Pioneer has been one of the top makers of DJ gear for decades, releasing the world's first top-loading CD deck for pro use way back in 1994. The DJ brand broke away in 2014, and has now launched the first products under the AlphaTheta name.
Back in 2019, Pioneer DJ Corp announced a name change to the AlphaTheta Corporation to "better reflect our values and vision," though the brand names would be unaffected. That thinking now seems to have been revised, at least for the Pioneer DJ brand, starting with a name change at the customer service level earlier this week and now the release of the first AlphaTheta-branded DJ products.
"Since the introduction of the CDJ-500 in 1994, we’ve been making products with cutting-edge technology to help DJs excel," said the company in a press statement. "And as we look to the future, the AlphaTheta brand is committed to growing with the community of people who are connected by a passion for music and its culture."
Wearing a funky shade of indigo blue reportedly inspired by denim jeans, the Omnis-Duo all-in-one portable DJ station is described as light and compact enough to squeeze into a "good-sized backpack." It sports a dual-deck and mixer interface with a mid-top touchscreen offering light or dark modes. And it comes with eight types of Beat FX, six types of Sound Color FX, and 8 Hot Cues per deck, plus dedicated jump and loop buttons for beats.
Reported capable of running for up to 5 hours on Li-ion battery power, the party can be taken outdoors without having to worry about snaking cables from a wall outlet. If that's not enough, the unit can be hooked up to a compatible power bank over USB-C for even more beats at the beach.
Yes, you'll need speakers to output the sounds, but AlphaTheta has thought of that too with the simultaneous launch of the Wave-Eight battery-powered speaker – which wirelessly connects to the Omnis-Due via "ultra-low-latency" SonicLink tech. Or if you're at an indoor gig, you can plug in mains-powered monitors via XLR or RCA terminals.
Source music can be loaded up from a PC/Mac over USB-C or 802.11ac Wi-Fi, as well as from USB-A drives and SD cards, and the DJ station comes with two microphone inputs for adding choppy vocal prompts.
As the first such system to include Bluetooth audio output, DJs have the option to connect the setup to any BT-enabled speakers, headphones or even the entertainment system in a car – "there’s no limit to the places you can hold a party." Daring tunesmiths can also opt to invite audience members to feed their own music into the set list from a smartphone thanks to "the industry-first Bluetooth Playback function," with volume and EQ tweaks available, along with effects, tempo changes, scratch and so on.
The Omnis-Duo carries a suggested retail price of US$1,499, while each Wave-Eight speaker comes in at $899. The video below has more.
Product pages: Omnis-Duo, Wave-Eight
