MODEL 1.4, the field manual

The five things on the MODEL 1.4 that change what happens next, if you are reading this in the booth. All five are explained in full further down this page.

What owners report. The MODEL 1.4 faders are the thing a new owner notices first. Two reviews report that most of the level arrives in the last part of the fader travel, so long slow blends need smaller movements than usual. That is a field observation rather than a published curve, and no fader law is documented by the manufacturer.

Why it is here. It is the one behaviour that surprises your hands rather than your ears, and it does it on the control you use most. Two independent reviews describe the same thing, which is why it earns a line, and neither of them is the manufacturer, which is why it is not a specification.

What to do about it. Ride one channel from closed to open before doors and learn where the level actually arrives.

Related: The master section, and why it is not an isolator Before you open the first channel

Short answer. Look at which MODEL 1.4 channel it is in. Phono is on channels 2 and 3 only. The manual: "Channels 2 and 3 are also equipped with an RIAA pre-amplifier for use with turntables." Two turntables is the limit, and a third deck needs an external phono preamp that a venue is unlikely to have to hand.

Why this happens. A phono input is a socket with a preamplifier and RIAA correction behind it. It lifts a cartridge's very low output and puts back the bass the record cut removed. A line input does neither, so the deck is far too quiet and tonally wrong in a way that sounds like failing hardware.

Fix it now. Move the deck to channel 2 or channel 3 and set that channel's source to PHONO. Two decks go on 2 and 3. A third needs an external phono preamp, and the venue almost certainly does not have one.

Avoid it next time. Read the switch caps before you cable anything. A channel set up for a turntable says so from the front. Pressing the small red button on the rear makes that channel's LINE / PHONO / DSUB switch cap glow red, and the guide adds the condition in brackets: it glows "only in the up position". So a strip switched down to DSUB stops showing it, and a dark switch cap is not proof that the rear button is out.

Related: Four channels, and the two that take a turntable The rear panel, and what is not on it

Short answer. The MODEL 1.4 does not have one. There is no 3-band EQ on a channel and no bass kill. Nothing on the strip will remove a bassline the way a kill switch does. Nothing is broken and no setting adds one.

Fix it now. Sweep the channel's CONTOUR high-pass up, which removes the bottom gently, or press that channel's FILTER switch and use the master filter's high-pass, which is resonant and much more of a statement.

What you cannot do. Take a band to nothing while the rest of the track stays where it was.

Avoid it next time. If your transitions are built on three-knob EQ mixing, rehearse them on CONTOUR rather than translating in real time at the desk.

Related: No 3-band EQ and no bass kill The resonant filter is shared

Short answer. That MODEL 1.4 channel is not assigned into the filter. The resonant filter is a single SHARED MASTER filter, and a channel only reaches it through that channel's FILTER switch. A DJ who does not find that switch has no resonant filter at all.

Why this happens. On almost every other mixer a filter knob belongs to the strip it sits on. Here it is one shared block in the master section and the only thing connecting a channel to it is that channel's FILTER switch.

Fix it now. Press FILTER on the channel you want, and check what else is already in there before you sweep.

Avoid it next time. Set the filter assignments during the line check, in the same pass as the gain.

Related: The resonant filter is shared No 3-band EQ and no bass kill

Short answer. It never will, on any MODEL 1.4. There is no digital audio anywhere in this mixer. No USB port, no audio interface, no converters and no clock. There is no driver to install and no setting to find, because there is no device for the computer to enumerate.

Fix it now. Put an audio interface between the two. Its outputs go into any line channel on RCA, or over DB25 if the room is wired that way.

If the room is already wired on DB25. Find out what is on which channel before you start. The loom decides that and the front panel does not tell you.

Avoid it next time. The interface is part of the rig, not an accessory.

Related: There is no USB, so a laptop brings its own interface The rear panel, and what is not on it

Short answer. The MODEL 1.4 needs one of the two mixers assigned, and the cable alone does not do it. A link cable on its own does not pass the mix. One of the two mixers has to be assigned to send its bus down the cable to the PA and booth monitors connected to the other one, and the assign switch is not on the panel: turn the mixer over, find the 3 mm hole under the back right rubber foot, peel the foot back and press the switch through it with a thin blade. The guide also says to check that the same switch on the other mixer is not selected, and its own diagnostic is that a mix failing to reach the other mixer usually means this switch is wrong on one of them. Two assigned, or neither assigned, both fail. This is a load-in job with the mixer upside down, not something to attempt with a set running.

