I had a pair of these back in the day and you where spot on with the problems with these units. Gutted I got rid of them because many years later someone made a software mod to update them to a higher standard and of course the display you also featured.

As a wannabe-DJ over the years, I’d have loved this! I might even consider picking one up at some point just to scratch the itch. Looks fun, and seems to have a community that still support it too.

It is a beautiful machine. Nice to have that mechanical rotation. Something visible, on a CD player. And I agree, it's a nice looking player with extras features that looks great. I think it's better as a CD player like you mentioned. I wouldn't care about full on DJ use. I might be interested in this...

Been a fan of Aznavour for 40 years so it was a bit random to see his work pop up on one of the best old tech channels on Clip-Share . Instant memories out of nowhere are the best kind, thank you.

This would be super useful for creating samples from CD’s. Thank you for sharing and great music taste

Great video, and a piece of kit I drooled over when it came out, but could never have afforded at the time. So glad to see a review!

My mate had two of them but untold problem's when it came to tight mixing....Pioneer just hit the sweet spot....keep up the good work my man.

Great video Mat! I know I don't need it but GOD do I want one now! lol. I know you've been dealing with some stuff, health wise and such, and I really hope that things are on the up tick for you. I really just wanted to say thank you for years of entertainment & education, the likes of which you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere else. I know about the countless hours you've put into this wonderful library of content to make it the very best it can be. And for all that I just wanted to say, thank you. Take all the time you need between videos... we aren't going anywhere. ♥

I found a pair at a local second hand store in the states, complete with fight cases. Did some research on Facebook groups and turned it into a pair of serato decks by loading the timecode on an SD card. Nice video as always.

You keep finding these amazing and very different devices. Thank you for your hard work, always worth watching.

Techmoan being better at being a DJ than most of the "DJs" i know nowadays lmao

I'm looking forward to buy one of these so I did a bit of research: Many of the issues when the device came out should have been fixed later, but most DJs have already switched to Pioneer (and Denon).
Another thing: The platter shouldn't be useless when switched to CD-Mode, you can use it for quickly adjusting the tempo (pitch bend like the Pioneer CDJ 1000s with a non rotating platter).
However, thank you for creating this very interesting video and keep up the great work!

Loved your DJ skills. Have to say I'm more familiar with the Pioneer line of CD turntables so this was nice to hear a practical usage review of this deck

If I had the money to drop on, I would absolutely buy one _just_ to use as a CD player. (And maybe play around with a CD once and a while.) It has the perfect mix of useful and superfluous features for that and a definite "WOW" factor with just enough retro- and current- ascetics.

Love your videos for several years. A few months ago started to learn about DJing. And voila - you are making these video! Thank you :)

Amazing. You seem to have the knack of making me interested in things I previously had no interest in! Yet another great video.

I was a DJ for 30 years and when these come out I thought it was the coolest thing ever. However, in the DJ community, you wait for feedback and what others use. The technics DZ1200 never became the CDJ standard. Soon I saw everyone and clubs have Pioneer CDJ's so I bought a pair of Pioneers. In the last 5 years I bought me a few of these and fixed them because they are beautiful. I really bought them as repair projects but now I'm stuck with 3 when I only need one.

Awesome stuff!!! These tech electronics I didn't even imagine was possible to exist!

If you want a really impressive cd player check out the denon s-5000. That thing had 2 outputs, you could be playing a track and then play another track off the same cd through the second output, or even take the disk out and put another one in. Dj equipment then was very interesting. Numark (or was it Gemini, I don't remember) did a hybrid cd/vinyl turntable in those days too.

It took three iterations, but Denon took this concept and made it work well back around 2010 with the SC-3900. I still have my pair, and two of them originally sold for the price of one of these Technics.

I remember this well. I was DJing as a hobby at the time. At the end of the vinyl DJing era you could walk in to almost any club in the world and find the same DJ setup; a pair of Technics SL-1200 mk5 turntables and a Pioneer DJM 600 mixer. From memory, Pioneer brought out the CDJ 1000 digital turntable first and it was proving popular so the Technics version was highly anticipated since they had monopolized the vinyl turntable market for decades. DJs were expecting a digital version of the vinyl 1200 but the processing speeds weren't quite there yet and playing them felt like a sloppy imitation of the vinyl version. It was a disaster for Technics, it failed to beat the CDJ 1000s in almost every area. Overnight, Technics lost their turntable crown and crashed out of the market they had dominated since the beginning of hip hop and now Pioneer dominated both the turntable AND mixer markets.

I don't know, with a few more hours of practice you'll be a hip hop DJ god. I loved that Aznavour loop!

Super interested in the mixer this was intended to go with. The Technics sh-mz1200! It seems good, has the same innards as the world championships mixer with extra features :)

What a very interesting piece of retro DJ gear! This Technics device is so aesthetically pleasing. It looks like a lot of fun to tinker around with too. As always, thank you, Mat, for including our music to demonstrate the features of this unit. This CD 💿 player is a real standout, with all of its unique features, for sure. 🍬🍎🟦

I am more used to see the Pioneer CD turntables but this vinyl looking CD turntable from Technics really looks cool, and for a cool piece of Hi-Fi and ofc no longer a professional piece of hardware it's something very interesting to show off and to mess around with, BTW I have a great urge to listen to early 2000's dance hits

DJs did some pretty cool stuff.
You know what? This whole channel is an absolute treasure.

I should have left this comment a while ago. You are wonderful. You take me back to the 1990s. I'm in my mid50s now. I was living in Nottm at the time and we'd spend time, at least once a week in Richer Sounds, window shopping. Sometimes buying. They always seemed to have decent hardware in. Thanks for what you do and, whilst I know you're not necessarily a nostalgia channel, thanks for the nostalgia. Just investigating hardware like you do, however modern, triggers that for me.

Mate had a pair of these and they were EXCEPTIONALLY good fun to play with.
Not the kind of thing you'd use in a live gig, but so much fun for house parties when you have a few friends into that kind fu thing. Like a proper grown-up toy!

Techmoan videos are always very well made and with great quality. You can almost get a feel for the devices he is testing. Love the channel