Reply to Favourite DJ Controller... Under $500, and Above.

New to the community s, but I've been DJing for about 15 years. Starting (age 15) in the mid 90's using Virtual Turntables (Carrot Innovations). Graduating high school I picked up my first set of CDJ's. Ditched them quickly for Vinyl. 4-5 years later moved back to CDJ's. And then a year ago I decided to take a break, and sold my main DJ setup (at that time CDJ 1000's w/ DJM 500). I kept my Pacemaker, which I love dearly. It's great for when sitting on the couch or when on travels (had it help melt many long flights away). But the Pacemaker isn't something I'd want to play out in the clubs with (if/when I get the chance to again)... or even for recording regular DJ sets, I'd prefer something with more control.

Now the question... I want to get a nice controller for Traktor. I'm not sure if I'd be satisfied with getting something sub-500 like a Numark Total Control, or if I should save up a bit more for something fully featured like the Traktor S4 . I'd like ability for 4 deck control (not required, but nice to future proof for when I get confident with Traktor and want to work with more), also easy access to the auto loop (with ability to resize on the fly), and full access to two FX banks. Internal sound card isn't necessary, I have a Fast Track Pro (4 channels) which would work fine.

So... what is the community 's favourite cheap (sub-500) and favourite fully featured DJ controllers for Traktor? Even if they're not natively supported, and there is still good .tsi's here on the community .

My list so far...
-(sub-500) Numark Total Control: it's got enough buttons/knobs/etc to be able to fully control 2 decks, and 2 full fx machines... but there is no internal sound card.
-(premium) Vestax TR-1: on the low cost of 'premium'. excellent compact layout for full control of 2 decks, 2 full fx. but the price is high (~630) for something w/o an internal sound card, and limited 4 deck control (mixer only actively controls two).
-(premium) Traktor S4: built by traktor, for traktor. this is the full premium controller. but is it worth $1000?

Thanks for any input in helping my decision.

Phil