My thoughts on the Denon Prime Go+ after a week

I've been using the Prime Go+ for a week, coming from a Traktor S4 MK3 and I figured I'd share my thoughts on it.

My primary goal was to get something super portable that I can take to parties or pack to fly with. Which was my main issue with the Traktor S4 which is bulky, requires mains power to function, and requires a laptop.

Overall I'm super happy with the Prime Go and have started using it as my main device rather than the S4. I know a lot of people complain about the horizontal EQ knobs but it's something I feel you'd get used to within a few minutes. And the compact design was worth moving the EQ for. The small jog wheels I feel are totally fine for bumping the track in to alignment with. You can also get a really good backspin on them with a single finger flick. Something I couldn't do well on the S4 since the jogs are so heavy.

I have a few problems I've run in to though. There is some support for using Pioneer USBs but it has some issues. How it works is that when you plug a Pioneer USB in, you'll get a popup asking you if you want to copy the library. What that does is create an Engine OS database and it copies the pioneer playlists, cue points, and maybe some other stuff. What it doesn't do is use the pioneer track analysis or beat grids. So every time you load a track, it will have to analyse it first.

Which brings up the main issue I have with Engine OS. While the analysis is pretty fast and can be done live on device, the beat grid is wrong so often. Most stuff will get a BPM half of the actual BPM, and for some reason it misses the first few beats regularly so if you rely on the little markers showing the first beat of the bar, it's often wrong. You can fix the BPM halving issue by setting a BPM range in the settings, but if you're just sharing a device and plugged your Pioneer USB in, you're going to have a rough time if you rely on the analysis being correct. This is all stuff that doesn't really affect you much if it's your own device since you can just set the BPM range and fix the detected downbeat.

My only other complaint is the use of a DC barrel jack charger instead of USB-C charging. It's not the end of the world. But it does mean you have to remember to pack this one proprietary charger with you rather than being able to use any random phone or laptop charger.

I'd highly recommend picking one up if you're looking for something super portable. I've also used the Numark version a bit and it works mostly the same but feels a bit less premium and is a fair bit larger. Good if you want a more traditional layout.