Thanks for the reply - our CDJ team is taking another look at things to try and sort it out.
Hello!
I have had my CDJ NXS2 Set up since November 2016. I upgraded the firmware in March. After the upgrade every once in awhile I will be playing out and there is a distortion / sounds like a small bit of bit crusher is playing out of on a CDJ. It also occurs in the headphone. I have to restart the CDJ and its gone. This sucks when it happens live (thankfully I had an extra usb being I had to restart the CDJ I was plugged into. It has happened on either CDJ at some time. The problem is very rare but also very frustrating when it happens in a live situation. I play (x a week @ 3 hours each and it has happened about 3-4 times.) Not too often, but once is enough to make you sad. I am using USBS, its at proper gain levels too. Since the firmware upgrade, none of my cue points I set stay either. When I press them it goes to the last track I searched for.
Thanks is advanced,
James B
Post is closed for comments.
Thanks for the reply - our CDJ team is taking another look at things to try and sort it out.
Hi, I’m having the same issue.
Digital “bitcrush like” distortion
Playing mp3 off usb (can’t play WAV files, dunno why)
Using link
2 cdj2000nexus 2s and a djm900
Please help!
Also:master tempo off fixs the problem, and I’m using digital inputs.
Everything is high quality connections
Ver. 1.83
Cdj's were purchased at the beg. of this year
Help w WAV issue as well pls.
-C
Hey guys,
Had this problem recently. Bought the unit in October 2017 and the problem only occurred 2 weeks ago. A bit stressful since the unit is used in an outlet which relies on its music and DJs. Went to a trusted local technician to have it checked and he mentioned that it has something to do with the IC Audio of the unit (?). Maybe this information could be helpful to the in house pioneer technicians.
Thanks
Obi
Our engineers are still investigating.
Hey it happened again last night... I recorded a video here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siVCy6VqsQM&feature=youtu.be
But yeah you can see and hear the distortion turn on and off when I press the Master Tempo button. I was using +/- 10% for the tempo range, and using USB was plugged into a linked CDJ, not the CDJ exhibiting the distortion. The CDJs were connected to the DJM 900 via digital cables. I did not have RCA cables I could test, and I was in a middle of a gig so it wasn't the best time to be messing with it anyway.
Video is unavailable?
Sorry it was set to private... should work now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siVCy6VqsQM
I have a full recording of my mix that night... I can go back and see what song the distortion started occurring on and send over that file if that helps... but I'm not sure if it would be file related, since I couldn't use master tempo for the rest of the night.
Thanks for getting that on video - that will really help.
Man does that sound AWFUL!
I got a short clip of it happening to me. Audio quality is bad so it may be hard to hear but it’s like an odd bitcrush effect when the master tempo is on.
Digital out
cdj2000mk2
djm900mk2
latest update applied
Much harder to hear in your clip, but I think I can pick it out.
Hi,
I am experiencing the same issue at home, but have a bit more info than I have seen in the previous posts...
When using a hired in setup a few weeks ago (2x cdj2000nxs2 and 1x djm900nxs2) we experienced this distortion, although this setup was connected through RCA and not digital, it seemed to be one particular song that triggered it and like previous reports I thought the speakers were blown.
Fast froward 2 weeks and I'm using my home setup, again 2x cdj2000nxs2 and 1x djm900nxs2, but this time connected digitally, was mixing happily for an hour then played the same song that I had played previously on the hired in setup and bam the distortion began, but sounded much worse this time. As reported a power cycle of the cdj cures it.
Now from this I can only deduce it happens when connected both through RCA and digital (digital appears to be worse), I'm guessing it was easier to hear on the hired in setup because it was on a massive soundsystem, so I believe when people are saying it doesn't happen on RCA it is because they are using smaller speakers so less obvious.
Both CDJ's have the latest firmware.
I'm guessing theres still no fix yet? getting nervous now because I need to use them for an event on Friday and cannot have this happening mid show!
The song that triggered it is a AAC audio file version of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4j-N4623yIc.
Please see bellow file info:

Just realised this issue was raised over 2 years ago, there's got to be a fix now!
Hi josh, this only seemed to be happening to me when master tempo was on, and it only happened once, Sod’s law it’s never happened to me again but was this the case for you to?
@Josh > Can you please send me a copy of that particular file? If I go to purchase it, there's no guarantee I'll end up with an exact copy of the file or what may be causing it. Please send it to forums@pioneerdj.com - thanks.
Dear engineers, this is really taking too long.
Would you like to hear ANOTHER sample of the noise? Here you can listen to it together with the thousands of visitors at a Dutch festival.
Can you imagine how ashamed the artist must feel after they play their song over your gear and have it sound like this?
Hello, i have the same problems on nearly every event!
My Setup:
2x Pioneer CDJ2000NXS2
1x Pioneer DJM900NXS2
AudioQuest Digital Coax Cables
Maybe I have some more detailed informations for the engineers.
- It does not matter which source you play (USB, CD, SD-Card).
- It does not matter if the source sticks in the linked player or directly.
- It does not matter which format the track has. aiff, aif, wav, mp3, m4a.
- The distortion disappears when changing to "line in" on the channel (if cinch is connected).
- You can play the same track on the other player (linked / same source) at the same time without distortion.
- after rebooting the CDJ all tracks seems to play correctly again.
- it´s a problem with the Digital Out!!!
I must agree to all previous speakers that this problem has to be cleared up immediately!
