Best DJ Gear of 2024: 5 Top DJ Controllers & Mixers of the Year
The best DJ gear of the year from AlphaTheta, Denon DJ, Native Instruments, and more.
What was the best DJ gear of 2024? If you’re thinking it was something with MKII in the name, pat yourself on the back, you’re right.
Best DJ Gear of 2024
Looking back at what was the year of our Lord 2024, there were a few big trends in DJ gear that stand out. The first is can be summed up in the letters M and K and the number 2. This was the year of the big budget sequel, with a number of manufacturers releasing long-awaited follow-ups to their most popular devices. A second trend was rotary mixers. While not new, this year saw rotaries really hit the big time thanks to the release of AlphaTheta’s high-profile euphonia.
What will next year bring? I have a feeling 2025 is going to be marked by new innovations, like ever-lower latency wireless DJ headphones and deeper integration with AI. I also have the feeling that music streamers are going to court DJs more. But that all remains to be seen.
Before that though, let’s look back at the year that was with these picks for the best DJ gear of 2024.
Best DJ Gear of 2024: Native Instruments Traktor Z1 MK2
This year saw the much-anticipated refresh of Native Instruments’ Traktor Z1 controller, the first update in 11 years. Made to take advantage of all that Traktor Pro has to offer (now up to version four), Traktor Z1 MK2 gives NI ecosystem users a new reason to get up in the morning with new features like dedicated stem control and a mixer FX section, with intuitive, one-knob control over nine different effects, including filter, reverb, delay and a gater.
While the look of the four-deck controller hasn’t changed much, the new Z1 MK2 offers three OLED screens for onboard information display pus a very sexy transparent undershell with functional lighting and customizable LED colors.
Traktor Z1 MK2 may not win over any new converts to the NI way of doing things but if you’re already sold on hybrid mixing, this is a welcome refresh of a classic controller.
- NI Traktor Z1 MK2 product page
Best DJ Gear of 2024: Denon DJ Prime Go+
Mobile DJs are a special breed with special needs. I’m not talking about the need to chat up the coat check girl at the wedding hall, I mean in terms of gear. Not housebound yet rarely playing in custom-built DJ environments, the mobile DJ has to adapt to whatever environment his hosts have in mind: garden, school gym, construction site, wherever. That’s why something like the Prime Go+ from Denon DJ is so handy.
The original portable standalone DJ controller, the two-deck Prime Go debuted in 2020 and this year saw the sequel, Prime Go+, finally released. As the name suggests, it’s more of an upgrade than a reinvention and very much a not broke so don’t fix it situation. You still have the two touch-capacitive jog wheels, dual-layer performance pads, high-resolution pitch sliders, three-band EQ, and assignable FX. It also has a seven-inch multi-gesture touch screen with customizable views and an essential Day Mode for outdoor parties.
Where the + part comes in is the improved Wi-Fi for streaming, support for outlets like Tidal and Amazon Music, and extended battery life. There’s also a sexy new color scheme.
Denon DJ keeps going from strength to strength, and Prime Go+ definitely holds its own on a list of the best DJ gear of 2024.
- Denon DJ Prime Go+ product page
Best DJ Gear of 2024: Allen & Heath Xone:92 MK2
DJ gear comes and goes, but every once in a while something comes along that transcends mere ‘gear’ to become a classic. Allen & Heath’s absolute legend of a DJ mixer, Xone:92, is one of them. This year, the company surprised us with Xone:92 MK2, an upgrade that adds a few improvements while keeping what we love intact.
The new six-channel, all-analog Xone:92 MK2 gets new filters with an optimized control curve, with low-pass to high-pass, band-pass, notch filter, and all-pass modes. There’s also enhanced resonance plus silent filter switching for seamless transitions. The crossfader got a looking at too, swapped out for a mini innoFADER Pro, tuned to match the curve of the original 92 fader.
There are a few other improvements as well, including a new three-way, global channel fader curve switch, improved channel 1-4 input level and source-matching, and a tweaked RIAA curve in the phono preamp for better sound quality. There’s also enhanced UV printing for low-light legibility.
- Allen & Heath Xone:92 MK2 product page
Best DJ Gear of 2024: AlphaTheta XDJ-AZ
Twenty twenty-four saw AlphaTheta (aka the company formerly known as Pioneer DJ) bless us with not one, not two, but three excellent DJ controllers: the entry-level DDJ-FLX2, the four-channel DDJ-GRV6 with Groove Circuit technology, and the long-awaited replacement for the XDJ-XZ, the XDJ-AZ. It’s the last one that we consider to be among the best DJ gear of 2024.
This thing just screams professional. With jog wheels and other controls borrowed from the club-standard CDJ-3000 multi player plus a mixer section that references the DJM-A9, with XDJ-AZ in your studio you’ll already know your way around the gear that most clubs have, with no panicky moments during the handover from the previous DJ.
In keeping up with the times, this controller offers built-in Wi-Fi to access your cloud-based rekordbox library with CloudDirectPlay. Additionally, the StreamingDirectPlay feature supports Beatport Streaming. There’s also an Ethernet port should you need it and a 10.1-inch capacitive touchscreen to control everything from.
AlphaTheta’s XDJ-AZ isn’t cheap but if you want a professional, top-of-the-line standalone DJ controller, this is it.
- AlphaTheta XDJ-AZ product page
Best DJ Gear of 2024: AlphaTheta euphonia
As I mentioned in the introduction, this was the year that rotary mixers hit the big time, breaking out of their audiophile DJ niche into mass market acceptance. Case in point is euphonia from AlphaTheta, a rotary with some surprisingly advanced features.
At its heart, euphonia is a four-channel DJ mixer with analog phono and line inputs, a three-channel isolator plus a transformer stage on the output built by Robert Neve Designs and specially designed for mixing records.
However, there’s lot of digital tech inside euphonia too, including an effects section with Delay, Tape Echo, Echo Verb, Reverb, Shimmer, and HPF, plus an Energy Visualizer area with four virtual VU meter needles, a master level meter, and a spectrum analyzer. You can also select digital input or assign channels in rekordbox or Serato DJ Pro.
AlphaTheta euphonia is an exciting addition to the world of rotary mixers. I personally love the combination of analog and digital, which puts it squarely in my list of the best DJ gear of 2024.
- AlphaTheta euphonia product page
More Information
- All about DJ mixers
- All about DJ controllers
- All about DJing
This might also interest you
