Pioneer HDJ-2000

When Pioneer was ramping up to manufacture the Pioneer HDJ-2000 Professional Headphones the first thing they decided to do was go to their customers and just listen.

What? A huge company held back on talking to the customer about their “latest and greatest” and instead took the time to listen to what they wanted?  Wow, if only your spouse was so thoughtful.

Development of the Pioneer HDJ-2000 evolved from the feedback from top DJ’s around the world. What did they want?  They asked for superior sound that is accurate and clear, comfortable fit that will mitigate the fatigue of long hours, and tough construction to meet the rough demands of travel, touring and studio life.

“Our engineers put great care and thought into every aspect of our product line including the Pioneer-HDJ; from our scratch emulation technology to headphone features, we place a strong emphasis on design, sound quality, and overall performance.” said Matt Dever, vice president of Pioneer’s Professional Sound and Visual Division. “These new headphones are a testament to our dedication to elevating the user and artist experience.”

Did they meet these goals with the Pioneer HDJ-2000?

Product Features of the Pioneer HDJ-2000

Design

Pioneer definitely has put a lot of thought into the looks of the HDJ 2000 with significantly improved design elements over the previous model, the HDJ 1000. One wag compared the change like going from a 20-year-old beater car to a new Jaguar convertible—that is a little bit of a stretch but you’ll agree it is an appealing design.

The Pioneer HDJ-2000 is a high-end premium headphone designed for professional DJ’s and studio musicians and little engineering touches show it. For example, the ear cups swivel all the way to the outside and have a clicking mechanism to secure the cups out of the way to make single-ear or on-shoulder use more fluid. There is a mono/stereo switch on the side of one of the cups. The joints are made of titanium.

The ear cups are covered with plush protein leather. The heat sensitive, low-rebound urethane memory foam inside the cups and the head pad is designed to maintain comfort for a long period of time. No more “ear cup headache” you get after wearing headphones for long sessions. The cups are much bigger than the HDJ 1000.

The 4-foot coiled cord has a removable mini-xlr jack. Many headphones eventually break at the stem. Pioneer resolved this situation by creating the mini-xlr connection that locks the cable in place. Damage the cable? Just replace it and not the whole kit.

The headband contains a lightweight steel magnesium alloy strip inside that is extremely strong. If somebody doesn’t like your choice of songs and starts throwing beer cans, you can bounce them off your headband like Beckham when he played for Manchester United.

Like most Pioneer headphones, they fold up in a tight compact fashion for easy travel. You also get a ¼ inch gold plated, screw on 3P Plug Adapter and a carry pouch.

Sound

With the Pioneer HDJ-2000 you get huge 50mm drivers with a capacity of 3,500M watts with little distortion, high clarity and detailed nuance. But be careful, you can melt your ears running all that power. The frequency range goes from a low of 5Hz up to 30kHz with an impedance of 36O Maximum. The output sound level comes in at 107 dB/m.

The Pioneer 2000’s driver unit features a diaphragm with precision-designed thickness, a voice coil optimized for a good balance of bass and treble, and high-flux magnet. I’ll bet you didn’t know you get high-flux in your life at this price and now you can! The diaphragm itself is made up of thick 35µm Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET). It gives added rigidity inside the cup which provides a lower frequency response and minimizes unwanted resonance.

The circumaural over-the-ear design provides a seal around the ear, cutting down outside noise and increasing sound isolation and making it easy to isolate mixes and edits. The Pioneer HDJ-2000 cuts out so much outside noise you can wear them around the house and not even hear your loved ones yelling at you to take out the trash. The sound frequencies used for high hat and kick have been enhanced to further aid in the precision audio work pros demand.

Reliability

The Pioneer HDJ was developed to have the high durability that withstands demanding conditions and touring. The new I-hinge is made of titanium–the ear cups have a spun finish aluminum ring (designed to also match Pioneer’s CDJ player buttons for a seamless design).

At 1.6 pounds the Pioneer 2000 are some of the lightest cans in this price range. We already mentioned the steel alloy headband. No other similarly priced headphone offers this build quality. The Pioneer HDJ is completely indestructible—I wouldn’t throw them out the window at the car that just cut you off on the way to the gig—but they are close.

One Amazon reviewer commented “…the build quality is sturdy and rugged to last for a long time.” Another said, “I can already tell from the design that these headphones should withstand normal wear and tear.”

What Are People Saying?

Of all the Pioneer headphones at Amazon.com, the HDJ 2000 is getting a superior rating, garnering a whopping 4.8 out of 5 stars at this writing. Here are some highlighted comments from reviewers:

Pros

“Don’t let the price tag scare you. These are the best pair of dj headphones you can get.”

“First off, sound: the detail in all brands of music- electronic especially- is apparent from the start.”

“…as you go through your music collection you will hear content that you didn’t before.”

“…these amazing headphones is they bring color to the music.”

“I thought the headphones we’re a little pricey until I opened the box and actually witnessed the quality.”

“The built is solid and sturdy unlike its plastic predecessor.”

“I have used them for a total of about 20 hours now; very happy with the purchase.”

“The design is awesome, the sound is crystal clear, highly recommended.”

“This is MUSIC the way it is intended to be listened to.”

“I love these headphones. They are build tough and the sound is awesome!”

Cons

“…this is a good headphone, but not great.”

“Low frequencies are too subtle.”

“…sounds muddy to me.”

The best prices on the Pioneer HDJ-2000 are on Amazon and last we check they offer free shipping.

It’s clear Pioneer worked hard on this model. The design is more appealing, the build quality is better and the sound is superior to the previous model, the HDJ 1000.  DJ’s asked for improvements and they got them with the Pioneer HDJ-2000 headphones. One audiophile scribe commented that Pioneer really needed to make these changes because otherwise they would have been left behind by more innovative companies.

Whatever the case, Pioneer delivered the goods. Certainly, this is a premium product and not targeted to entry-level or budget conscious consumers. But for hard-working mobile or club DJ’s and studio animals, the Pioneer HDJ-2000 meets their exacting demands.