Controller Set Up or Mixer?

So I've been doing internet radio on and off for a few years and have a decent collection of music etc, and looking to get back into however I've generally used a system I know to me pretty bad in running through VirtualDJ with no pre-listening and queing up the tracks, I've noticed the detriment between switching tracks, dead space etc and generally just would prefer to move to something slightly better. My question here is for internet radio (live or recorded) which of the following should I use? I've already got VDJ and RadioBoss and don't particularly fancy forking out for more software, so am more bothered about hardware, it seems I've got two options?

A DJ Controller running into VirtualDJ and play out through that - presumably using an external soundcard to split the sound and be able to pre-listen?

Or a Broadcast Mixer running through RadioBoss - with the mic in one channel and the music in one or two channels and a speaker output through the mixer? (I'm not exactly sure how you'd set the mixer up for pre-listening with this sort of rig). I've never used a Broadcast Mixer before, and whilst it seems to be the recommendation for this, the diagrams and youtube videos I've come across have just left me with more questions than answers. analogue/digital?

Does anyone know any good guides for a relative peabrain to set up the latter set-up if that's the best option? What hardware do folk here use?

Stick to VDJ and use a mixer with a on board sound card. That way you can pre listen / mix using headphones without broadcasting to your main stream output within the settings and still show track metadata.
I wouldn't personally purchase a Broadcast Mixer because you might have to use additional software (BUTT)to be able to broadcast and also wont show metadata unless you use a script.
Keep what ya got and save the money