Allen & Heath DX88-P Install Expander, 8x8 Euroblock I/O, 96kHz, DX Link

Allen & Heath DX88-P: Eight-by-Eight Euroblock I/O for Installers

The Allen & Heath DX88-P is a fixed-install DX expander that presents 8 mic/line inputs and 8 line outputs on Phoenix/Euroblock connectors, purpose-made for permanent wiring behind racks and AV switchers. Where the portable DX168 uses XLRs meant to be plugged and unplugged, the DX88-P uses screw-terminal blocks that an integrator lands once and torques down for good. That single design choice signals its whole purpose: this is infrastructure for conference centers, multi-room venues and distributed systems, not a box that travels. It carries all 16 channels back to the host over a single Cat5 run and works across the full Allen & Heath professional range. For an installer thinking in field-terminated cable and equipment-room racks, it fits the way the job is actually wired.

Recallable Preamps Built for Distributed Systems

Each of the 8 inputs is a recallable Allen & Heath preamp offering 5 to 60 dB of gain in precise 1 dB steps, with switchable phantom power and a 20 dB pad for hot sources. Because every setting is recalled from the host system, a distributed install can be re-tuned or repurposed from a central controller without anyone visiting the rack. The specifications are genuinely professional: maximum input handling reaches +30dBu with the pad engaged, and equivalent input noise is rated at -127dB, so quiet lavaliers and loud podium mics coexist without compromise. Eight line outputs run at +4dBu nominal, up to +21dBu maximum, with an output impedance under 75 ohms for long, clean drives to amplifiers and processors. This is preamp performance sized for permanent audio, not a stripped-down install afterthought.

Cascade Expansion and a Single Cat5 Link

The DX88-P connects over DX Link on a single Cat5 cable up to 328 ft (100 m) on a locking etherCON, converting at 96 kHz. Its standout install feature is the DX B port, which lets you cascade a second DX88-P, DX164-W, DX012 or DX168 downstream from the first, growing the channel count of a room without pulling another home run back to the rack. That daisy-chain flexibility is exactly what large buildings need, where inputs and outputs sprawl across floors and zones. The box operates in simple plug-and-play mode or in cascade mode depending on how the system is architected. One thin cable and a chain of DX nodes can wire an entire venue's worth of I/O with minimal copper.

Euroblock Wiring Built to Stay Put

The choice of Phoenix/Euroblock connectors is the DX88-P's defining install feature, and it changes how the box lives in a system. Unlike an XLR that is designed to be mated and unmated thousands of times, a Euroblock is a screw-terminal that an integrator wires once, torques down and never touches again, so there is no connector to work loose behind a rack. It also lets cable be cut to exact length and field-terminated on site, which keeps a wiring closet tidy and serviceable. That permanence is exactly what a distributed conference or multi-room system wants, where inputs and outputs are commissioned and then expected to run untouched for years. It is a connector choice that signals the box is meant to disappear into a building.

Clean Power for Quiet Operation

The DX88-P is powered by an external 12V DC supply rated to 39.6W, and that external-supply approach is a deliberate audio decision, not just a packaging one. Keeping the mains transformer and its associated hum field outside the audio chassis reduces the chance of induced noise reaching the sensitive preamp stages, which matters most on the quiet lavalier and podium sources these install systems handle. A DC-powered box is also easy to integrate with centralized or backup power schemes that keep critical audio alive through a mains interruption. The result is a low-noise, install-friendly power arrangement that behaves predictably in a rack full of other equipment. It is engineered for the quiet, always-on reliability that fixed installs demand.

A Home Across AHM, SQ, Avantis and dLive

The DX88-P integrates with AHM matrix systems, SQ, Avantis and dLive consoles alike, so an integrator can standardize on one remote-I/O building block across very different projects. In an AHM-based conference or multi-room system, it adds balanced Euroblock inputs and outputs exactly where microphones, ceiling speakers and program sources terminate. In a performance space it extends a dLive or SQ system into back-of-house wiring closets without dragging a portable stagebox into a permanent role. Because the same box serves the whole professional range, a firm that installs A&H systems can carry one part and know it fits the next job. For permanent Allen & Heath installations that live on screw terminals and central control, the DX88-P is the expander designed around how those systems are truly built.