Why this happens. Linking looks like a cable job, because the sockets are on the rear panel and the cable is a standard one. The switch that decides which mixer feeds the PA is underneath the unit, so nothing on either panel tells you it is set wrong.

Fix it now. Power both mixers down first. There is a stated order for power, and it is the same instruction at both ends of the gig. The guide: "Make sure the rear panel POWER SWITCH is in the OFF position before connecting or disconnecting the power supply." So the switch goes off before the supply goes in at load-in, and off again before the supply comes out at load-out. Then turn the mixer that should feed the PA over, press its assign switch in, and check the other one is switched out.

Avoid it next time. Set the assign switches at load-in, with the mixers on their backs and unpowered, and mark which unit is the assigned one before it goes into the booth.

Related: The rear panel, and what is not on it The master section

Short answer. That is the MODEL 1.4 design, not a fault. DualCue is two fully independent cue systems, A and B, built for two DJs monitoring separately. Cue A routes to the right-hand headphone monitor and Cue B to the left-hand one, so hearing cue in one ear only is the design rather than a fault.

Why this happens. The two cue busses exist so two people can monitor independently, so each one is deliberately sent to one side.

Fix it now. Cue the channel on the bus that feeds the ear you want, or cue it on both. Remember which way round the two behave: Cue A auto-cancels, and the manual states in as many words that Cue B does not. So a second cue selection on the B bus adds to what is already there rather than replacing it.

Avoid it next time. Decide which bus is yours before the first track, and if you are playing back to back, agree it with the other DJ at the same time.

Related: The master section, and why it is not an isolator The pre-gig checklist

What can be shown. The MODEL 1.4 is in the same position as its six channel sibling. No longer available new from mainstream retailers. Every shop checked lists both mixers as gone, while PLAYdifferently still publish the product page and the manual for each with no end-of-life notice of any kind.

What cannot. PLAYdifferently have published no end-of-life statement for either mixer, so this page does not say the manufacturer has discontinued them. It says what can be shown: they cannot be bought new from the retailers checked.

What that changes about buying one. Buy on condition and on a demonstration, in a room, with a deck in one of the two phono channels and headphones on both cue busses.

Related: What is not documented, and will not be invented here The pre-gig checklist

Size. The MODEL 1.4 manual and the product page do not agree. The product page gives 368 by 248 by 111 mm for the same mixer. Both are manufacturer figures. The manual is the specific engineering document, so its numbers are the ones printed, and the difference is small but real.

Weight. One retailer lists 8.5 kg, which is the manual's PACKED weight rather than the unit's. The mixer weighs 5.00 kg and the box weighs 8.50 kg.

Why print the disagreement instead of picking one quietly. If you are measuring a flight case or a booth shelf, four millimetres of height is the sort of thing that decides whether the lid shuts. Knowing that two documents differ is more useful than a single tidy number with no idea how much to trust it.

Related: The rear panel, and what is not on it What is not documented

Faults. Nothing MODEL 1.4 specific has surfaced. No recalls, service bulletins or recurring hardware faults were found in public sources. That is a null result on a small owner base, not a clean bill of health, so this page does not turn it into a reliability claim in either direction.

Ageing. No pattern of age-related failure is documented anywhere reachable. Anything said about how these age would be reasoning rather than evidence, so nothing is said.

Power supply. Both manuals say "universal voltage" and neither prints an AC input range, so no voltage range appears on this site. The redundant supply option documented for the six-channel mixer is not addressed either way for this one, so it is not claimed here.

Rack mounting. Neither manual mentions rack mounting, rack ears or a rack kit. Rack mounting is not documented by the manufacturer, which is not the same as saying it is impossible, and this page says only the first thing.

Where it was built. The launch release says built in the UK. Whether later production stayed there is not published, so this page claims only what the release says.

