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X.200 Digital Production Console
Q. Does the Digital X Bus Model X.200 ship with any cards included?
A. The mixer comes with two cards pre-installed:
• Mix Out Card: Dual stereo control room outputs, two stereo digital inputs and outputs (AES and S/PDIF),
two headphone outputs, and the main L/R mix output.
• Sync Card: Word Clock input/output, as well as SMPTE input/output jacks.
Q. How many mic preamps does the X.200 have?
A. There are no built-in microphone preamps in the X.200 mixer. You need to purchase either the Mic/Line 4 or the
Mic/Line 8 I/O Option cards separately. Using eight of the Mic/Line 8 Cards, you can operate and control 64 simul-
taneous microphone inputs at any one time.
Q. How do the mic pres on the Mic/Line Cards compare with other Mackie mic pres, such as the Onyx or XDR
pres?
A. The Mic/Line cards use the TI/Burr-Brown PGA2500 digitally controlled mic preamp, and all the specifi cations of
that chip can be found at the following website:
http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/pga2500.html
Debating the characteristics of a microphone preamplifi er and drawing comparisons to other equipment is truly
a subjective argument. We will post all the audio specifi cations of the analog cards (both the Mic/Line and Line
cards) to the Digital X Bus web page, and you can draw your own conclusions based on the specs.
Q. Why didn't Mackie use Onyx preamps for the Mic/Line Cards?
A. The Onyx mic preamps were not used for two very simple reasons: physical size and control features.
First off, the 6" x 6" dimensions of a standard Digital X Bus I/O Option Card cannot accommodate the Onyx mic
preamp's circuitry. The TI/Burr-Brown PGA2500 was the perfect solution for this compact-sized design. A Mic/
Line 8 card would not have even been possible without such a compact component.
Secondly, the PGA2500 provides digital control over the preamp level setting, which was required to be able to
control the mic preamp's level from the user interface. The Onyx mic pre would have required a modifi cation to add
this functionality, and thus could have presented an even higher cost to develop.
Q. Can I use my own mic preamps with the Digital X Bus?
A. Absolutely! The Digital X Bus will work just as well with Mic/Line cards as it will with any other I/O cards. There-
fore, you can take your external mic preamp of any shape and size and connect it to either the analog or digital I/O
option cards – whichever format supports your mic preamp.
For Onyx enthusiasts who want to have that Onyx "sound," a great solution would be to purchase a couple of the
Onyx 800Rs and connect them to Digital I/O Cards using the ADAT format. And, by purchasing the less expensive
Digital Cards instead of Mic/Line 8 cards, you can save some money to help shoulder the cost of those external
preamps (in case you don't already own them).
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FAQ
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