Paul Cowling

I think the old model 13″ MacBook Pro is a great deal. It doesn’t have the Retina display, but it’s perfect for DJing. It has a 500 GB hard drive and a CD/DVD drive and costs £900 in the UK, $1100 in the US. Even less if you can get an education discount.

I started with the DDJ-SB. It’s a great piece of kit for the price. It looks pretty professional and will suffice for house parties, even small gigs at local bars. However it’s not solidly built – it’s very light and plasticy and feels like a toy compared to the other Pioneer controllers. I certainly would not bring it to a club gig.

I sold mine after a year and upgraded. The guy who bought it loved it and then emailed two months later to say one of the jog wheels had frozen. So maybe you won’t get 4-5 years of use from it. The other con with the SB is it only comes with Serato DJ Intro which doesn’t allow you to record your sets.