What Speakers Can You Use For DJing? [2026 Edition]

It’s a question we get asked constantly at Digital DJ Tips: “What speakers can I use for DJing?” Usually it comes from new DJs who’ve just bought their first controller and realised they need something to hear their mixes through – or they’ve plugged in what they’ve got at home and discovered it doesn’t work properly.

The truth is, things have changed. Back in the day, you could plug any old speakers into your turntables and crack on. Hi-fi speakers, PA speakers, whatever you had lying about – it all worked fine. But nowadays, with Bluetooth, multi-room audio, and digital signal processing built into everything, there are far more pitfalls to avoid.

So let’s run through the different types of speakers people use for DJing, which ones work, which ones don’t, and why.

No speakers at all

Here’s something that might surprise you: you don’t actually need speakers to practise DJing. Some DJs – not a huge percentage, but a decent number in absolute terms – DJ entirely in headphones.

The way they do it is using in-ear monitors (the kind of earbuds singers wear on stage, with wires rather than wireless) or even just proper DJ headphones. This blocks out the outside world completely and lets you DJ in total silence – perfect for late-night practice when everyone else is asleep, or on planes, in hotels, anywhere you don’t want to disturb anyone.

Read this next: 3 Ways To DJ In Just Your Headphones

There are two methods. The first is the mono split method, where you use a special setting on your DJ gear to put what the crowd would hear through one ear and what you’re cueing up through the other. The second method uses the controls on your DJ gear to mix between those two signals, so you’re always hearing the music in stereo.

Neither method is ideal for everyone – there’s a learning curve – but it works brilliantly for quiet practice. And you obviously don’t need your own speakers when playing out in clubs either, as they’ve got their own systems, so you may not need speakers at all!

That’s not most DJs though, so let’s move on…

Bluetooth speakers

You know the type – rechargeable, battery-powered, looks like a beer can (or bigger), pairs easily with your phone. Maybe you can link a few together for stereo or more volume. These are brilliant for streaming music from Spotify or playing podcasts. For DJing? Completely useless.

The problem is latency. Bluetooth introduces delay between when you do something on your DJ gear and when you hear it through the speakers – typically around 200+ milliseconds. That might not sound like much, but for DJing? It’s fatal. DJing is like playing an instrument: you need to hear what you’ve just done instantly. Imagine strumming a guitar and hearing it a quarter of a second later. Impossible!

So all those consumer Bluetooth speakers are out – no exception.

 

 

Bluetooth speakers with wired inputs

Some Bluetooth speakers have an auxiliary input – a minijack socket or a pair of RCA sockets (the red and white ones). Surely those would work if you plug a cable in?

Sadly, no. Even with a cable plugged in, these speakers still use digital signal processing to do clever things like multi-room audio or linking multiple speakers together. That processing introduces the same latency problem. Your audio goes in, gets digitally processed, and comes out later than you need it to.

There’s one exception we’ve tested: the Minirig speakers made by a small British company. The people behind them are DJs themselves, so they’ve made sure the line-in has zero latency. There will be other models out there that work, but they’re rare. The chances are very high that if you’ve got a recently made Bluetooth speaker with a line-in socket at home, it won’t work for DJing.

Home cinema systems

These might work, but there’s no guarantee. Home cinema systems need to sync audio with video properly, so they usually have controls to adjust audio delay. Many systems include an HDMI input that’s been optimised for low latency – but that’s not much use when your DJ gear only has analogue outputs.

The older-style inputs on home cinema gear – the ones that match your DJ controller’s outputs – might well suffer from latency. Streaming amplifiers, modern digital hi-fi separates, and home cinema systems that are “digital first” often have this problem.

If you’ve got one, you might as well try it. But don’t be surprised if it doesn’t work properly.

Laptop speakers

Bizarrely, this actually works nowadays. Most DJ software now has a “use laptop speakers” setting that lets you play audio through your laptop’s built-in speakers rather than the outputs on your DJ controller. You can still plug your headphones into the controller and use them normally.

Obviously this isn’t ideal – laptop speakers are tinny and quiet – but it’s fine for practice while you’re waiting for proper speakers to arrive or trying to decide what to buy. And crucially, there’s no latency, because the software is running on the laptop that’s playing the audio.