Related: Two numbers that are printed two ways The faders do not behave like the ones you know

Short answer. There is no USB socket on the MODEL 1.4 to plug a laptop into. There is no digital audio anywhere in this mixer. No USB port, no audio interface, no converters and no clock. The computer connection is TASCAM DB25 out to the DJ's own audio interface. The mixer is the analogue end of that link and supplies no interface of its own, so a laptop set needs one in the bag.

This is the single most likely thing to get wrong about this mixer. The name suggests a later, more connected unit. It is neither. Both mixers in this range are equally analogue and equally computer-free, and the DB25 ports take a professional interface rather than a controller or a laptop.

Bit depth and sample rate. Bit depth and sample rate are not applicable rather than unknown. There is no digital path for either to describe.

MIDI. The manual documents no MIDI, on either mixer, anywhere. One review describes the MODEL 1 as having MIDI capability; the manual is the primary source and it has none, so this site treats MIDI as absent.

Firmware, and the upside of having none. There is no firmware. No version, no update, no release notes, and no firmware section in either manual. A whole class of booth failure cannot happen here. There is no update to be behind on, no version that stops talking to a player, and no boot into a bad state, because there is no software in the audio path to do any of it.

Timecode. Timecode vinyl runs into the two phono channels only if you bring the interface that decodes it. The mixer decodes nothing and is not a certified DVS desk for any platform.

Related: A sibling, not a successor The computer cannot see the mixer

The output ceiling is high. The MODEL 1.4 hands over more level than a house engineer expects. A +28 dBu balanced maximum is a very hot output ceiling. A house engineer used to consumer-level DJ mixers may want to pad or trim at the desk rather than assume the level that arrives is the level they expect.

The numbers, from the manufacturer's own table. Maximum output level +28 dBu balanced, +23 dBu unbalanced. Output impedance 50R balanced, 68R unbalanced. Dynamic range better than 112 dB. Frequency response 20 Hz to 40 kHz, +0 to minus 2 dB. Distortion 0.008 percent, line in to mix 1 out, 0 dBu unity gain. Residual noise minus 100 dBu unweighted, 22 Hz to 20 kHz.

Who is helping you. Assume the house engineer has not worked on one. This is a low-volume mixer with a channel strip that resembles nothing else in a booth, so the person who can help with the room may not be able to help with the desk. That is a judgement from how few of these were made and where they sit in the market, not a survey.

Related: The master section, and why it is not an isolator The rear panel, and what is not on it

Short answer. The MODEL 1.4 is not a later MODEL 1. The number means MODEL 1 with four channels: Richie Hawtin's own words at launch were "a smaller format MODEL 1 with four channels, perfect for the home, as a compact club mixer, or as a nimble tour instrument". Both mixers stayed in the line, five years apart, sold alongside each other.

Why it matters to you and not only to a catalogue. A version number invites you to expect the later thing to be the more capable thing. Here the difference is width and nothing else: the same channel strip, the same cue system, two fewer channels, one fewer phono stage, one master output instead of two, and returns that are not normalled to a second DB25. If you have read anything about the six-channel mixer, almost all of it applies here unchanged.

The one place people get it backwards. Assuming the newer date brought a soundcard with it. It did not. There is no digital audio anywhere in this mixer. No USB port, no audio interface, no converters and no clock.

Related: There is no USB, so a laptop brings its own interface Four channels, and the two that take a turntable

Short answer. There is no crossfader. It is not fitted, not optional and not removable, and it is absent from the complete control list in the manual. Every transition happens on the channel faders.

Why it is missing. A reviewer stated the intent as plainly as the manufacturer ever has: this is a mixer designed for blending and sculpting your overall sound from multiple sources, not mixing from finished track to finished track. Four channels and two returns exist so a set can be assembled from loops, stems and outboard rather than cut between two finished tracks.

What it costs you. A scratch or cut passage is not available on this mixer without an external fader, so any part of a set that depends on one has to be re-planned before the first track rather than during it.

Common mistakes. Booking the gig, planning a cut passage, and finding out at the desk that the cut has to become a blend.

Related: No 3-band EQ and no bass kill Before you open the first channel

Short answer. Phono is on channels 2 and 3 only. The manual: "Channels 2 and 3 are also equipped with an RIAA pre-amplifier for use with turntables." Two turntables is the limit, and a third deck needs an external phono preamp that a venue is unlikely to have to hand.

