Denon ups the stakes in the DJ equipment battle with its new players

Still missing Game Of Thrones? Check out the the world of digital DJ technology for your next fix. Home to a cut-throat battle for supremacy for the past few years, new shots were fired in January with the announcement of Denon’s update to their Prime series of DJ players.

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Pioneer has been dominant for decades thanks to its premium quality mixers, CD players and later USB players and DJ controllers, and Serato and Traktor have battled to reign over DJ software. While the world of controllers for amateur and mobile DJs has seen a straight dog fight between Pioneer, Numark, Native Instruments and Denon, the world of professional touring DJs has proven impenetrably difficult to change. Big DJs prefer Technics turntables and Pioneer CDJs, and mess with their riders and you face the wrath of their agents and tour managers.

Denon has been enviously watching Pioneer’s dominance for decades now, and their 2017 slogan ‘Change Your Rider’ signalled fresh intent on the eve of the Prime series of software and DJ players. In January they staged a fresh assault announcing two new players, a mixer and two new standalone controllers.

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The battle boils down to Denon’s bang-for-buck feature-stacking versus Pioneer’s expensive premium quality. Denon’s new SC6000 and SC6000M DJ players both boast bigger touchscreens and platters than their rival Pioneer devices, and can stream music over WiFi, something Pioneer’s DJ players can’t. Despite this, with DJs being DJs, Pioneer is unlikely to be dethroned any time soon. But technology rarely stands still for long, and Denon may well have to wait for whatever the next new frontier presents before they finally get their opportunity to ride the dragon. Go to www.denondj.com for the latest Prime ecosystem updates

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