Review of the Allen&Heath Xone:DB2 mixer

Allen&Heath mixers are known to everyone as a standard in the club industry. The Allen&Heath Xone:DB2 is the junior model of the digital 4-channel Xone:DB4 mixer, from which it inherited many functional capabilities and design features. The Allen&Heath Xone:DB2 is a fully digital DJ mixer with a built-in effects processor, yet it has a lower price compared to the DB4.

Before us is the hero of the review, the Allen&Heath Xone:DB2 -

And this is what the "daddy", the Xone:DB4, looks like -

The Xone:DB2 has 4 input channels, each with an input matrix that lets you assign to it one of 4 analogue, 4 USB and 2 digital sources. This DJ mixer uses the same 3-mode equaliser as the DB4, which can work either as a standard asymmetric EQ (+6/-25 dB), or as a full-kill equaliser (+6 dB/OFF, 24 dB/octave), or as an HF/LF cut-off filter. For each channel there is a switch to route the signal to the main mix or to one of the two effects processors.

The Allen&Heath Xone:DB2 also has one microphone/line input with a 2-band equaliser, a gain control, a cue button and a level control; its signal can be routed either to the effects processor or to the main mix. On the left side of the mixer's front panel, below the microphone input, is a section with an output and controls for monitor headphones, while on the right is the master section with signal level controls for the main and monitor outputs and control sections for the effects processors.

The Xone:DB2 is equipped with studio-quality effects processors, each of which lets you use five types of effects built on the basis of the built-in effects of the Allen&Heath iLive digital mixing system: delays, reverbs, modulators, resonators and distortion effects; for each of the five types there is a library of presets. At the outputs of both effects-processor control sections there is an expression control and a control for adjusting the ratio of clean to processed sound (wet/dry); further control of the effects is carried out via the encoders below the OLED display.

The DB2's OLED display reads well even in bright light; it shows the selected effect and tempo, as well as a graphical menu. On the new mixer you can individually configure parameters such as the operating mode of the channel meters, the BPM range, the channel assignment of the USB interface, and the display brightness.

The built-in multichannel sound card makes it possible to play back and record tracks in computer software. Using the MIDI shift button, the mixer switches into MIDI controller mode, in which all the controls, except the signal level controls of the microphone input and the headphones, are used to send MIDI messages.

Like the DB4, the DB2 model is equipped with the X:LINK interface, which can be used to connect the Xone:K2 controller -

The Allen&Heath Xone:DB2 has a lightweight and reliable aluminium chassis, lets you adjust the curves of the crossfader and channel faders, has multi-segment channel meters, a digital output, balanced analogue outputs — main and monitor — and a record output with signal level adjustment.

See also: a curious video with the creators of the Allen&Heath Xone:DB2 mixer -