Why this is near the top of the page. Channels 1 and 4 look identical from the front and have no RIAA stage behind them. A cartridge sent into a line input gets no correction, so it arrives quiet and bass-light in a way that reads as a worn stylus or a bad lead. The fault is silent: nothing breaks and nothing warns you.

How to see which is which. Each channel picks its source on a LINE / PHONO / DSUB switch on the strip, and the control that makes a channel a turntable input is on the rear: the guide calls them "small red buttons located below each earth binding post". How many earth posts the rear panel carries in total is not stated, so counting posts is not a safe way to find channels 2 and 3. The switch cap glowing red on the front is.

The tell is on the front, and it has a condition. A channel set up for a turntable says so from the front. Pressing the small red button on the rear makes that channel's LINE / PHONO / DSUB switch cap glow red, and the guide adds the condition in brackets: it glows "only in the up position". So a strip switched down to DSUB stops showing it, and a dark switch cap is not proof that the rear button is out.

What the phono stage expects. The phono inputs load a cartridge at 47 kilohms with 250 pF of input capacitance. The guide gives a nominal input of 5 to 10 mV at 1 kHz and a maximum of 108 mV at 1 kHz, so a high output cartridge has room and a very low output one does not.

What each channel gives you. Four stereo input channels, plus two stereo return channels. Every strip carries DRIVE, the CONTOUR and SCULPT pair, a FILTER switch into the master filter, two AUX sends, two cue buttons and a 60 mm fader.

Common mistakes. Arriving with three or four decks. Two is the limit on this mixer without an external phono preamp in your own bag.

Related: A turntable sounds thin and quiet The rear panel, and what is not on it

Short answer. There is no 3-band EQ on a channel and no bass kill. Nothing on the strip will remove a bassline the way a kill switch does. The manufacturer calls what replaces it PLAYdifferently's unique Hybrid EQ.

DRIVE, which is not a gain trim. DRIVE is not a gain trim. The manual describes it as varying "the maximum signal level the channel input pre-amplifier can pass", so it is an analogue overdrive stage that you set for tone as much as for level. Both ends are documented. Fully counter clockwise the distortion circuitry is disabled and the channel stays clean past +20 dBu. Fully clockwise, any signal above roughly minus 4 dBu triggers the distortion circuits. The illuminated shaft lights red when the clip threshold is reached, and post-fader level changes how bright it looks.

The meters will disagree, and that is documented. DRIVE quietly moves the level too. The guide: "The Drive control is also linked to the channel fader VCA and automatically adds make-up gain at extreme clip levels, therefore it is normal behaviour for there to be a discrepancy between the Channel and Master buss metering signal levels." A channel meter and the master meters disagreeing with the drive wound up is documented behaviour, not a fault to chase.

CONTOUR. CONTOUR is a pair of what the manual calls "low Q, High-Pass and Low-Pass filters". They are non-resonant and gentle: shaping filters, not the screaming DJ filter the name might suggest.

SCULPT. SCULPT is a semi-parametric swept bell with two controls, FREQ setting the centre frequency and CUT/BOOST setting the gain there. The manual says it "covers almost seven octaves". It is deliberately asymmetric: maximum boost +8 dB, maximum cut minus 20 dB. Carving a hole is easy and over-boosting is hard, which is the whole idea.

What is not published, and we are not guessing. The manual gives the SCULPT range as almost seven octaves and prints no Hz endpoints. Figures of 70 Hz to 7 kHz circulate from a review; they are consistent with the octave count and they are not the manufacturer's, so they are not published here as a specification. No slope in dB per octave and no frequency range is published for the CONTOUR filters.

Related: The resonant filter is shared The bass will not go away

Short answer. The resonant filter is a single SHARED MASTER filter, and a channel only reaches it through that channel's FILTER switch. A DJ who does not find that switch has no resonant filter at all.

How it is wired. The manual describes the channel switch in one line: This switch routes the channel signal through to the Master Filter section. The master filter is a high-pass and a low-pass with a RESONANCE control. Channels and returns are assigned into it, so two channels sent in together are filtered together by one set of controls.

The part people get wrong. One filter with four doors into it, not a filter per channel. Two channels assigned together move together on one frequency knob and one resonance setting.

