Founded in 1969, Allen & Heath (A&H) have cemented themselves as one of the worlds premium audio brands. From their inception in the late 60’s, the A&H legacy was built on hand made mixers that were used by some of the worlds largest live acts, from Pink Floyd to The Who. This reputation for warm sounding, well built mixers followed A&H well into the late 90’s.
At around the same time a now infamous engineer called Andy Rigby-Jones joined the Cornwall based manufacturer as a Junior Engineer. Already an experienced DJ, Andy had the idea of applying A&H’s existing knowledge of mixers to the DJ format, and Xone was born. The Xone brand first landed with the Xone 464 prototype (and later production model) which was well received amongst DJ’s around the world.
A rising techno producer at the time by the name of Richie Hawtin took a liking to the mixer after testing it at a music tech convention in New York. After receiving a prototype unit to tour with, Richie approached A&H with some modification requests to optimize the 464 to his own live rig. By this point the 464 prototype had already been refined for the DJ booth and its replacement the Xone 62 was in production so Andy and his team set to work applying the modifications requested by Richie to the 62 and thus the Xone 92 was born.
Released in 2003, the Xone 92 was a culmination of the technology seen in the 464 and 62 but with the added refinements requested by DJ’s like Richie, who had already been using the Xone mixers in booths around the world. Paired with the increasingly popular 4 band EQ seen on both the 464 and 62, the 92 added 2 independent VCF filters. The same filter which helped make the 62 popular (however, the 62 only featured 1 VCF).
A big addition to the 92 over the 62 was the addition of MIDI functionality. However, unlike the digital mixers which offered MIDI functionality at the time, the Xone 92 managed to incorporate MIDI functionality whilst still retaining the all analog signal path. Along with the MIDI, Hawtin also suggested that the mixer implement aux send and return channel strips, a feature which has become synonymous with Xone flagships and is still used widely today.
Over the next 20 years the Xone 92 would go on to become one of the most widely used and recognisable mixers in the world. Renowned amongst DJ’s and sound engineers alike for its warm and true analog sound. The Xone 92 is still the mixer of choice for countless DJ’s around the world, despite huge advancements in technology around the DJ industry.
The release of the limited edition Xone 92-A to celebrate the mixer's 20th birthday further cements the legacy. The limited run of 920 units worldwide sees each 92-A receive an upgraded set of phono preamps, a revised set of VCF filters and a specially numbered plaque to celebrate the limited version. The 92-A launches on 19th of March 2024 at a retail price of £1599 and is available for pre-order now. You can spread the cost with Novuna, interest-free*, for 18 months with just a 10% deposit.
*credit is offered subject to status.
