Have been looking on the DB2 for quite a while as an upgrade to my DJM700. I see the mixer still is available for purchase in stores but on Allen & Heath website it does not show up on the product pages and is listed on their discontinued list! Anyone know about this? Are they soon coming up with something similar but “better” or what? Since I think the new PX5 and 96 are quite different mixers. And the DB4 is too expensive for me and also I don’t need four FX engines…
I think the DB2 mixer looks really cool and unfortunately there’s no store here where I can try it out. I have some questions:
The filters down in the FX section, do they have some resonance to them? I guess this parameter cannot be tweaked somewhere?
The channel leds are really few. Can the better leds on the top right corner be used for matching channel levels with even if I don’t want to set the cueing system in “split” mode, as i prefer normal mode.
How is the sound quality? I know it’s a digital mixer and probably doesn’t sound like the AH fully analog mixers?
Is it stupid buying this quite old mixer now, should I wait for something new upcoming?
i actually just got a used one. first of all, sound quality…WOW!!! Competes with the 900nx2 sound quality imo. honestly i love this mixer so much more than i ever would have imagined. i came from a djm600 but i perform a lot on 900s but i gotta say i love this mixer more. the filters dont have much if any resonance. the effects are the best i’ve ever heard out of a mixer. in regards to the LEDs. when not in split mode, the master level LEDs will represent the cue’d channel but you wont get master at the same time. you will NOT be disappointed in this mixer
The DB2 has been discontinued. However it’s bigger brother the DB4 has not. Unfortunately many US shops do not stock the DB4 anymore. Otherwise it is my favorite A&H mixer to ever be released.
That’s what I really like about the filter on the 700, it has a lot of nasty resonance and sounds quite different from the 800 and newer pioneers.
Too bad it’s not possible to see master + cue next to each other on leds. That’s a nice way to quickly match signal levels roughly and then fine tune by ears. But maybe not much of a problem and shouldn’t be a deal breaker.
Honestly I prefer the little resonance. It makes it so you can stack your effects on it much better imo. And depending on your mixing style, you could get away without EQing and just use the filters entirely
Not on the fly (that control was moved from faceplate into utility settings from pre-production unit for some random reason). And you get DVS with Traktor Pro 3 with any mixer with internal audio interface. Also, the mixer seems to be more sensitive to grounding issues than previous generations of digital Denon mixers. Other than FX’s, the mixer lacks in almost every regard compared to them.
Personally would recommend it only to owners of SC5000 players because of the whole Engine link (on air status on players, quantized mixer FX’s, colorful cue buttons, fader start).