What the sweep actually covers. The ends of the sweep are published. The low-pass gives a virtually flat response up to about 20 kHz with the control fully clockwise, and progressively attenuates everything above 500 Hz with it fully counter clockwise. The high-pass is flat down to 30 Hz fully counter clockwise, and attenuates everything below 1 kHz fully clockwise.

Resonance is limited for you at the bottom. Resonance is taken away from you at the bottom of the sweep, on purpose. The guide: "Because high Q levels at low frequency can damage the PA system, high Q settings are automatically reduced as the HPF control is turned counter clockwise." So a screaming resonant peak thins out as you sweep down, and that is the mixer protecting the room rather than the filter running out.

Why the switching is silent. Zero-crossing detection is what keeps the switching silent, and the guide attaches it to four switches by name: a channel FILTER switch, RETURN 1-2 TO MASTER FILTER, MASTER FILTER ON and the master EQ ON switch. Those four are meant to be hit mid-track. Nothing else on the mixer is described that way.

What is not published. What is not published is the sharpness. No Q figure and no filter slope is given for the master filter, and no range is given for the resonance control, so there is no number here to compare its bite against another filter with.

Related: No 3-band EQ and no bass kill The filter knob is doing nothing

Short answer. A three-band asymmetric master EQ with an ON switch. The manual: "Three-Band asymmetric EQ affects all mix outputs, including Booth and Record", and the switch "is controlled by zero-crossing detection circuitry which allows it to be used as a performance effect, as well as a frequency correction tool". PLAYdifferently print its response as a graph and put no cut or boost figure on it anywhere in either guide.

Read the second half of that twice. The master EQ reaches the booth feed and the record feed as well as the house. Cutting the top out of the room takes it out of your monitors and out of your recording in the same movement.

It is not an isolator. It is not an isolator and the manual never calls it one. Asymmetric means the cut goes deeper than the boost, but PLAYdifferently publish that response as a graph rather than a number, so how deep is theirs to know. Either way it attenuates rather than kills, and a technique built on a full-kill isolator does not transfer.

Booth, metering and faders. The booth has its own 2-band EQ and level. Two ten-point peak-reading LED meters, left and right. The 60 mm channel fader is a VCA control. The manual: "The 60mm fader controls the DC level for the channel VCA", so the audio never passes through the fader element itself. Studio-grade TKD faders are reported by retailers and reviewers. PLAYdifferently do not name the fader manufacturer in the manual, so that stays a field detail rather than a specification.

Where the manufacturer wants the meters sitting. The guide sets a target rather than leaving the meters to taste: keep the average signal level between 0 and +6, treat occasional peaks to +9 as acceptable, and avoid operating with the PK LED on, because of the possibility of damaging connected PA systems or clipping soundcards and recording devices. The meter colours say the same thing, and the guide puts it that way too: play into the red and orange, and stay out of the white.

The record output. The record output is a 3.5 mm TRS socket carrying the post master EQ signal at a nominal minus 6 dBu, which is well below the level on the main outputs and needs input gain on whatever is recording.

Cue. DualCue is two fully independent cue systems, A and B, built for two DJs monitoring separately. Cue A routes to the right-hand headphone monitor and Cue B to the left-hand one, so hearing cue in one ear only is the design rather than a fault. Cue A auto-cancels, and the manual states in as many words that Cue B does not. So a second cue selection on the B bus adds to what is already there rather than replacing it.

One exception to the auto-cancel. Two copies of the MODEL 1.4 Issue 2 guide are published and they differ by one sentence about the cue buttons. The copy filed as AP11008_W adds, straight after the Cue A auto-cancel line, that "Pressing two Cues simultaneously will latch both on." The other copy of the same issue does not carry it. So auto-cancel on Cue A is not unconditional here, and the exception is a deliberate two-button press rather than an accident.

Related: Cue is only in one ear Handing the mix to a house engineer

Count your decks before you leave. Two turntables is the limit here. A third needs a phono preamp in your own bag, and that decision belongs at home rather than at the desk.

Re-plan anything that needed a crossfader. There is not one and there is no way to add one at the desk.

