PLX - 500 platter motor

If you're playing or recording from the PLX-500 you're fine, but taking them out or planning on doing a good amount of scratching; I would seriously invest in the PLX-1000

Ok, that really sucks. The main thing is that it says RIGHT IN THE DESCRIPTION of the PLX 500's "use the PLX-500 to mix AND SCRATCH your vinyl records."

On top of that, the company I ordered them from sells them along with road cases. To me that screams "GIG WITH ME, LEARN ON ME, and I'M DURABLE." 

Look, I understand that this is not the flagship PRO model, and if I owned a club or was a heavy gigging dj or promoter, no doubt I would have a pair of 1000's or 1200's on deck.. But can you see how the description and the way it was marketed mislead me to buy something and have nearly a month of my time wasted between shipping back and fourth, and taking one to the repair shop

now I guess I am supposed to just hope and cross my fingers that I can return them? 

I know this isn't anyones fault..I'm just really bummed about the huge waste of time this has been for me. I'll probably end up buying a used pair of technics 1200's since that is what i am most likely to run into when i'm playing out. Still love all of my other pioneer stuff (ddj-sx, and what I have been able to use of my djm-750). They should definitely revise their description so that other people don't run into this in the future.

@Kenny > Hey, sorry to hear about this issue - as @Jay said, the PLX-500 isn't our top-of-the-line turntable, but you certainly should be able to get a decent amount of use and wear-and-tear out of the PLX-500 regardless, and yes, it is a capable deck for turntablists and scratching, the PLX-1000 just does all that but better (more torque, etc).

That said, we apologize for these repeated issues out-of-the-box. I can imagine the possibility of having one dud - manufacturing and Q/A tests can pass at the factory but still turn out to be DOA after shipping. I've certainly not heard of three units having a similar failure and I wonder if perhaps it's something to do with the electrical supply? (This is only speculation, not cause for alarm!)

Your best bet at this point would be to communicate with idjnow who can get in touch with our repair and sales teams to determine the best course of action for any repairs / replacements / refunds you may wish to pursue. idjnow is a great retailer and will certainly work with you to ensure you're happy with your purchase.

I just had the same thing happen to me last night. I was practicing for about 20 minutes and stopped one of my turntables at the cue, and when I pressed the Start button, it was dead. I've only had them about a month, and haven't done a ton of time on them (maybe 30 mins a couple nights a week after I get home from work, and an hour or two on the weekend). This is really disappointing. 

I decided to stick with Pioneer even though I had an issue with my DDJ-SR last year, but I just bought two 500s and a S9 despite it. Now I'm kinda wondering if I made the right decision. 

I hope yours work out. mine haven't. I ordered these from idjnow at the beginning of february. as of now i have one table at the authorized repair shop and one boxed up to ship back...except they won't accept returns now so i have spent nearly 800$ on a pair of tables that aren't worth it. calling pioneer today. I'll post how my call goes. 

the only thing i can think to do is to ask the pioneer tech guy if he could replace the motors in the 500s with the motor that comes in the 1000's (if that is even possible) ...and maybe he will do it under warranty or for cheap(ish)

That would be dope, but I don't know if I'm ready to void the warranty on mine yet. Let me know how that goes.

Kenny do you remember the manufacture date of your 500s? Mine was October of last year, and I'm curious if maybe there's a bad batch or something. Just saw it when I packed mine up for exchange with the retailer.

Ray & Kenny you are both not alone! I too got that bundle deal from IDJNOW that had the plx 500 paired with a pro x case. I maybe have had less than  6-8 hrs total use with it at home & i used it with a thud rumble butter rug slipmat (no platter resistance) ....suddenly the platter stopped working. All LEDs continued working but no rotation on the platter!

Pioneer you guys are great , iv'e used many of your products through the years but what is going on? I found an authorized pioneer service center in virginia beach & will make my warranty claim but will this turn into a plx 500 recall?

Thanks 

@gregagain > Please speak with Kevin @ iDJNow, he'll get you sorted.