Gaming speakers and computer speakers

These are a secret weapon for cash-strapped new DJs. You can pick up a beginner set of computer speakers with a subwoofer for £40-50, plug them into your gear, and you’re away. Loud, bassy, in your face. Gamers wouldn’t put up with latency any more than DJs would – timing is everything in competitive gaming – so these speakers are always fine in that respect. Or at least, they always were…

The thing is, nowadays computer speakers tend to use USB cables – digital connections from your computer to the speakers. So if you have some or choose to go down this route, just check they have a line in, and that it is zero or very low latency (it almost certainly will be, but I can’t guarantee that for all models).

Speakers built into DJ gear

Some DJ controllers come with speakers built in. The Numark Mixstream Pro range and the Denon DJ SC Live 4 and 2 units all have built-in speakers with their own volume controls.

They’re not going to blow anyone away, but they’re decent for practice and fine for a very small living room party – two, three, four people. Anything more than that and you’ll need something bigger. But for quiet practice at home, especially if you just want to perch your controller on your lap and have a play, they’re really handy.

Read this next: How To Find Time To Learn DJing (Proven Method For Busy People)

And you’re not locked into using only those speakers – there are separate volume controls for the built-in speakers and any external speakers you plug in, so you can use both.

 

 

Hi-fi speakers

If you’ve been thinking about assembling a proper hi-fi system anyway – good speakers, a decent amplifier, maybe a record deck for your old vinyl – that set-up will work really well with your DJ controller too.

Hi-fi speakers are usually passive, meaning they don’t have amplifiers built in. You’ll need to buy a separate amplifier. If the amplifier you buy is analogue rather than digital, it’s guaranteed to be latency-free and therefore fine for DJing. A lot of hi-fi amplifiers, even cheap ones that sound good, are analogue…but you need to make sure of this.

A pair of passive speakers and an analogue amplifier is a back-to-basics, potentially really nice-sounding way of getting audio from your DJ gear into your room.

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The critical caveat: only use hi-fi speakers at home. Never take them to parties or venues. They’re not physically designed for that – people could accidentally put their drink bottles through the speaker cones, which aren’t protected by proper grilles. And if you push them too hard, which inevitably happens at parties, you’ll blow them: you’ll literally rip the cones and blow the tweeters.

Also, DJ gear can push frequencies through speakers that don’t exist in finished audio tracks. When you hit effects, turn up the bass EQ, or max out the gain, you’re sending massive bursts of energy through those speakers that they’re not designed to handle. Even at home, be careful you’re never driving them into the red.

In short: Treat hi-fi speakers with respect, keep them away from parties, and they can be a really solid home choice.

Near-field DJ/studio monitors

These look like hi-fi speakers, but they’re fundamentally different. They’re sold as DJ monitors, producer monitors, or studio monitors – same size and shape as hi-fi speakers, but designed for a completely different purpose.

Near-field monitors have amplifiers built in. At the entry level, you might get one speaker with an amplifier that powers a second speaker. But once you move past the very cheapest models, each speaker has its own power supply, its own built-in amplifier, and its own audio input. There’s no connection between them – you run separate cables from your DJ gear’s left and right outputs to each speaker individually.

These are designed for use in studios, usually home studios at the price bracket most of us can afford. They start at around £150 each (so £300 a pair) and go up into four or five figures, but the concept is the same throughout.

The key thing about near-field monitors is that they have a flat, truthful frequency response. They’re not trying to make your music sound better than it is, like consumer speakers often do. They’re telling you the truth about your audio, which makes them a good choice if you’re planning to start producing, making re-edits, or creating bootlegs down the line, because the same speakers work for both DJing and production.

Like hi-fi speakers, they’re not designed for use at parties. They’re studio speakers – they’re meant to be used in controlled environments where you’re practising, not taken out to venues. The exception is that some DJs take one (occasionally two) to use as a booth monitor when playing in bars or lounges that don’t have speakers positioned near the DJ.

Read this next: The Ultimate Checklist Of Things To Take To Your DJ Gigs

Most people use two near-field monitors. Some add a subwoofer as well – a third speaker that sits on the floor and gives you bass. It’s totally optional, but if you’re lucky enough to have no neighbours nearby or no one else in the house to annoy, it can be a fun addition. You can add a subwoofer to hi-fi speakers as well.