Put the decks on channels 2 and 3 while you are still cabling. They are the only two with a phono stage, and a strip whose LINE / PHONO / DSUB switch cap is glowing red is a strip whose rear phono button is already pressed.

Find the channel FILTER switches before your first build. The resonant filter is one shared block and a channel only reaches it through its own switch.

Carry the interface. There is no soundcard in this mixer, whatever the name suggests, and a laptop without one has no way into the room.

Related: The pre-gig checklist Four channels, and the two that take a turntable

Inputs. RCA line on all four channels, phono on two of them, and a TASCAM DB25 input carrying four balanced stereo channels.

Outputs. Master on balanced XLR, described as the "Main mix outputs for direct connection to the system PA". Booth, AUX 1 and AUX 2 on impedance-balanced quarter-inch TRS jacks. A DSUB output on TASCAM DB25. A 3.5 mm record output fed from the post master EQ signal. Each headphone monitor has both a quarter-inch and a 3.5 mm socket.

One master, and no second one. The guide documents one master output. MASTER is the "Main mix outputs for direct connection to the system PA" on balanced XLR, and there is one control for it: "MASTER LEVEL - This control sets the output level for the main XLR mix outputs." No TRS master appears anywhere in the rear panel output list, so unlike its six-channel sibling this mixer has no second master to feed a separate zone from. That job falls to the booth outputs or to the DB25.

There is no microphone input. There is no microphone input. The rear panel input list runs to the two returns, the RCA line inputs, the phono buttons and the DB25 connectors, and stops. A microphone needs its own preamp feeding a line channel, and there is no phantom power anywhere on the mixer to run one from.

What is not stated clearly enough to publish. The manual describes the record output as feeding "the post Master EQ signal as a pre-fader record output", which is internally ambiguous as written. Post master EQ is published here. The fader relationship is not.

Sends and returns. Two stereo AUX sends on impedance-balanced TRS. AUX 1 is switchable pre or post fade, AUX 2 is post fade. AUX 1 carries a PRE FADE switch and its default is post fader, with the switch in the up position. AUX 2 is always post fader from the panel, and the guide notes an internal option that makes AUX 2 follow AUX 1 pre or post. That option is inside the mixer, so it is a service decision rather than something to find during a line check. Two stereo returns on TRS, each with TRIM, a drive circuit, metering, a LOW CUT filter, a CUE send, a LEVEL rotary and its own routing into the master filter.

The two return switches act on both returns. Neither return switch belongs to one return. LOW CUT is labelled RETURN 1-2 and attenuates the low frequency response on both Return 1 and Return 2, with a slope of 6 dB per octave set at 320 Hz at the minus 3 dB point. RETURN 1-2 TO MASTER FILTER sends both returns into the filter together. There is no way to treat one return and leave the other alone.

The returns distort earlier than the channels. The returns are built to distort and they start sooner than the channels do. Their peak LED lights above +8 dBu, which the guide says "is set lower than on the main channels due to the fixed Drive circuit", and it warns that "signal levels above PK will activate the distortion circuits". A return that has turned dirty is usually a return that is simply too hot, not an effects unit going wrong.

Where the returns come from. The MODEL 1.4 returns come from the TRS jacks and nothing else. Its guide describes the return connection as four quarter-inch TRS jack sockets on the rear panel and stops there, with no DB25 feed and no normalling. Its six-channel sibling has a second DB25 input that its return jacks are normalled to, and this mixer does not, which is one of the few genuine circuit differences between the two.

The DB25 ports. TASCAM DB25 is a studio connector, not a booth connector. If an install is wired that way, a visiting DJ cannot improvise a replacement lead, and finding out what sits on which channel before the first track is the difference between a set and a search.

LINK is not a network. LINK IN and LINK OUT take a 9-pin female-to-female DSUB cable and let two of these mixers share a mix bus and cue between performers. It is a proprietary link, not Ethernet and not a player network, and it will not join a booth network of any kind. The cable is a 9 pin female to female DSUB. The guide accepts an inexpensive computer RS232 cable as long as it runs pin 1 to pin 1 and so on, because the mix bus connections are fully balanced, and it strongly recommends an audio grade cable for best performance.