@Info > Thanks for the details, I've passed them to our engineers who are still struggling to identify the root cause of this issue as it does not seem to affect every unit, and as you point out - you can play the same song on two different players and only one will exhibit this distortion.
I have the same problem. Distortion,random on songs. Digital output and when you sync the song to the other player it doesn’t have it on that player.
Please Pioneer, fix this in the firmware. It is about 2 years with no solution? Maybe setting back firmware is an option?
Hope to hear from Pioneer soon,
Greetings,
Harm
Hi also curious if anything has been done about this issue. I've had it pop up twice on our NX2's (running 1.83) in a somewhat random sense. Like everyone else, the problem seems to fix itself when the CDJ is turned off then on again. The files we've used are mp3 320's off a usb and hhd. I have a suspicion that it's coming from the temp adjustment because both times I've switched the adjustment percentage during a track and that's when the issue starts. In the most recent issue I was trying to play a track (that I've played on this pair of CDJs multiple times with no issues) but trying to adjust the tempo from 140 to 106. I started ±6 then moved the tempo slider all the way down, then moved it to ±10 and moved the slider down again, then to ±16 doing the same thing, then to WIDE while making the final adjustment on the tempo slider bringing the track to the desired 106 point. After all this the bit crush sounding distortion started.
While this has never happened at a venue it's extremely problematic to happen during a set for us. Depending on the track it can be extremely noticeable and annoying. Considering the only way anyone knows how to fix this is running a power cycle on the CDJ it can be rough dealing with during a live set. Also for our events we record and post sets so it can potential ruin a set if it happens live.
I'm curious if there's been any progress on this issue and/if there's anything you can do to fix or alleviate these issues for us?
It's a bit crazy to see that this issue has been brought up in 2017 and potentially there's no fix yet??? Also for how much we paid for each unit it's beyond frustrating to see issues like this continue to happen when there aren't alternative options for hardware.
Please let me know what can be done here.
@Blake > Given how random this issue is and the fact it can't even be guaranteed to repeat under the same conditions, it's proving difficult to determine the cause in order to try and correct it.
Thanks for the quick response.
For reference I've used a range of CDJs from 2000, 2000 NXS, 900, 900 NXS, xdj 1000, xdj 1000 mk2 and never had this issue or heard of anyone having it. It's only the 2000 nxs 2 where the issue pops up.
Have you tried cycling music for a about 30-40 minutes and making wide adjustments to tempo? Like I mentioned above this seems to happen after large tempo adjustments are made when the CDJ has been in use for a bit.
Believe me, they've tried everything users have said they did to try and get it to happen, on a variety of firmware versions as well to see if any changes affected it... and unfortunately it's not consistent. I hope they're able to figure it out but right now we don't have a timeline for any fixes.
hello, guys! didn't expect myself smth like that would be a reason to write to pio dj forum..a price Pioneer wants for music players w bit of features (causing problems) is really overrated imho, because of nerves lost. if u ask perfect money u should give perfect product for these money.. but its not this case.
i've got 2 cdj-900nxs , and yesterday it was a confusing "surprise" when guest dj ask to change these my players because of the problem discussing here - distorted sound on one of them. we relaunched it catse and connected to another mixer through digital, and hope all was ok later.
have to say that i started my dj-way when there was only cdj-500 on market..
i never experienced such problem before, but we have problem in new cdj's i think. i've connected them through analogue inputs of pio mixer, and through analogue out we heard the same distortion as described here in this topic..
strange thing as for me that this problem didn't solve still. it's a shame on pio that engineering is weak in such units, we'd like to use for playing music for crowds.. thinking of back to vinyl with no such "problems"..
Hey Guys,
I just experienced the same problem as listed above. I'm doing sound as a freelancer engineer in a concert hall in belgium. Two hours ago, one of the CDJ's 2000NXS2 just started distorting at random songs. The distortion sounded very digital and mostly in the higher frequencies. All CDJ's are running on firmware ver 1.85 and were connected through the digital out of the CDJ to the digital in of the DJM900. I changed the CDJ, but the problem occurred again, so we changed the digital input of the DJM because we thought the problem was in the channel of the DJM. After changing it from channel 3 to 4 after 5-10 min it came back...
Sounds to me as a digital connection problem. The 2 CDJ's and the DJM are linked together. The DJ's were using master tempo when the distortion occurred.
I changed the cables of the CDJ's and connected them through the analog outs. Now they are playing steadily for one set and a half. So let's hope rest of the evening goes without failing of CDJ's.
Greets
Yoran,
I still have the issue. There is no fix it seems. Pioneer is obviously over the issue that is not being able to use digital out after upgrading past firmware v1.51.
The way to get through the gig with peace of mind is just switching to RCA from the digital out. It does not happen unless you are using digital out.
Hope this helps!
Hello guys,
Had this problem last week.
2 linked CDJ-2000NXS2 1.85, using digital output and master tempo, reading the same usb stick, and one of then (Player #3) had this distortion on the right channel only at digital output. Analog output was ok. The mixer was a DJM-900NXS2. If I turned OFF master tempo, the distortion disappears. With master tempo ON, distortion on the right channel of digital output ON.
It's an intermittent problem, now the cdj is perfect. All files are mp3 320 kbps.
Hello all,
Unfortunately, I had the same problem last weekend!
Even with an original CD!
Had it first with a digital file from USB, then I thought shit. Pick up an original CD and even then the sound sucked.
As indicated earlier, this is only for the sound on the right. The left is just fine.
Also use Digital output and master tempo in the range of 6%