Allen & Heath XONE 23C Review: The Best!
Quite a few DJs are rediscovering the joys of physically unloading media into or onto a deck, dating back to a time before controllers. It’s necessary to have a mixer for this old way of working, and a good two-channel mixer is the most basic and fundamental type. That being said, Allen & Heath is the only company that has made a name for itself in this field and is pretty much the standard for all mixers. They started with the DB4 and DB2 models, which showed their new vision for four-channel mixers. Now, with the new xone:23C, they’re focusing more on the integral aspects of mixers, which we’re more than happy to accept.
Pros And Cons:
What is Allen & Heath XONE 23c?
The Allen & Heath Xone 23C is the follow-up to the Xone 22. It is an easy-to-use and stylish 2-channel DJ mixer with great sound quality and standard build quality. It has all the important features of its Allen & Heath big brothers as a normal vinyl mixer, such as two stereo phono and stereo line inputs with separate gain controls that let you connect turntables or CD players. The built-in sound card also lets you connect digital sources like laptops directly. Also, Xone 23C’s faders have been redesigned to give users even more control over the sound. They look great and complete the elegant package of the mixer.
Now, let’s talk more about its characteristics.
Design and Build
Aside from a few transfers on the faceplate, it looks a lot like the Xone:23. It has a clean, modern look that comes from the DB:2’s design. A nice metal finish covers it, and big “XONE” and “ALLEN & HEATH” logos are on each side. But you’ll be a little let down when you learn that it has an external power supply. This means you should remember that you’ll have an extra “brick” with your new gear. Although it’s small and not noticeable, it’s important to note.
Where To Buy?
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In general, the unit is pretty light for something that feels so sturdy. This is partly because the power supply is not built in. Quality build is what you’d expect from Allen & Heath. For a small and inexpensive mixer, the 23C has a lot of useful features. It has two sets of headphone outputs (small and large), XLR outputs, an XLR mic input, booth outputs, records out, and an FX send/return loop.
Connectivity
To handle the digital side of things, there are now a few extra input and output ports, including USB and X: Link sockets. The USB port is easy to comprehend—just connect a computer. The X: Link port, on the other hand, is Allen & Heath’s own networking standard, so you can connect other Allen & Heath gear that works with the mixer without having to use multiple USBs to connect to the computer.
The coolest thing for digital DJs is that they now have two stereo inputs that you can use directly from your DJ software. In fact, MixVibes Cross DJ LE comes in the box to help you get started. When you give two decks to the Xone:23C’s sound card in a DJ program, they automatically show up on their own channel. The USBs don’t have an on/off switch or a gain control like the analog inputs do—you’d use the software to change the input level anyway. So, what we have here is a “3+3” mixer, and if you really want, you can have all six tracks live at the same time.
So this is great for digital DJs who use mixed sources. It’s also great for them that the sound card lets you record the mixer’s whole output digitally. That is, if you set it up right, you can record what you’re doing with the 23C whether the inputs are from a record, a CD, or DJ software. It will send the “finished” mix back to the computer through the same wire that the two digital channels came down into the mixer. Setting up your laptop to record can be tricky depending on whether you’re using a PC (ASIO drivers can make recording with DJ software tricky) or a Mac, and also on the software you’re using. However, with a little work (like Googling), you can usually get it to work.
Performance
The sound card seems great, all the controls feel solid and reliable, and the nine-bar VUs work well. Also, anyone who has ever played with an Allen & Heath hardware filter before will probably agree that it’s very addicting—you can have a lot of fun mixing with this unit, even though it only has one filter.
The following are &H’s XONE:23C’s features:
- High-performance DJ mixer and soundcard
- VCF filter system at the heart of the mixer
- 4 stereo channel USB soundcard
- USB X: LINK
- 3 band total kill EQ
- External FX loop
- Limited 1-Year Manufacturer’s Warranty
Conclusion
When you think about what you get for the price, the XONE:23C is a great mixer. The gear is well-made and does its job well. For many DJs, the filter is reason enough to choose the XONE over other entry-level mixers.
Experts and newbies can both benefit from it since good for digital modular DJs, scratch DJs, and even DVS DJs. With a few minor complaints, one wouldn’t think twice about spending my hard-earned cash on it. This is especially true when the amount of money is impressively inexpensive. For Allen & Heath fans who want a two-channel mixer with sound built-in, this one’s great for you!
Why You Should Read Reviews Before Buying
While finding a seamless set of mixing equipment can be a bit of a headache, you need to explore more on your options rather than settling down on the first thing that you see. As smart buyers, we know how important it is to do research on a product and think about its pros and cons before we buy it. With that, it’s great that the internet gives us access to so much information that we can learn everything we need to know about a piece of equipment before we decide to buy it. So, there should be no excuses on your part as a smart buyer.
