Xone:K2 – Quick Sound Check

One of the most often asked questions we received after our reviews of the Allen&Heath Xone:K2 was about the quality of the integrated audio interface. Is the soundcard good enough that it can be an alternative for and replace, for example Traktor Audio 6 or Traktor Audio 10 in an external mixer setup (no timecode usage, see the setup example in Allen&Heath Xone:K2 - A closer look)?

Xone:K2, Headphone Socket

In preparation for some more extensive video reviews and tutorials about the Xone:K2 we ran a quick test of the K2 soundcard.

The Facts

Xone:K2 has an integrated four channel audio interface (16 bit). The audio interface can be used with either a sampling rate of 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz.

Setup on Mac OS X is as easy as it can be. Simply connect the K2 to a USB port of your Mac. That’s it. The audio interface is class compliant and all four channels are immediately available. On Windows only two channels can be used unless you have installed the ASIO driver; once the supplied ASIO driver is installed all four channel will be available.

The Test Setup

To test the sound quality of the two stereo channels in external mixer of Traktor we created the following setup:

First we created an aggregated audio device from Xone:K2 and Traktor Audio 10 and used the following soundcard channels for Traktor decks A-C:

Output 0/1, Deck A: Xone:K2 Headphone Socket
Output 2/3, Deck B: Xone:K2 Master Out (Cinch)
Output 4/5, Deck C: Traktor Audio 10, Master Out

The Sample Rate in Traktor was set to 44.1 kHz and the Latency Buffer was set to 128, resulting in an overall latency of 4.9ms.

K2 Sound Check, Audio Routing

The Headphone Output of the K2 (front of the controller) was connected to channel 1 of the mixer (a Xone:DB4) using a 3.5mm jack to RCA/cinch adapter cable (a quite cheap one). Master Output of the K2 (rear of the controller) was connected to channel 2 of the mixer using RCA/cinch cables. And finally the Main Output of the Traktor Audio 10 was connected to channel 3.

We loaded a track in WAV format into deck A of Traktor, played it and then created a duplicate in deck B and another one in deck C. The mini set was recorded with a little recording tool on the Mac using the Record Output of the mixer.

Recording

The recording starts with the break on the track where audio is coming from deck A (channel 1 of the mixer, headphone socket of the K2). In the first four bars after the break you hear the sound from channel 1 as well. Then, with some quick blends, the next four bars come from channel 2 (Xone:K2 Master out) and the rest of the recording comes via channel 3 (Traktor Audio 10, Main Out).

We set three hotuces in the recorded wave file to mark the blends as you can see in the screenshot above.

The Results

Check yourself! Download the recording to see if you can hear any difference between the audio coming from the Xone:K2 and the Traktor Audio 10? Can you? We can't.

Download recorded file here

We will do some more tests in the near future. As for today we just wanted to share this first impression with you and give you a chance to judge yourself.

The track used for this test is Plastix (Tim Wolff Remix) by Camiel Daamen released on the Dutch label Klopfgeist.

Authors: Karl Yates, Rainer G. Haselier
Published: February 19, 2012

7 Comments

Isaac wrote on February 20, 2012 at 5:11 AM The recorded sound quality sounds awesome. When is Allen & Heath planning on making the K2 available here in the U.S.?
	Rainer G. Haselier (admin) says: Here the info from the Xoneseries Facebook page: "Manufacturing of the Xone:K2 is now underway – we have been trying out the first full production units and they look fantastic. Limited stocks will start arriving with distributors at the end of March 2012 and should be available from dealers shortly after that."

Justin wrote on February 20, 2012 at 4:25 PM Hey Rainer & Karl, love your work. So basically you're suggesting that I shouldn't consider the purchase of a Traktor Audio 10 (since I'm going to own a DB2 in the not so far away future), but instead use 2 Xone:K2's for the times that I'm playing out?

malzfreund wrote on February 24, 2012 at 6:06 PM this is a sighted test and as such, the results are meaningless. to be clear, i do not expect that there will be a statistically significant audible difference between the two interfaces. i merely object to the test setup. scientific studies have shown over and over again how subjective biases affect how audio is perceived. audio quality comparisons should always be done double-blinded. several software solutions exist to do these comparisons in the form of ABX or ABC/HR tests. some of that s
	Rainer G. Haselier (admin) says: It shouldn't a in deep test, thats why the article was called "quick sound check". I did not expect significantg audible differences between K2 and TA10 interfaces. However, as stated, we receiced plenty of questions regarding the sound quality of tke K2 audio interfaces. If our little article helped to give first answers, then the goal was met.

malzfreund wrote on February 28, 2012 at 5:56 PM rainer, i didn't wanna come across all critical. i do think you got one of the most important aspects of the comparison right: you did go through the db4 and i strongly assume you did volume-match the signals which is extremely important. i guess, more fundamentally, my point is the following: today's audio interfaces are all very good when it comes to sound quality. if people perceive audio quality differences between audio interfaces, the first thing i suspect is that the result may be due to subjective biases.
	Rainer G. Haselier (admin) says: Yes, I had to lower the gain for the mixer channel with the TA10 input. The level of the TA10 is hotter than of the K2. I totally agree that the results are subjective. My question would: what is your impression after downloading the recorded file. There was a lomg-term study (if I remember well either at the university of LA or SF) about what kind of audio format listeners perceive as better quality. In the first probe done 12 years ago the probands thought that the wave files they heard were of better quality than MP3 files. Ten years later the results were swapped. What we like is what we learn to be good. We are not objective. The triumph of the iPod and MP3 files did not result in better hearing. I am totally fine with your comment.

malzfreund wrote on March 6, 2012 at 12:06 PM "what is your impression after downloading the recorded file." I cannot discern a difference. However, it would have been easier if I had the sample twice (one from the K2 and once from the TA10). then you could play them using the free ABX tool for foobar2000 (http://www.foobar2000.org/components/view/foo_abx). with that, it's better to compare.

malzfreund wrote on March 6, 2012 at 12:15 PM as for WAV vs MP3: you gotta take into account that 12 years ago, MP3 encoders were a lot worse. e.g., neil young states "There was a time in the 1990s when I could identify every major mp3 encoder by sound [...], and could demonstrate this reliably in double-blind testing" (see http://people.xiph.org/~xiphmont/demo/neil-young.html). so one question is if that comparison used the same encoder. also, does that study represents a majority opinion in the field (i don't know.) but, in any case, 200+kbps MP3 typically shows up as indistinguishable from an original WAV in ABX tests.

Kalle wrote on April 16, 2012 at 2:55 PM Hi! Thanks for the sound check. I too believe the complaints about the sound card are overrated. I'm loving the K2! Check out my video on LED output; Maybe even worth referencing here? ;) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBiQlO7svVk

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Xone:K2 – Quick Sound Check

The Facts

The Test Setup

The Results

7 Comments

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