I didn't get mine from idjnow, but zzzounds hooked me up with an RMA pretty quick. I've had my replacement a little more than a month now with no problems, but I'm still a little worried. Ironically, my last one was made in Pctobwr, and this one was in September, so maybe there was a bad batch. I think I've probably played with this one more and harder than the previous one. It's a great unit, I just hope it lasts.

On another note, my S9 is amazing and I've never used such a perfect mixer in my life!

@ Pulse thanks for the swift response! I contacted kevin via email & will contact the pioneer service center in my state in the am. I hope this was just a bad batch cause i do like the table.

@ Ray Wilson Weirdddddd i checked the MFD on my unit & it is MFD OCTOBER 2016 too! ?! Im glad your not having any issues , but its scary not knowing if it would crap out again during a show / gig. I know pioneer's quality & quality control is top notch & i'm surprised there is some consistent  problem/ issue with this unit. 

Please keep me up to date on your replacement motor status

Thanks guys

So here is the thing. In the photo I provided from the PIONEER website the description specifically says "use your PLX-500 to MIX AND SCRATCH your vinyl records." now I fully realize that this table is a CONSUMER grade product and I specifically bought it to keep at home and practice my sets. I don't need a gigging pair of tables because every club that I play will have a pair of 1200's or cdj's. The issue here is that they didn't even last 5 hours. 5 HOURS!!!? I had 3 tables all last anywhere between 2 hours and 5 hours of playing with them. The only scratching I did was a baby scratch IN to the mix and some light pressure on the plates when beatmatching. Couple that with the fact that retailers sell them as a set WITH ROADCASES. To me that implies...go ahead and gig with them..what exactly does that imply to you? So anyways. I live in LA and they were shipped from NY. Ordered them, 7 days shipping to me. after 2 days the first table died. contacted them and shipped the first one back for an exchange (7 days). a day or two later the next one dies. I call pioneer and get "take them to a pioneer authorized repair place" I drop that one off at the repair shop and he says he'll call me when its ready (usually about a week). In the mean time IDJNOW receives the first table back and ships the replacement to me (7 days). that one finally shows up. Again I play on it for a couple of hours and AGAIN it dies. Ok..now I'm pissed. I just dropped 850$ on a set of tables that I haven't even been able to use for more than a handful of hours. About this time I call pioneer back and they say "talk to the merchant about a return otherwise you can ship it to us for a repair which will take a minimum of 6 weeks." I call IDJNOW back and I'm just looking to return EVERYTHING these tables are obviously flawed and my money is tied up in them...oh what's that? after all the shipping back and fourth across the country..I have passed IDJNOW's 30 day return period. They tell me to get them fixed and then re-sell them.. WTF. Call the repair guy...part is on back-order..no clue when it will come in. Holy Hell. this is some BULL. Now my options are what? Take the second table to the repair shop? or pay to ship them TO pioneer where it will take 6 weeks minimum? Mind you that either way I still just get the thing repaired back to factory spec...which is total trash in the first place. Come on Pioneer..I have grown to expect better from youguys. Either way.. I'll NEVER buy from IDJNOW again and i'll always try to source gear from anything OTHER than pioneer in the future.  

Pioneer..youguys seriously need to change the description of your product...I was hoping that the plx-500 would be competitive with the Stanton tables of similar price..not the case.

IDJNOW...shipping time should NOT be included in your 30 day return program.

All around. Pathetic. After spending 850$ Now I have 2 tables (one fixed, one at the shop most likely for 2 months until the part comes in...of course) both of which are completely useless to me and I have to wait until the other one comes back before I even THINK about trying to resell them and get a portion of my money back. 

@ kenny barnes...wow! upon further research on this site under "plx" there has been two motor/ rotation failures with the plx 1000s too. This reminds me of when the numark ttx came out. Great turntable conceptually but all the motors failed in those. I luckily have a authorized service center near me & this is still under warranty. It sucks cause in the 8 hrs before my failure i actually grew fond of the deck

@gregagain yeah..in the time since I had to break down and buy a used pair of mk2 1200's which I got off of craigslist for 750 (i know i got lucky). 

