For the past several months I was in the process of searching for a well-built, quality DJ mixer that was not going to break the bank. As a bedroom DJ on a tight budget, I knew straightaway that my options were going to be limited and really wanted to stick with either a Pioneer or Allen & Heath. For the past two years I was using a two-channel Korg Kaoss Mixer (KM-202); although it was a decent model I wasn’t nuts about it’s digital output (which would heavily distort anything even remotely approaching the red, which made it really tough to mix certain styles of music such as drum & bass under headphones). I also wanted to buy one with more than just two channels. The Kaoss Pad on the KM-202 was great, but honestly didn’t really use it much when I owned it. Meat and potatoes take precedence over bells and whistles for me!

Even though my budget went as high as $700, I was very pleasantly surprised to see that djdeals.com had Allen & Heath’s Xone:32 3-channel mixer marked down to a clearance price of $300 on their site. Not only did this sled originally sell for around $600-700, but the smaller 2-channel Xone:22 only retails for about $50 less, and the Xone:42 (the next step up) massively leapfrogs the 32 in price, retailing at $900! Without even THINKING about it, I just bought it. Knowing full well that it boasts Allen & Heath’s well renowned analog circuitry, as well as their customary build quality and engineering, it couldn’t have been a more appropriate time to ditch the plastic handles and knobs of the KM-202 (sorry Korg!)

First off, I should mention that shopping on djdeals.com was a great experience overall, and highly recommend checking out the site. Not only was I granted free shipping, but I placed the order on a Friday and it arrived at my door the following Wednesday. Amazing turnaround time.

Without rambling on too much about the Xone:32, I’m going to break down the vast amount of pros, as well as a few of the cons about this mixer. This should cover everything this beast is capable of, and hope you find it informative if you’re looking to purchase one yourself.

Xone:32 - The Good Stuff.

1. Build Quality. From the minute I took this out of the box, it was love at first sight. There is no question that this is a very nicely built machine. The stainless steel casing coupled with the shiny silver coating of paint on the face is flawless in every way. It’s a fairly large mixer, but yields a great deal of space for a working DJ to fiddle with all of the knobs and faders; nothing feels cluttered at all. I especially like the long channel faders with the “studio mixer” style switches as well as the piercing lights which work wonders in a dark environment.

2. Sound Quality. Probably the MOST important feature to consider in a DJ mixer is nothing but aces here. Although I only have limited experience on working the far more expensive Xone:42 and Xone:62, I think it’s safe to say that the sound quality is pretty much the same on this piece of hardware. Because this is an analog mixer, even if there is a bit of distortion in the music you are playing or if you accidentally bring in a louder track and push it into the red zone, it is forgiving in the amount of available headroom you have to work with as you (hopefully) try to fix things in the mix. The 3-band EQ knobs on each channel don’t lie to you: in the 12 o’clock positions they do not affect the sound in any way, yet has a fairly smooth and responsive gain structure as you adjust the levels. The channel faders also work nicely as well; some may not like the fact that the majority of the gain in volume is noticeable throughout the top third of the fader, but it’s the same response curve you are dealing with when using a professional studio mixing board.

3. Plenty of Line Out Options. The back of the mixer has a host of options; many of them are standard but there are a few bonuses as well. There is a set of RCA record outs, allowing you to hook the mixer directly to a computer or other recording device to record your mixes. Separate booth and mix outputs, along with inputs for either turntables (with pre-amps) or other line-in devices are obviously standard. The chassis to hook up the ground wires from your turntables is probably one of the best I’ve used- it was much more cumbersome hooking them up on my Korg and old Numark Matrix mixers! A nice bonus is a set of auxiliary outputs to either connect an additional set of monitors or a sampling/effects device (which you have to route back into the mixer using the line in’s of one of your channels, this is controlled by using the auxiliary send/return knob above the EQ knobs). 

4. Filter LFO. You only get one “effect” on the Xone:32, but I must say, it’s a pretty damn good one. It comes with an LFO that controls the cutoff frequency of whichever channel you have the filter applied to; using the “tap tempo” button you can easily set it up to be fully synchronized with the beat of the song. One button on the right side controls whether or not the LFO is on, another button toggles it between regular and double speed, and the resonance knob controls how drastically the filter affects the sound. Using a combination of the hi/band/lo pass buttons, along with the VCF slider which governs which frequencies the filter gets applied to, it’s a nice bonus. The filter recall memory bank is unnecessary as they can’t recall the LFO speed or VCF, and probably won’t use them very much, if at all.

Xone:32 - The Cons.

1. Crossfader. Although I’m mainly a mix DJ these days and don’t have as much of a problem with this, I will say right now to serious turntablists- stay AWAY from this mixer. Although the fader has some nice features such as reverse and a knob that controls the fader curves between channels, it is NOT geared towards scratching at all. The fader does not glide as transparently as a Rane or Vestax, making it tougher to perform even basic transforms or crabs with. Another thing to be aware of is that each side of the fader is not assignable to any channel you want- only channel 1 and 3 work with the fader. You can reverse the two channels, but channel 2 does not work with the crossfader at all. If you are not a turntablist, the fader is fine for basic mixing applications, and it seems like most mix-oriented DJ’s rarely use the faders anyhow.

2. The Gain Knobs. Probably the biggest issue I had at first with the Xone:32 is the fact that the gain knobs are NOT located directly above the EQ knobs on each channel. Instead, they are on the back of the mixer, albeit at the top so it’s still easy to make adjustments. This takes a bit of getting used to as you sometimes have to look around the back to see what position each knob is set in. The auxiliary knobs used for effects devices, which many DJ’s will probably rarely use, should have swapped places with the channel gains. Hopefully Allen & Heath will fix this on an upcoming version as I don’t doubt for a second they received an arsenal of complaints about this decision!

3. Channel metering. You are going to have to rely on your ears for analyzing the levels of each individual channel as the metering system is only four lights, as opposed to the much more detailed strips on the more expensive models. Ah well, you can’t always have your cake and eat it too on a less expensive mixer.

4. You can only cue one channel at a time. Hardly a big deal, but if you’re doing Jeff Mills, Richie Hawtin, or Andy C style blends using 3+ tracks playing simultaneously throughout the entire mix, be aware that you can only have one channel cued up in the headphones at a time.

Regardless of the cons, I can’t recommend the Xone:32 enough. I got used to the gain knobs on the back in literally less than a day, and although I wish the fader was more optimized for scratching, I’ll gladly take it’s undeniable sound quality over it any day of the week. For it’s price, I give this mixer a 9 out of 10!

If you want to see a great video of this baby in action, check out the youtube video demo below. I found this guy to be pretty helpful in explaining it’s features, and he’s pretty funny too.

PS- I’d like to eventually do a Korg KM-202 full review as well; even though it didn’t suit my needs it isn’t at all a bad mixer; although (I think) it’s out of production you can get the 2-channel version that I owned for around $150-200 in the second hand market and have had a few people explicitly ask me how I rated it.