According to Tim Walter, who was recently appointed director of sound and lighting, the upgrade to an Allen & Heath Xone:92 DJ mixer is just the latest step in an ongoing mission to restructure the venue's sound system for maximum performance and clarity. On Broadway, the shining star of owner Mike Viscuso's string of Southern California clubs and restaurants, catapulted San Diego onto the international DJ circuit when it opened six years ago and helped reinvent nightclub culture in the city.
"Allen & Heath seems to be one of the only DJ mixer manufacturers that are sympathetic to the needs of pro sound reinforcement providers," observes Walter. "The Xone:92 offers a great feature set for the performer, and covers all the installer's needs."
The installation of the Xone:92 on the main level for the headlining DJ talent has produced "an amazing step forward in fidelity and function," considers Walter. "This must be the first time in years that we've been able to have idealized gain structure, starting from the turntables and CD players all the way to front of house. The signal integrity of the Xone:92 finally does justice to the interface with our FOH console and lets the entire fidelity of the system shine."
More specifically, for a club that boasts tens of thousands of watts of speaker power yet considers sonic quality paramount, he adds, "The feature set is quite remarkable, such as being able to disable the input gains and have the maximum output of a master fader at 0dB; now, it's almost impossible for DJs to distort the channels. And the filter section and the way that the effects loops are laid out are a dream come true. The product is simply revolutionary!"
He continues, "The forethought and modularity of the Xone:92's design has allowed me to accommodate a wide range of performance needs that require more than just a pair of decks. Features such as the balanced booth outputs and having a real auxiliary section -with pre and post fader sends - truly make this unit worthy of having 'professional' associated with its name."
(Sarah Rushton-Read)