My advise to you is to straight up ask for a return/refund for your 500's before it is too late. In talking with the technician he seems to think that with the way they were designed they will just keep breaking over and over. Its fine and dandy to have a repair shop nearby but 2 months of backorder each time the thing breaks is just not acceptable..not to mention it'll cost you hundreds each time once the warranty runs out.

I for see this being exactly like the numark ttx. I'm not even going to touch mine once they are fixed...box 'em up and sell 'em as soon as humanly possible for whatever I can get for them. It's a real shame because I can guarantee that neither IDJNOW or Pioneer is going to do jack for me. Not even a credit towards something different. You can already see how @jay from Pioneer is just going to point me to IDJNOW and then IDJNOW is going to point me back to Pioneer and they'll both be happy with leaving a customer in a feedback loop.

@ Kenny, dayum! I already am looking at some used tech 1200s. The fear cripples me knowing your playing a gig with a Russian roulette deck. I already am passed the 30 day return period with idjnow. It looks like you & i ordered those in feb close to the same time.

If anything i guess the plx will just stay home & be a book shelf end after it gets fixed...thanks for your insight!

I've got our sales team, product development team, and even the guys @ IDJNOW looking into things for us. Nobody's bouncing you around, we want to find answers for you!

Hold tight!

This isn't just an IDJNOW issue. Like I said, I got mine from Zzounds and had a similar issue. I'm definitely interested in the next step with these.

@ Kenny, I wrote IDJnow of my issue & Christine Lampasona from web sales answered my email  the next day. She said the Pioneer Plx 500 motors has been an issue & to make up for the problem she offered either service of the Plx 500 or upgrade to a Plx 1000 for free!

They paid for my return shipping & are sending me out a Plx 1000. If your still able to look past this experience i know IDJnow are making up for this the right way. Look into it

 peace

@ greg That's dope. I'm happy for you and a tad jealous at the same time. lol

@ pulse have you guys identified the issue? is there a plan for a recall or anything?

@gregagain oh man, i'll look into that! Thanks dude! Though i JUST filed a claim with my credit card company lol. That might ruin my chances. Haha just my luck.

@All > There is no recall being issued at this time; to the best of our knowledge this is an isolated issue as there are many PLX-500's sold with very few reports of this nature.

@Ray > If your replacements are working fine, you have nothing to worry about.

@Kenny > Yes, if you've filed a claim with your CC, any additional efforts made by Pioneer DJ or IDJNOW will only confuse the issue further.

Just as an update received my PLX 1000 upgrade from IDJNOW in time for my shows! Iv'e done 4 shows with the PLX 1000 & i feel as confident as i would with any traditional 1200. Thanks to Christine Lampasona from IDJNOW for making things right!

Man, I just had the same issue with my 500. I barely got to use it and it just died on me. Took it to have it serviced so we will see how it goes.

One more here. After three months smooth use my PLX-500 just died. Incredible. Gotta call the shop here in Finland and ask what now.

And another out in Berlin. After about 1 hour (!!) of beatmatching practice on a new PLX-500 that I bought two weeks ago(!!!), the motor is done. This is quite disappointing given Pioneer's marketing the model as performance-ready, like people have already mentioned in this thread. I'm leaning towards returning both of the units I got and finding a better pair of turntables over the likelihood of having to deal with a constant need for repairs. 

Hey guys, sorry to hear about these issues -- could you provide a bit more information for me? I need to know more about what you were doing / how you were using the PLX-500. Posting "it died" doesn't provide our engineers with the detail to understand how the unit was being used and what caused the motor to fail.

Were you just playing music? Scratching? Putting your cat on the platter to make a viral video?

Thanks for taking an interest in this issue. I was using it for scratching and listening/recording.  When it died, it just turned it on. The platter was off, when I hit the start button I got no response.  Hope this helps.

I was playing 45 rpm singles and just pushed start/stop button, when it suddenly died. No scratching here.