Moving heads are a standard lighting fixture for many mobile DJs. A quick look around all the popular Facebook groups on a Saturday night will show posts littered with pictures of disco equipment, most of them moving heads either on a DJ booth or mounted on totems.

Back in 2019 I reviewed the original Spot 260 from CHAUVET DJ, the successor to their popular Spot 255 moving head. I said it was “spot on” (I’m sure you appreciated the naff joke!) and a “superb moving head,” however I did note that it wasn’t a massive upgrade over the Spot 255.

If you already own a CHAUVET DJ Spot 255, or even a Spot 260, you’re probably intrigued as to what the new Spot 260X brings to the table. Let’s check it out…

CHAUVET DJ recently announced that they’ll be releasing more products equipped with their new lighting control system, ILS. So when I received the Spot 260X, I was surprised to learn that the ILS system doesn’t feature at all. I also scanned the updated quick-start guide and noticed all the usual things you might expect from a moving head upgrade, such as a higher-wattage LED, more prism options and another gobo wheel. But everything looked pretty much the same as the original Spot 260.

So, what’s the ‘X’ all about? I would usually associate the letter X with ‘extra’, but what do you get that’s actually extra?

To find out, I had to dig a little deeper and get a bit technical. I started by asking CHAUVET DJ the same question. They replied saying they’d improved the output by “quite a bit”. OK, nice. But I couldn’t see a change in LED output, which has remained at 75W. The explanation came soon enough when I discovered that there’s a big difference that comes from the colour temperature of the LED.

This is where it gets technical. If you fully understand what colour temperature is then you can skip this part. For everyone else, I’m going to try and keep my explanation as simple as possible.

Not so long ago, the lighting world was dominated by two kinds of light sources: halogen and arc-source lamps. Almost all moving heads were fitted with arc-source, whilst static wash-style lights were fitted with halogen lamps.

Halogen lamps are ‘warm’ with a relatively low colour temperature of around 3200K. Arc-source lamps have always been cooler and range from around 5600K up to 8000K and even beyond. This meant that arc-source lamps were used in moving heads because of their ability to create lots of light in a small space.
These days, with more efficient, high-power modern LEDs, manufacturers can ’cool’ the colour temperature, increasing the brightness. CHAUVET DJ confirmed that the Spot 260X has a new colour temperature of 15000K, a huge increase from the 7500K found on the Spot 260. This means the output of the unit has increased by 45% from 12,030 Lux to a whopping 17,458 Lux, all whilst consuming the same wattage.

Another difference I’d totally missed is that the colour wheel has been re-ordered, allowing the Spot 260X to align with other fixtures in the Intimidator range, so that all the colour wheels are the same. Meaning you can mix and match across the range more easily.

So, whilst the Spot 260X isn’t a massive upgrade to the original Spot 260, it does bring a much-improved output and the handily reordered colour wheel. I wasn’t able to directly compare it with an original Spot 260, but we have CHAUVET DJ’s word regarding the output. And if you own the original versions, you should be able to see the difference by visiting your local retailer and testing out the Spot 260X yourself.

If you don’t own an original Spot 260 but you’re looking to upgrade your lighting, the Spot 260X really is a worthwhile buy. CHAUVET DJ offers up a great set of gobos, all of which can be swapped, eight gorgeous vibrant colours, and a 3-facet prism, with motorised focus, all of which results in stunning effects.

Power comes from a pair of PowerCon in and out with 3-pin DMX for refined control. If DMX isn’t your thing, then CHAUVET DJ has hinted that their next generation of RF remotes will be launching early next year with more control. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. For fans of DMX, the 260X along with the rest of the new Intimidator range, features a new front and down-home position, so when switching between scenes the head will no longer have to whip around (this should make the fixtures easier to program).

It’s also worth mentioning that the Spot 260X features a ‘totem’ mode. This means that, no matter how much they move around, the moving heads will always face forwards, rather than spinning around and pointing back at you whilst you’re mixing out The Vengaboys into Camelphat (or something like that).
As with all CHAUVET DJ products, the build quality is solid and spot on. Nothing creaks or squeaks as it spins around. The high-quality internal motors really do keep everything nice and smooth, so visually these moving heads look incredible, even when moving slowly.

One more thing: CHAUVET DJ sent me a white one! Before you get too excited, sadly it’s not going to be sold in Europe. So for all of you DJs out there with white rigs, lets hope CHAUVET DJ change their mind - hopefully soon.

I’ll end this review with exactly the same words I used for my original Spot 260 review back in 2019, not out of laziness but because it’s absolutely true. The CHAUVET DJ Spot 260X is a superb moving head with a huge feature set – and it is certainly well worth the asking price.