I want to buy an Allen & Heath Xone 32

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Simespins

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Fellas, the time's come for an upgrade in the mixer stakes. My old piece of **** Gemini has developed an earth loop and the cue fader is so crackly that i think its time to chuck it out for good.

I mix house - deep and melodic to tribal and up tempo, so i want a mixer that suits this style and has good filters and metering. These days i mix mostly in a home studio that i am setting up, but i still like to rock houseparties occiasionally, so i need a board that can handle a party. The VCF's look the goods. I've done some research on this board, the A&H Xone 32 looks like it'll fit the bill. One question - how's the headroom on the Xone 32, will it chuck a wobbly if it redlines for a bit?

I'm an Aussie and its much cheaper for me to buy one online - the markups out here for A&H and Rane products are absolutely mind boggling - and i would love it if one of you guys could give me a rock bottom price from a respected online reseller?

What am i looking at for a new A&H XOne 32, in USD?

Any help would be deeply appreciated.

Cheers,

Simespins
 
I think you have headroom misunderstood and the context in which you ask your question puts your general system knowledge in question, as it shows a cavalier attitude towards redlining and your gain structure.

Every mixer out there is capable of clipping, build quality and component selection determine the exact results of clipping, but it is uniformly bad for your system.

Xones have extremely high headroom for a dj mixer, something on the order of +21db per channel and +23db on the main outputs. You will have to be doing something very wrong to clip a xone, and when you do it will react in a very stable fashion, cleanly clipping your waveforms. The clip leds are 12db down from actual clipping, meaning that you light up the red light at less than HALF of the actual volume at which you clip something.

Check the forum sponser AGIproDJ.com for the pricing.

"furious kitten specs Xone mixers for all his high end event production needs!"
 
Thanks for the info Furious Kitten and thanks also for pointing out the deficiencies in my general system knowledge that was particularly helpful. I know the difference between redlining and clipping by the way.

Pull back on the whole "cavalier" thing mate - i'm concerned about other DJ's using it at house parties. If i shell out the cash for a new board you can be damn sure i won't have anything but kid gloves on when i am behind it.
 
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21db and 23db are the specs on the xone32, yes.. and it's no exageration.

You literally have to have the reds locked on for an xone to clip. Lots of headroom and extremely low distortion. stellar analog circuitry!

great box, all in all.. especially for mixing dance music.. thats what it's meant for! you'll love the VCF's for frequency isolation/enhancement, they are awesome for house music !

you can probably imagine all the nifty little tricks you can pull with the vcf's, especially on the bassbeats.

gives funky bass a wholeeee new feel ;)
 
Hi Simespins.
When you get a Landed Unit Cost for the mixer (ie including shipping, tax etc) coul dyou please let me know. Thanks Emmett
 
Emmett check your PM for the information on price and shipping. Good to see another Aussie here!
 
I am pretty sure that the Voltage Controlled Filter is analog. There are some digital storage options but they do not store any of the analog control values. They only store switch positions. Filter sweep and resonance is smooth and stairstep free.

I am very happy with my Xone32. The only complaint that I have is that the center channel cannot be assigned to the crossfader. The VCF works better than EQ kills for most applications. Aux sends are pre-crossfader and do not affect main levels which allows better flexibility when using an external phrase sampler (ie Cycloops).

Headroom has not been a problem for me at all. "Gain" knobs and TT/Line switches are on the back of the unit but I do not find myself needing them very often and when I do they are easy to operate by touch.
 
Thanks for the reply Digitalis, some good info there mate. The filters on the XOne 32 sound absolutely sick. Did it take you long to get the hang of them?

I've never had three sources going into a mix at once so the fact that you can't assign the middle channel to the crossy won't have too much of an impact methinks, but it seems strange that A&H chose not to install this feature, doesn't it?

The only thing that makes me a bit uneasy about purchasing the Xone 32 is the thought that A&H might release an updated model in the near future with the gains on the top of the board and the middle channel assignable to the cross fader. That would be most unfortunate.
 
Oops, I just remember this bit from the manual, which made me think they were digital filters:

"They produce the same warm analog resonant frequency sweeping sound as made popular by well known classic analogue synthesisers, but using the latest high performance technology for quiet, stable operation."
 
The filters are pretty good but they are not the speaker scorching variety found on synths. I think this is to prevent DJs from blowing up the PA. They are very usefull in the mix. You can use the low cut for blending, the notch or bandpass to isolate or drop individual parts or set all 3 for a sweep effect.

The feature I could not live without is the aux send architecture. I use a cycloops and it make things much easier and more flexible.

The gains and phono/line switches are really not an issue at all. Even badly located they are easy to use.

The real crippler is the non-assignable channels. Mixing 3 things at once is not the issue. On center channel inputs, you have to use the channel faders and plan ahead. No cutting to the sampler or center deck.... ugh.

As for "new model" worries... A&H is not known for frequent updates. Even if a new model is released you will find the mixer usefull for a long time. I previously had a Rane MP22.. original version not x or z revision. My friend still uses it, 8 years old and it works better than his 3 year old Pioneer 500.
 
Hey Digitalis, thanks for the reply man, always hardcore info and intelligence, props to you.

That makes me feel a lot more comfortable about going ahead with an order. Now i just need to save some cash and i'm away.
 
i almost picked up the xone32

but the cross fader curve adjustment sucks ass for scratching... i was pretty upset that it wasn't even close to the fader curve on the xone02, but then again i'm happy with my 02... but would have loved to have those filters!

i'm super happy with the eqs and you will love them too...

have fun!
 
Re: i almost picked up the xone32

mountainboy said:
but the cross fader curve adjustment sucks ass for scratching... i was pretty upset that it wasn't even close to the fader curve on the xone02, but then again i'm happy with my 02... but would have loved to have those filters!
Click to expand...

I was also very annoyed about the unuseability of the X-fader when it comes to scratching, and was advertising my xone-32 for sale because of this. But I have since decided that the quality of the filters is enough to keep me happy over not scratchin. :cheers:
 
walden said:
for house mixing..you gotta go with Rane MP/XP 2016! :)
Click to expand...

Funny, I cound not agree more. But seriously, Xones rock hard, and a lot of people are not all about rotaries... If I could not have my rotary bliss, I would be spending a lot of time starting at a Xone 62.
-Peasant Nikon
 
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i DJ'd at CentroFly NYC all summer. I used to Xone6 and let me tell you..its a smooth mixer. The Xone6 is $4500!!!

BUT, i still think the Rane mp 2016 is better. the rotary pots are smoother and a little bit smaller so its easier to control. the Xone6 is large knobs and a lot of resistance.

not that i wouldn't refuse either, but for the $$, the RAne rules!

one thing to keep in mind, Rotary mixers wil always sound better. closed pots will never let dust in.

take care all! :)
 
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