It’s a toss-up I guess. For me it would be the Denon and at some point over at the blog Phil has expressed that it’s one of his favorite starter controllers as well.
It also depends on your desire to have (limited functionality) performance pads (the lower ones are just transport buttons on the SB) or not. Personally I think that if you are just starting, there are a lot of things to focus on mastering, using performance pads being at the lower end of the priority list, but that is just my opinion.
I think the difference in price (only have euro prices here) between the SB and the SR is pretty big (350 euro which roughly translates to 470 USD difference. Minus the 130 for the upgrade is still a 340 USD difference. Meaning the SR still comes in at twice the amount).
The same can be said for the MC2000 vs MC6000 argument. 209 euro for the 2000 (is a bit lower than the SB) and 555 euro for the MC6000, in which case you get a 4-channel controller for the same difference in price.
I personally like the feeling of the Denon jogs (I had the MC6000 mkI and the jogs on the MC2000 are the exact same ones).
.
