See our favorite limited edition products of all time

It’s fair to say that Pioneer DJ’s relationship with limited edition gear began slowly before exploding into life. Back in 2000, roughly 200 “snow white” versions of the EFX-500 were made available, putting a cool new spin on the popular effects unit. But in a time before widespread internet access, it’s safe to assume that most people interested in DJing weren’t aware of their existence.

It would be almost ten years before Pioneer DJ returned to the limited editions game, with the first of its complete setup bundles—two CDJs and a mixer in a reimagined color scheme, housed in an exclusive flight case.

Fast-forward to the present day, though, and these special editions have, as you’ll see below, since become an integral part of the Pioneer DJ story. They have spanned the product range, introduced new styles, and, in a couple of special cases, even included redesigns. The impetus to release the special editions has certainly been fuelled by the interest you’ve shown in them over the years. Bringing a collection in one place therefore felt like a satisfying process of reflection and celebration.

Before we dive into the collection, however, we should quickly define terms. We restricted the list to those products that were somehow billed as limited editions at the time of their release, although what that meant, exactly, differed from product to product.

We also didn’t include any units that were exclusive to a particular territory, for example, the recent DDJ-REV1-N, which was only available in the US and Asia. It’s also worth noting that some products were generally released in multiple colors, and so weren’t strictly considered to be limited editions.

All of which is to say: this isn’t an exact science, more a fun and hopefully interesting look back on an important part of our lineage.

So here is the EFX-500-SW—or more specifically, here is James Zabiela’s EFX-500-SW. He was kind enough to take a photograph because honestly, these things are difficult to track down. We especially like the translucent shell on this one, which gives a view of the unit’s circuitry. The EFX-500 was a popular mainstay of Pioneer DJ’s early range; the snow white version arguably made a favorite just that little bit better.

As a bonus, James shared with us his full collection of EFX-500’s, which includes a blue version that may possibly be the only one in existence…

Towards the end of the lifespan of the CDJ-400 and the DJM-400 (both entry-level units in the late 2000s), Pioneer DJ produced these striking black variations with blue illuminations, the CDJ-400-K LTD and the DJM-400-K LTD, which were only available as a bundle housed in a flight case.

“These bundles were hugely popular and sold out very quickly,” remembers Pioneer DJ’s Jeroen Groenendijk. “People really liked the color variation and the use of the blue illumination.”

Fun fact: The original CDJ-400 was two shades of gray, and came with a small screwdriver to allow users to remove the clear jog-wheel casing and place their own backgrounds in there.

We span quite a few years with this entry. The HDJ-X10 C(top), released in 2019, were the crème de la crème of Pioneer DJ’s headphone range, constructed using durable, high quality materials that included lots of carbon fiber.

Meanwhile, the striking HDJ-1000-G—those are the gold ones—and the black HDJ-1000-K, which featured improved durability on the previous models, were released in 2011 and 2010 respectively. These variations on the long-serving HDJ-1000 were initially released as a limited editions but were eventually put into wider circulation.

Since the release of the CDJ-2000-W LIMITED and the DJM-900NXS-W LIMITED in 2012 (pictured top), white editions have become a mainstay in the Pioneer DJ range. We’ve here included the the 2017-released 2000NXS2-W LIMITED and DJM-900NXS2-W LIMITED, of which there were only 600 bundles ever made, and the XDJ-RX2-W LIMITED (bottom) from 2018, of which 700 units were made, although they were only available in Japan and the US.

The white editions continue to feel the love whenever we feature them.

This is one that really stands out. The CDJ-2000NXS-M LTD, DJM-900NXS-M LIMITED and RMX-1000-M LTD came with a platinum-chrome finish that gave a mirrored effect, which, as you’ll see in the video below, reflected nearby lights and the DJ in action. They also had blue LEDs and a limited edition serial number engraved on a plate.

“Artists really liked this version and quite a few of those sets were sold to artists for their home setup,” said Jeroen Groenendijk. “The high glossy surface did impose a challenge over time as it meant these units needed to be kept clean to retain the shine. Also I was told a story where a DJ had a hard time during his performance as one of the stage lights was blinding him as it got reflected by the mirror-like surface of the M Platinum setup he was working on.”

These are the only units on the list that could claim to have been seen by hundreds of millions of people. That’s because the DJ DJM-S9-N and DJ PLX-1000-N were used by Mark Ronson during 2016’s Super Bowl Halftime Show, which also featured Coldplay, Bruno Mars and Beyoncé. Even among those stars, this turntablist setup stood out, with its striking golden finish.

There were only 500 of the S9-N and 1000 of the PLX-1000-N made available worldwide, and each unit came with its own individual plate with an engraved serial number.

This is one for the old-school turntablists. In 2020, our flagship scratch mixer, the DJM-S11, was given a facelift in homage to the iconic DJM-909, one of our original scratch offerings from back in 2004. The DJM-S11-SE featured the grey stripes on its faceplate that we loved so much from the original.

And finally, we couldn’t celebrate our limited editions without featuring this collaboration with the late, great Virgil Abloh and his fashion label, Off-White.

The incredible transparent versions of the CDJ-2000NXS2 and the DJM-900NXS2, which featured many subtle design tweaks in addition to their clear face plates, were displayed at the MCA in Chicago as part of the Figures of Speech exhibition, exploring Virgil’s many creative achievements.

Virgil also designed variations on the same units in orange/red and white, which were produced in extremely limited quantities, and, like the transparent versions, were never intended for sale.

However, the DDJ-1000-OW, pictured bottom, did reach the market. 100 people around the world came into possession of this piece of DJ technology and design history.

Words: Ryan Keeling