ALPHATHETA XDJ-AZ MRSP: $3495.00 <a href="https://ALPHATHETA.COM" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ALPHATHETA.COM</a>
Back when AlphaTheta&rsquo;s XDJ-XZ gained mainstream publicity, there were immediate cries of, &ldquo;What, not four-channel standalone!&rdquo; and other varying whelps of snobbery. Well, calm down keyboard warriors, and listen up mobile DJs who mix on four decks. Because with the company&rsquo;s latest release, your prayers have been answered&hellip;
Introducing the XDJ-AZ &ndash; a hugely anticipated all-in-one unit, delivering straight-up, four-deck mixing from a single USB pen-drive, without needing your laptop on-hand to rescue you.
Following the fan favourite XDJ-XZ with four-deck standalone was always going to make a big splash. Along with the recent-ish branding change from Pioneer DJ, a glance at the XDJ-XZ shows why this new unit hasn&rsquo;t followed the naming lineage of its predecessor. So, let&rsquo;s take a closer look and see if I can find an excuse to buy one &ndash; the ante is upped with me being the proud owner of an XDJ-XZ!
Four decks, no laptop necessary
The XDJ-AZ was one of Pioneer DJ&rsquo;s worst-kept secrets for a while. After the leaks from the usual forums, overusing the wink emoji whenever controller chatter appeared, I was given the opportunity to spend a few days with the XDJ-AZ.
Like I said, I picked up the XZ when it was first released, as I thought it would fill the perfect gap of having a CDJ-DJM-type feel in a (relatively) economic package. It was something my friends or guest DJs at events could &lsquo;jump on&rsquo; with a USB stick and play their set, leaving me to use Serato or rekordbox on my laptop. It was a bit of a bummer not being able to play on four decks for USB.
Instead, I would have to move the laptop channels about to accommodate the USB playback, which is a genuine faff. I think other people had similar frustrations to me, because AlphaTheta have taken it on board and ensured the new AZ can be used without a laptop in sight. Finally.
So, is it worth the upgrade? I&rsquo;ll keep it simple: if you&rsquo;re craving true four-deck mixing without the tether of the laptop, the XDJ-AZ is a dream. Not only is it intuitive to use (the Pioneer DJ ecosystem deserves an award for this, because the familiarity you get across products really is a joy), but it&rsquo;s also set to become the gold standard for all-in-ones, especially if you use rekordbox DJ, prepare USBs, or use a separates system like CDJs/DJMs in pubs or clubs.
However, if you aren&rsquo;t planning to mix on more than two decks and you don&rsquo;t want to go the full Andy C/Carl Cox/Larry Levan/DJ EZ, you may want to stick with a different model like an XDJ-RX3, because this is pricey if you don&rsquo;t have a use for more than two decks.
That being said, the extra channels do make layering samples, stems, vocals and the like a more easily accessible reality. Even previewing tracks, using channels in a more utilitarian mode or a set piece, does become that little bit easier with more than two decks.
What the XDJ-AZ gets right
True. Four. Deck. Mixing. I can&rsquo;t reiterate this enough. Four CDJs and an A9 invoice will be bigger than a Labour government inheritance tax at this rate. An XDJ-AZ (albeit one of the most expensive controllers on the market) still represents great value for money for the four-deck mixers out there.
On the AZ, this is set up in a layer-swap format, which is similar to how controllers such as the DDJ-FLX10 work. Each side lets you swap between channels 1/3 or 2/4, with layers easily toggled. The beauty of four-deck mixing is having options: maybe you&rsquo;re not using all four channels every single set, but when you need that third or fourth deck, it&rsquo;s available to you. For DJs who love blending acapellas, layering loops, or dropping in effects on the fly, four decks unlock a lot of creative freedom.
Familiar layout, CDJ feel
As I mentioned earlier, one thing I&rsquo;ve always appreciated about the entire XDJ (and even historical CDJ) lineup is the near-seamless transition to a club-standard setup.
The AZ doubles down on this, with most of the key functions (looping, beat jumps, key sync) matching the CDJ-3000 layout. This makes it easier to move from bedroom or mobile setups to a CDJ setup without re-learning the basics.
The deck channels are labeled 3, 1, 2, 4 &ndash; an unusual order, but smart for keeping primary decks front-and-centre. It&rsquo;s little details like this that help replicate the club experience in your home studio or portable setup.
Full-size jog wheels and master EQ
The AZ keeps some of the best-loved features from the XZ, including full-size jog wheels with tension adjustment, so you can fine-tune the jogs for scratching or longer transitions. These jogs also come with full-colour displays, similar to the CDJ- 3000s, giving you key track info without taking your eyes off the unit or giving yourself &lsquo;laptop dork face&rsquo;.
Like the XZ, the AZ features a Master Out EQ, letting you adjust the overall sound. Whether you&rsquo;re in a tricky sound environment with a sound limiter, or just adding some additional bass flavour to your set, having that main EQ control is a subtle but useful feature.
My favourite shortcut feature must be the settings button; one press gives you all the controller&rsquo;s settings and adjustable parameters in one screen &ndash; a great little touch.
It also frees up the XDJ-AZ&rsquo;s real estate to keep it looking clean, but having a physical dedicated button means you&rsquo;re only a button away.