Linking needs a switch, not just a cable. A link cable on its own does not pass the mix. One of the two mixers has to be assigned to send its bus down the cable to the PA and booth monitors connected to the other one, and the assign switch is not on the panel: turn the mixer over, find the 3 mm hole under the back right rubber foot, peel the foot back and press the switch through it with a thin blade. The guide also says to check that the same switch on the other mixer is not selected, and its own diagnostic is that a mix failing to reach the other mixer usually means this switch is wrong on one of them. Two assigned, or neither assigned, both fail. This is a load-in job with the mixer upside down, not something to attempt with a set running.

Power and size. An external 90 W 24 V universal-voltage PSU with a locking connector. Power consumption is 45 W maximum. The manual gives 370 mm long, 250 mm wide, 115 mm high, from the manual and 5.00 kg.

The power connector. The power connector locks and it goes in one way round. The flat face of the plug faces left as you look at the rear, the pins line up, and the plug pushes fully home until it latches. It comes out by pulling back the spring-loaded sleeve on the plug, which releases the lock. None of that is obvious in a dark booth, so it is worth doing once in daylight.

Related: There is no USB, so a laptop brings its own interface Two numbers that are printed two ways

Your hearing first. The MODEL 1.4 drives headphones harder than most club mixers. The guides carry one hearing warning and it is blunt: the headphone amplifiers are capable of driving sensitive headphones to very high sound pressure levels, which could result in permanent hearing damage. With 850 mW available on Cue A, the level control belongs down before the headphones go on.

Power, in the order the guide gives it. There is a stated order for power, and it is the same instruction at both ends of the gig. The guide: "Make sure the rear panel POWER SWITCH is in the OFF position before connecting or disconnecting the power supply." So the switch goes off before the supply goes in at load-in, and off again before the supply comes out at load-out.

Two things the guide tells you not to do. Two prohibitions come with the supply. The guide says the shipped supply was chosen for this mixer and not to use any other type, "as it could damage the mixer or impair its performance". And it says never to unplug the connector by pulling on the power lead, because that can damage the locking mechanism.

Where this equipment is meant to live. These are Class A devices, tested for use in a commercial environment. The compliance statement says operation in a residential area "is likely to cause harmful interference in which case the user will be required to correct the interference at his own expense", and it carries the Canadian classification CAN ICES-3 (A) / NMB-3 (A). That is a statement about where the equipment belongs, not a fault report.

Faders and the warranty. One line of the warranty is worth reading before buying a used one. Allen & Heath write that "The warranty does not cover fader wear and tear", on a mixer whose channel faders are the only transition control it has. The warranty runs one year from the date of original purchase, is not transferable, and asks for the unit to go back in its original carton.

What is not published, and is not invented here. Neither guide carries a cleaning, storage or servicing section. There is no fluid named, no interval given, and no operating temperature or humidity range printed anywhere, so none appears here. Neither guide mentions a fuse, a fuse rating or a fuse holder, on the mixer or in the external supply, so no fuse is named on this page.

Related: The rear panel, and what is not on it The pre-gig checklist

Short answer. The MODEL 1.4 has no software to version. There is no firmware. No version, no update, no release notes, and no firmware section in either manual. What it has instead is a document, and there are two published copies of the same issue of it.

Where they differ. Two copies of the MODEL 1.4 Issue 2 guide are published and they differ by one sentence about the cue buttons. The copy filed as AP11008_W adds, straight after the Cue A auto-cancel line, that "Pressing two Cues simultaneously will latch both on." The other copy of the same issue does not carry it. So auto-cancel on Cue A is not unconditional here, and the exception is a deliberate two-button press rather than an accident.

Why one sentence is worth a section. A document version is the only version number this mixer has. The sentence that appears in one copy and not the other is the sentence that decides whether a two-button cue press is a mistake or a technique, which is not a thing to discover with a set running.

The conformity paperwork. Both guides state conformity with the European Electromagnetic Compatibility directive 2014/30/EU and the European Low Voltage directive 2014/35/EU, and both warn that changes or modifications to the equipment not approved by PLAYdifferently could void the compliance of the product and with it the user's authority to operate it.

Related: The master section, and why it is not an isolator Safety

Is this the newer version of the six-channel mixer?

