Denon DJ Prime Go Review – Hands-On Deep Dive

Product Featured

Model: Denon DJ Prime Go
Release Price: $999 (contact by livechat, phone or email for discount)
Released: January 2020

This Denon Prime Go review was produced by David Michael, host of The Passionate DJ Podcast.

Introducing the Denon DJ Prime Go: The Most Portable, Battery-Powered, All-in-One DJ System for Playing Any Time, Anywhere (Transcript)

There are different things that DJs value when it comes to DJ controllers and all-in-one systems, but a universally praised trait is convenience. The Prime Go by Denon DJ is the ultimate in convenience. It’s a no-frills standalone two-channel DJ system that runs engine iOS and has all the basics that you need for mixing hot cues, effects, EQs, and filters – even Wi-Fi streaming – in an easy to carry package.

But the real standout feature of the Prime Go is its four-hour battery. This allows you to pop on some headphones and bring it with you on a train, plane, or automobile, or on a family vacation like I did a few months back, where I used this Prime Go to teach my stepdaughter the basics of DJing.

Because of the convenient size and weight, it was really easy to fit in the car, so it was a no-brainer. Today I’m going to share my experience with the Prime Go, talk about all its features, and help you figure out if it’s the right DJ system for you.

The four-hour battery life is what enables its extreme portability, which enables you to do things like take it with you to a hotel room, bedroom, desk, etc. This makes it easy to do track prep, preview tracks, perform test mixes, record sets, and so on.

Because of the general design of the Prime Go, it’s configured to be pick-up-and-go. It’s very “backpackable”, meaning you can just grab it and head wherever you’re going to go. So. it’s a really handy convenient all-in-one DJ system for $1,000.

Convenience is going to be the theme that you hear over and over again in the video above, because that’s really the target for this piece of hardware. The thing that I like about the layout of the Prime Go is that it is compact without being cramped, which is a delicate balance on something this size that you want to be portable. I also like the fact that it’s substantial without being heavy. They have all the dimensions and the weights right.

Denon DJ Prime Go Features and Basics

The layout is nice and compact, without feeling terribly cramped. There are four-beat pads above each deck, rather than eight. With the two channels, there’s not a whole lot to get in your way,  so it’s pretty well spaced out. 

Generally speaking, all the buttons have a “clicky” and obvious response to them, which I feel is the correct move for an extremely portable device like this.

It has a cue button, which is your quantize, which means whether it snaps immediately to your beat grid when you hit one of the hot cues, whether that happens immediately or it snaps to the grid in time, you can enable or disable the crossfader, and you can change the contour if you want to make it a sharp cut, or maybe you want to do a little bit of scratching, it is possible to switch this to a very sharp cut and do a little bit of scratching on it effects enabled and disabled your stop time for your tracks, kind of like you want a turntable brake effect

The other thing you’ll notice is that the jog wheels are pretty small, so this isn’t gonna be ideal for scratching or any kind of heavy juggling work. They do move very smoothly, making it very easy to queue things up and stuff like that.

Generally speaking, the overall theme with the Prime Go is that it is built tough rather than “premium”. It has pretty good build quality, all the knobs feel substantial, and the faders have a little bit of resistance to them. 

When it comes to loading songs, you can come down to the Browse Knob (the “old-fashioned way”) where you physically scroll and use load buttons to load it into either Deck. If we hit the View button, it’ll bring us back to the browser. Being that this is a touch screen, we can also just scroll, tap the track that we want to load, and swipe right. You can use the back and forward physical buttons to explore the folder structure, or of course, you can just do that stuff by touch as well.

It supports Beatport Source, Beatport Link, SoundCloud, TIDAL, and Dropbox. It also supports Ableton Link, which is an easy way to synchronize to other devices that use Ableton Link over a network.

The Competition: Prime Go vs Numark Mixstream Pro

The most obvious thing that you might compare this to would be another Engine OS product, which is the Numark Mixstream Pro. That one comes in at $699 but it takes away the battery.

However, it does add onboard speakers, which is pretty cool. If the battery isn’t important to you, but having onboard monitor speakers sounds appealing, then the Numark does a lot of what the Prime Go does for several hundred cheaper.

Who is the Denon DJ Prime Go for?

That’s kind of an easy one on this one, because it’s kind of for just about anyone.

This is a great option for the DJ who wants a portable setup, whether it’s the one that you’re using all the time, or you want it as a backup or a second type of system. For example, perhaps you have a set of SC5000 or SC6000, and this could act as a secondary sort of backup system. This lets you maintain your normal Denon engine library, but if you just want to play it in a little coffee shop, you can toss it in your backpack and go.

Overall, the Prime Go packs a lot of punch for a thousand dollar whether this acts as your main setup, or as a secondary option. It has everything you need, and that’s about it. Combine that with a perfect form factor: extreme portability with that four-hour battery and you really have an appealing product here.

Conclusions

Prime Go has everything you need, it doesn’t go crazy with the effects or the connectivity or anything like that. It has your basic hot cues, your basic EQ, your standard effects section and filters, and all that stuff and that’s about it.

Plus, you combine that with a perfect foreign factor: extreme portability with that four-hour battery and you really have an appealing product here.

Today’s review and video are presented by David Michael of Passionate DJ. Follow their YouTube channel for more great DJ hardware reviews, tips, inspiration, and more!

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2 Comments
Discussions from the Community.
  1. Grant says:

    Great article!! We own 2 and will be oufitting all our djs with Prime Gos!

  2. Kingsley Cartwright says:

    I’m a new DJ, I picked up the ddj-flx10 but, it’s a little tough to bring with me on family trips. So, I just picked up the Denon Prime Go as a solid second deck! I’m so excited, and less overwhelmed. I love its sleek design and built in monitor so I don’t need my laptop just WiFi, my usb, and I’m good to go!

    Great review! I feel good about my purchase.

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