Depusheng T6 Audio Mixer 6-CHANNEL DJ Sound Controller Interface with USB Soundcard for PC Recording, XLR Microphone Jack PLUS HEADPHONE JACK, 5V USB Power CONNECT,FX 16Bit DSP Processo

I bought this 5-volt-USB-powered mixer to use ‘on the road’ at spontaneous gigs; schoolchildren’s theatre, village pantomimes, pub music, outdoor video shoots, etc, where there may not be mains power. I got it to use with a battery-powered Zoom H6 recorder or DAT recorder.

At 76 I reckoned I’d chance it – how bad could it be? What attracted me was:

1 – low-voltage operation from USB or an external 5v battery!
2 – THREE (Hi, Mid, Low) EQ (tone) knobs for the BEST sound from microphones
3 – Phantom power – for high-quality condenser mics, as well as unpowered dynamic mics
4 – FOUR XLR (professional) ‘balanced’ 3-pin mic inputs, plus jack sockets
5 – SIXTEEN built-in digital effects!
6 – Slider faders, not knobs, so several channels can be mixed simultaneously (with
just four fingers)

What I found was:

1 – A 5v phone charger will generally NOT deliver enough power to run this mixer, though a laptop’s USB socket generally DOES give enough power. (I found it needs 3.8 watts, that’s of an amp at 5 volts.) That’s OK, as I’d use it with a really hefty Power Bank anyway. But to deliver sufficient Phantom power for (four) condenser mics it needs 4.9 watts of power, that pretty much 1 amp. So YOU DO NEED A BATTERY POWERBANK, or a laptop, to run this mixer properly, without any distortion! And it needs MORE than 1 amp power if you’re using four Phantom-powered mics AND also mixing audio from a plug-in USB device!

2 – The three EQ (tone) knobs are EXACTLY what’s needed, and give great results, almost the quality of a professional mixing desk! FULL MARKS FOR EQ! You can bring out the missing bass of many mics with this ..without that extra bass EQ you wouldn’t know what great sound you could be missing!

3 – Phantom power – supposedly at 48v. This mixer can ONLY deliver enough Phantom power (for condenser mics, and without distortion) if you do run it off a POWER BANK or a laptop (see 1).

4 – Balanced XLR inputs: GREAT! But did I say..? it only delivers clear, undistorted audio if you run this mixer off a POWER BANK, or at least a laptop delivering 1 amp at 5 volts (see 1 again).

5 – 16 built-in effects, apparently! But no; it’s just one big ‘Delay’ effect, but with sixteen degrees of delay ..rapid or slow. That’s all: no smooth ‘echo’ (also known as ‘plate’) and no choice of ambiences like ‘Hall’, ‘Large Room’, ‘Jazz Club’. The delay can be fine-tuned, and the loudness of the delay – and its ‘repeat’ speed – can be mixed with mics, etc. But it ISN’T a real digital echo. Shame.

6 – Faders; GREAT! No two-finger knob-twiddling to set mixer levels ..just s-m-o-o-t-h, easily-controlled single-finger slide faders ..just like a professional mixer.

7 – Bluetooth: it has Bluetooth IN only ..it won’t send OUT via BT. But it’s great as, say, a music input from any device which sends Bluetooth OUT, such as an iPhone, iPad, laptop, etc!

BUT: Disasters!

(A) The headphone volume is NOT fully independent of the T6’s general OUTPUT volume ..so you can’t ‘pre-fade’ or cue up, for instance, music tracks from the USB-stick socket. You can only hear, through headphones, what you’ve ALREADY MIXED and WHILE you’re OUTPUTTING it to loudspeakers, or a recorder, or whatever you’re sending the sound to! ..MAJOR FAIL! I’m going to re-wire my headphone volume fader to the master fader INPUT, so that I can hear what I’m mixing BEFORE it reaches the speakers! That’s how ‘phones SHOULD be wired, but someone took leave of their senses at the design or build stage of the T6.

(B) There are no ‘pan-pots’ (knobs for sending sound to left or right) on any inputs, so you can’t ‘steer’ a stereo mic to give ‘wide’ or ‘narrow’ sound. If you’re using a mic which gives stereo sound along with a mid (central) pickup, you CANNOT widen or narrow the stereo. (Mics like the Mid/Side ‘Superlux’ or Shure VP-88.) That’s a real shame.

(C) The 5v power input socket is just a teeny, super-dainty ‘micro USB’ socket, so I’ll be dismantling mine and changing it to a more hefty USB-B (printer) or USB-C (laptop-charging) input socket. That micro-USB is only rated to handle the maximum 1 amp current which this T6 mixer needs to perform at its best with 4 condenser mics. (It’s not a good enough power socket when using 4 condenser mics AND a USB stick! Recommendations are to not use greater loads than *half an amp* (500 milliamps) with one of these micro-USB connectors.)

But with all that said, ultimately:

o This mixer DOES deliver first-rate battery-powered ‘off-grid’ audio – as long
as it’s run from a 1 amp battery, or laptop supply, such as a decent POWERBANK.

o The sound it delivers – if run off a decent EXTERNAL POWERBANK, or a laptop –
is comparable to many expensive mains-powered hi-quality mixers! Yippee!

o It has very low ‘self noise’ from the mic, jack and BT inputs, so it does NOT
SPOIL your audio by sounding like some cheap toy mixer ..as long as you run it off
a 1 amp supply. Any lower-power supply and it may distort.

NOTE that its (great!) Bluetooth connection only RECEIVES from other devices; it doesn’t export sound via Bluetooth, and note that its USB-stick facility CAN record – as well as Play – but you must make sure that the almost-invisible teeny black button on the BACK of the mixer is pressed IN to the ‘USB’ position – not ‘PC’ – and then hold down a l-o-n-g press on the Play button – just below the USB socket – on the face of the mixer. Best results were with dynamic mics (not condensers with Phantom power, which tended to overload the recording and to distort).

Be prepared to buy a RECHARGEABLE EXTERNAL POWERBANK to get the most from this T6 mixer – if you’re not running it off a laptop’s USB power connection – otherwise you may be disappointed by its performance. Sorry, that really is true. But if you run it off a laptop, or get a HEFTY RECHARGEABLE EXTERNAL POWERBANK, this T6 mixer gives ASTONISHINGLY GOOD OFF-GRID VALUE FOR MONEY.