Near-field monitors are the most obvious choice if you’re getting serious about DJing and want to invest in something special for practising at home. Some of the entry-level ones make life easier by including Bluetooth so you can stream music from your phone, or extra inputs so you’re not constantly unplugging your DJ gear when you just want to play music from your TV – all worth considering when making a specialist purchase for DJing.

PA speakers

PA speakers are public address speakers – designed from the ground up to be used away from home. They’re big, ugly, rugged things that are built to be thrown around. They’ve got grilles you could kick as hard as you like without breaking. They’re designed to go loud and not break.

If you live with anyone who’s not a DJ and you stick a pair of these in your living room, they’ll probably tell you to get them out immediately. They look industrial, not domestic.

PA speakers are designed to sound best at a distance. They often sound quite harsh when you’re listening close up, which makes having one either side of you in a small practice space at home far from ideal. They’re built to fill whole rooms with sound.

Mobile DJs often use PA speakers on tripod stands, or on poles that sit in subwoofers. A typical mobile set-up might be two subwoofers on the floor with a PA speaker on a pole above each one, giving you a four-speaker set-up that sounds brilliant in public.

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Nowadays you can get PA speakers with rechargeable batteries, which is handy if you’re playing outdoors or don’t have access to mains power. Some even come with wireless systems – not Bluetooth (which we’ve established doesn’t work), but other technologies like SKAA, or SonicLink by AlphaTheta. These have minimal latency and are just about usable for DJing, though I’ve always noticed a very slight delay when testing them.

There’s one type of PA speaker that actually sounds good close up: column array speakers. These look like a box on the floor with a pole coming out of it, and the pole has lots of little speakers in it. Bose’s L1 was an early example, but lots of companies make them now.

Column array speakers sound nice close up as well as at a distance, so if you’re looking for an all-round speaker set-up that works at home for practice and at small venues, they’re worth considering. Some of the smaller ones are battery-powered too, making them quite versatile.

 

 

Final Tips

There is no perfect DJ speaker set-up. The occasions when you want to DJ are too varied – practice versus playing out, small venues versus large ones, home use versus public use. Speakers that work in your living room will only ever be loud enough for 20-30 people, not 200-300, even if they’re tiny PA speakers.

Most DJs who get serious end up with at least two set-ups: one that works well at home or in the studio, and another to take out if they do the kind of gigs where they’re expected to bring their own gear.

Hiring speakers is often the smart move if you only play out a few times a year. Your local DJ hire shop will probably deliver them, set them up, and collect them afterwards, saving you all the hassle (and you’ll get something appropriate for that occasional public gig).

Avoiding latency is non-negotiable. That should be clear by now, but positioning is everything too. Your speakers need to be very close to your head, because the whole point of having speakers is to hear properly what you’re doing and pair that sound with your headphones for beat-mixing.

The traditional way to DJ is to adjust the volume on your monitor speakers and your headphones so you get a soundscape around you that gives you a good feel for what the audience would hear and what you’re cueing up. When you mix the two together, it all blends beautifully. For that to work, your speakers have to be near you.

Read this next: 5 Ways To Make Your DJ Studio Sound Great

So If you’ve already got speakers at home but can’t move them near your DJ gear, and you can’t move your DJ gear near them, that’s a problem. You might need to get something specifically for DJing.

The good news is there’s no need to rush out and buy something special at first. Ask around, look in your attic or under the stairs. You almost certainly have something you can use to get started. Old hi-fi speakers, old computer gaming speakers, maybe an older Bluetooth speaker with a line-in that doesn’t have all the modern multi-room nonsense.

If you are going to buy something, consider DJ gear with built-in speakers for practice, especially if you know this is a casual thing for you. Very convenient.

And if it’s time to spend proper money, you need to decide between something multi-purpose (like hi-fi speakers) or going all-in with proper near-field DJ or producer monitors. Listen to speakers before you buy them if you can, or buy from somewhere with a good returns policy.

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One last thing: people sometimes ask what’s the difference between a DJ monitor and a producer monitor. Honestly? Branding. They’re usually interchangeable, made by the same companies, around the same price, just marketed slightly differently. Don’t worry about it too much.