There is still a lot of stubbornness that is hard to overcome when it comes to buying new DJ gear.  For many of us who have been in the game for more than 10 years, it is hard to separate an asset from a liability, a tool from a toy.  When equipment comes packaged in a shell that doesn’t look like it is made to last, I would be hard pressed to spend more than a certain amount of cash on it, as it might just be “spending what I’m willing to lose”, as the saying goes.  A Vestax controller is pretty pricey, yet it comes from a manufacturer who has made tank-like mixers for more than a decade, so I have no problems about quality from them. The real issue is, “Do I see that amount of money being spent as an investment?” You see, maybe I would consider a controller purchase to be more of a disposable one, rather than a long term functional purpose.  In that case, I’d much rather buy a cheap and less expensive controller than to go the full boat and spent almost a thousand dollars on a system I might never get used to.  We all have our own objectives and reasons. http://www.djbooth.net/index/dj-equipment/entry/video-numark-mixtrack-pro-ii-tutorial