The best new DJ gear of NAMM 2020

(Image credit: Future)

NAMM 2020: While DJ brands do have a fairly large presence at NAMM – Pioneer DJ in particular always has an impressive, well-attended booth – the show never seems to generate the volume of new gear announcements for DJs that it does in other sectors of the music making world.

That said, you can usually count on there being a small but significant handful of products, and 2020 has been no exception. We hit the floor to find the mixers, controllers and players set to make waves in the booth in 2020, starting with our award winner...

WINNER: Pioneer DJ DJM-V10

An instant head turner as soon as it was announced, Pioneer DJ’s new six-channel mixer is something of a left turn of the brand, seeing it step away from the established design of it NXS range in favour of something that appears to be taking aim at Allen & Heath’s lauded Xone:96.

There’s a ton of connectivity here, with six channels of analogue inputs, plus three send/returns, booth out (with EQ) plus multiple master, headphone and digital output options.

Most interesting are the new EQs and filters though, which deviate from Pioneer DJ’s NXS designs to bring a newly-developer four-band EQ, plus channel compressors and low/high-pass filters. There’s a whole new three-band master isolator too.

Denon DJ SC6000/M players and X1850 mixer

Denon’s Prime DJ system was already impressive, but the company has upped its game again with the release of new flagship players and a mixer.

The SC6000 players sport enlarged, high-quality touch screens, improved jogwheels and onboard storage. The SC6000M adds a motorised, vinyl-inspired platter to the mix too. Meanwhile, the new mixer, the X1850, combines quality faders and EQs with plenty of digital connectivity and flexibility.

The whole range is wi-fi enabled too, meaning DJs can stream tracks directly from Beatport, SoundCloud and Tidal. All three also have a sleek new design and we’re sure that sharp, pro style will look great in the booth.

Rane Seventy

Building on the success of its excellent Seventy-Two mixer, Rane has launched a new two channel battle mixer named Seventy. Once again, this combines onboard effects and EQs with MPC-derived pads for use with Serato DJ Pro.

The highlights here are the new Mag Four faders, which Rane claims are 50% more lightweight. The shuffled interface puts this mixer directly in line with the similarly laid-out DJM-S9 from Pioneer too.

Denon DJ Prime 2 and Prime Go

Not content with releasing its flagship prime devices, NAMM 2020 also saw Denon debut two self-contained DJ rigs, both of which put an emphasis on portability.

The larger of the two, the Prime 2, packs multi-core processing and generous onboard storage into a relatively compact two channel player/mixer, complete with well-sized jog wheels with HD displays. The ultra-portable Prime Go is the most interesting of the pair though; with its rechargeable lithium-ion battery this is a truly go-anywhere DJ setup, allowing users to prep and practice their mixes literally anywhere.

Numark DJ2GO2

With its built in battery, Denon’s Prime Go might win the portability wars, but you’d still be hard pressed to find a more slim and convenient DJ device that Numark’s DJ2GO2. Yet despite its small footprint, there’s a lot of functionality here.

This pocket-sized Serato controller packs two touch-capacitive jog wheels, four performance pads per deck, and a built-in interface with both main and headphone outputs. With its sub-£80 price – including a copy of Serato DJ lite – it’s a solid option for beginners too.

I'm Editor-in-Chief of Music Technology, working with Future Music, Computer Music, Electronic Musician and MusicRadar. I've been messing around with music tech in various forms for over two decades. I've also spent the last 10 years forgetting how to play guitar. Find me in the chillout room at raves complaining that it's past my bedtime.