No. The MODEL 1.4 is not a later MODEL 1. The number means MODEL 1 with four channels: Richie Hawtin's own words at launch were "a smaller format MODEL 1 with four channels, perfect for the home, as a compact club mixer, or as a nimble tour instrument". Both mixers stayed in the line, five years apart, sold alongside each other.

Does it have a crossfader?

No. There is no crossfader. It is not fitted, not optional and not removable, and it is absent from the complete control list in the manual. Every transition happens on the channel faders.

How many turntables can I run?

Two. Phono is on channels 2 and 3 only. The manual: "Channels 2 and 3 are also equipped with an RIAA pre-amplifier for use with turntables." Two turntables is the limit, and a third deck needs an external phono preamp that a venue is unlikely to have to hand.

Which channels take a turntable?

Channels 2 and 3, and no others.

Is there a USB port?

No. There is no digital audio anywhere in this mixer. No USB port, no audio interface, no converters and no clock.

What bit depth and sample rate does it run at?

Bit depth and sample rate are not applicable rather than unknown. There is no digital path for either to describe.

Does it do MIDI?

The manual documents no MIDI, on either mixer, anywhere. One review describes the MODEL 1 as having MIDI capability; the manual is the primary source and it has none, so this site treats MIDI as absent.

What firmware version should it be on?

There is no firmware. No version, no update, no release notes, and no firmware section in either manual. A whole class of booth failure cannot happen here. There is no update to be behind on, no version that stops talking to a player, and no boot into a bad state, because there is no software in the audio path to do any of it.

How do I connect a laptop?

The computer connection is TASCAM DB25 out to the DJ's own audio interface. The mixer is the analogue end of that link and supplies no interface of its own, so a laptop set needs one in the bag.

Where is the bass kill?

There is no 3-band EQ on a channel and no bass kill. Nothing on the strip will remove a bassline the way a kill switch does.

Why is the filter not affecting my channel?

The resonant filter is a single SHARED MASTER filter, and a channel only reaches it through that channel's FILTER switch. A DJ who does not find that switch has no resonant filter at all.

How many master outputs are there?

The guide documents one master output. MASTER is the "Main mix outputs for direct connection to the system PA" on balanced XLR, and there is one control for it: "MASTER LEVEL - This control sets the output level for the main XLR mix outputs." No TRS master appears anywhere in the rear panel output list, so unlike its six-channel sibling this mixer has no second master to feed a separate zone from. That job falls to the booth outputs or to the DB25.

Is there a microphone input?

There is no microphone input. The rear panel input list runs to the two returns, the RCA line inputs, the phono buttons and the DB25 connectors, and stops. A microphone needs its own preamp feeding a line channel, and there is no phantom power anywhere on the mixer to run one from.

Do I need to do anything before plugging or unplugging the power supply?

There is a stated order for power, and it is the same instruction at both ends of the gig. The guide: "Make sure the rear panel POWER SWITCH is in the OFF position before connecting or disconnecting the power supply." So the switch goes off before the supply goes in at load-in, and off again before the supply comes out at load-out.

Do the two published copies of the manual agree?

Two copies of the MODEL 1.4 Issue 2 guide are published and they differ by one sentence about the cue buttons. The copy filed as AP11008_W adds, straight after the Cue A auto-cancel line, that "Pressing two Cues simultaneously will latch both on." The other copy of the same issue does not carry it. So auto-cancel on Cue A is not unconditional here, and the exception is a deliberate two-button press rather than an accident.

What fuse does it take?

Neither guide mentions a fuse, a fuse rating or a fuse holder, on the mixer or in the external supply, so no fuse is named on this page.

How big is it and what does it weigh?

370 mm long, 250 mm wide, 115 mm high, from the manual, 5.00 kg. One retailer lists 8.5 kg, which is the manual's PACKED weight rather than the unit's. The mixer weighs 5.00 kg and the box weighs 8.50 kg.

Can it be rack mounted?

Neither manual mentions rack mounting, rack ears or a rack kit. Rack mounting is not documented by the manufacturer, which is not the same as saying it is impossible, and this page says only the first thing.

Is it still made?

No longer available new from mainstream retailers. Every shop checked lists both mixers as gone, while PLAYdifferently still publish the product page and the manual for each with no end-of-life notice of any kind.