Allen & Heath dLive DM48 MixRack

The DM48 is the engine, not the console — it lives in the rack, not at the mix position. What you're looking at is 64 mic preamps, 32 analog XLR outputs, and Allen & Heath's XCVI processing core packed into 5U. It pairs with any dLive C-class or S-class surface over gigaACE, which means the brain of your show sits wherever it makes sense — stage left, monitor world, a remote truck — while the surface goes where the engineer needs to be. This is the architecture that separates a touring-grade system from a console with a stage box bolted on.

At load-in, that 472mm depth and 18.5kg weight are the first things you'll feel — this is a substantive piece of iron and it needs a proper road case and a rack with real rail depth. Power draw runs 110W typical and peaks at 165W, so plan your distro accordingly; the dual IEC power inputs mean you can feed redundant supplies and sleep better during a four-night run. The four gigaACE ports — two to surface, two to stagebox, each with a redundant companion — mean your critical audio network has a hot spare path at every link. The M-Series option slot gives you Dante, MADI, or other protocols for connecting to FOH, broadcast splits, or a multitrack recorder without burning analog outputs.

If you're running a dLive surface and need a mixrack that won't be the weak point on a tour, a large theater, or a fixed-install worship rig, the DM48 is the right call. The 64-in/32-out analog count handles most large-format applications without an outboard stagebox, and the redundant connections throughout mean this is a show-critical box that's designed to be treated like one. If your input count is under 32 and your budget is tight, the smaller DM0 or DM32 mixracks in the dLive family cover less ground at a lower price point — the DM48 earns its cost when you're regularly near or above 48 channels of analog and need the headroom and redundancy that come with it.