One feature in the settings screen caused my inner mobile DJ to make an audible gasp: Bluetooth! Yes, decks 3 and 4 have selectable Bluetooth, so no more hunting down iPhone adapters for background playlists. Although, I&rsquo;d be wary about making guests at parties aware of your Bluetooth abilities, for obvious reasons.
The luxuries
Would this be a near-$3500 controller if there wasn&rsquo;t some fancy stuff going on? If you&rsquo;ve visited Pioneer DJ or AlphaTheta&rsquo;s website recently, you&rsquo;ve no doubt been hit with ads for cloud-based music services, or Cloud Direct Play, as they call it. This service effectively puts your entire music collection in the cloud, enabling remote log-in and downloading to your device. It sounds great in principle, but relying on a venue&rsquo;s Wi- Fi for my main music source makes me feel nervous.
I would say the integrated features of Beatport and Beatsource streaming are a much more useful feature.
Obtaining an obscure request at an open-format gig and adding an &lsquo;ad-hoc&rsquo; request without a laptop, I can certainly see myself using Beatsource and chucking a tune onto that third or fourth deck so it&rsquo;s ready to go!
The other feature we have all started to see hints of is SonicLink. This is AlphaTheta&rsquo;s new proprietary wireless protocol. The Wave Eight full wireless speakers saw the first proper use of this technology, but the XDJ-AZ adds it in the form of headphone integration with AlphaTheta's HDJ-F10s (will be reviewed the next issue of Pro Mobile.)
The SonicLink is deployed with great intention &ndash; 15ms latency means you can&rsquo;t even hear a delay (so not at all like Bluetooth). But having another battery-powered device seems a bit unnecessary because a) I&rsquo;m always using headphones within arm&rsquo;s reach of the controller, b) knowing me I&rsquo;ll put them down and forget where I put them, and c) I will forget to charge, then end up using the cable anyway. Personally, I would have preferred built-in SonicLink output, so I could run a fill speaker down the room for speeches, with no cables. Now that would have been really cool.
The big screen is certainly&hellip;big enough! Taking function and design cues from the CDJ-3000 and the XDJ-RX3 &ndash; which both have large, glossy, colourful screens &ndash; the AZ is no different.
I would say I wish I had a few different options for screen layout/view &ndash; similar to how Serato DJ and rekordbox have different layouts for different uses, I think it would be a simple fix. The screen is big and bold, but gets cluttered quickly, and at the moment the view is aimed at two-deck mixing rather than four-deck, which is a mild frustration when getting to grips with this new level of standalone freedom. You do get miniature views of the other two decks, but I hope a future update to the software puts four scrolling waveforms on the screen.
Padding out the controller
A couple of DJ friends of mine got into a very heated, very nerdy debate about performance pads on controllers. They argue that the pads only exist because they&rsquo;ve been carried over from past controllers (especially Serato), where they are just a bank of eight &lsquo;plonked&rsquo; under the jog wheels.
While I do agree they are probably an element that has remained unchanged for years, I feel like we have enough boffins designing these controllers to make them more useful or at least aesthetically pleasing?
Or perhaps they should have placed the buttons above the jog wheels like the CDJ-3000, so the workflow made more sense for those looking to progress into a club DJ booth?
Is it worth the price?
The XDJ-AZ comes in at the $3500 mark, which feels a bit strong. But not when you compare it to buying, say, four CDJ-3000s and a DJM-A9 at close to $14,000. (Not sure about you, but I&rsquo;d rather an AZ and a tidy mk2 VW Golf to go with it!)
Dreaming aside, we need to talk about the Starship Enterprise-shaped elephant in the room: The Opus Quad. This is also a four-channel standalone, but it&rsquo;s aimed more at the discerning home user rather than mission control for a wedding or bar. The AZ certainly feels more &lsquo;pro&rsquo; in my opinion, with a more industrial feel. Also, the Opus Quad doesn&rsquo;t really benefit from the influence of the CDJ-3000-A9 either &ndash; something we do see in the looks, feel and performance of the AZ. Meanwhile, the AZ build feels like an XDJ-XZ; rugged enough to take on the road but still manageable by one person.
Am I buying one?
It&rsquo;s worth noting the landscape of standalone units is pretty packed. Just from Pioneer DJ and AlphaTheta&rsquo;s stable alone, we have a wide range of controllers to choose from. Whilst I do believe the company is taking a &lsquo;car for every driver&rsquo; approach, I also think AlphaTheta has taken time to appeal to the people who need the XDJ-AZ&rsquo;s features. True four-deck control, multi-software ability, cloud features, streaming &ndash; it&rsquo;s all there. This combination of features will certainly entice more DJs to the all-in-one side of things, because what&rsquo;s the point in spending more than double for only a little bit more?
Whether you&rsquo;re an open-format DJ or someone who loves complex layering, the AZ is built to handle it, bringing four-deck mixing to a practical standalone format that&rsquo;s perfect for a broad range of DJs. Sure, it has a few quirks, but the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks, and this release could very well be the new standard in standalone setups. It also ticks the box perfectly for anyone looking to move to a more club-formatted controller without spending silly money, as well as for those using an XZ but wishing they had more visual feedback.
So, the final question: is Marcus buying one? The answer: what do you think?!
<h5 class="p2">REVIEW BY MARCUS BOND FROM ISSUE i128 <a href="https://MAXMARCUSEVENTS.CO.UK" target="_blank" rel="noopener">MAXMARCUSEVENTS.CO.UK</a></h5>

REVIEWED: Alphatheta XDJ-AZ