mackie vs. yamaha mixers?

[ceroabs]

im thinking of buying a new mixer, can you help me plese in my choice mackie or yamaha?

[xstatic]

As an engineer and system tech, if you are buying a console for Live use, seriously avoid the Mackie. A lot of ytour choices will depend on budget, and features you need to recieve within that budget. Also, the Yamaha M series consoles should also be avoided. Not only do both consoles not sound very good, but both of them fall apart VERY easily. Our repair techs tell us that they see at least 3 times as many Mackies as anything else, and I have dealt with countless engineers that started losing channels, power etc... on Yamaha M series consoles within 3 weeks out on the road (brand new desks none the less). I would reccommend Allen Heath (for the price range and durability) or if you can sacrifice a few features, look at the Midas Venice. Best quality preamps and EQ hands down on any live console within $20000 of its price range, and I have carried one every where with me, never once have I ever lost a channel, had any crashes etc..., plus it is light enough for me to lift onto cases or table my self. 24 mono inputs, 4 stereo, 4 bus, 6 aux. At around $4000 this board is a steal.

[Ted]

Which boards in particular are you looking at? Both Yamaha and Mackie make different boards in different price ranges, and I may recommend either depending on what you're looking for.

As for repair techs saying they see three times as many Mackie boards as others...that may not be surprising or a bad indicator. I don't know what percentage of boards our repair guys see over another, but it wouldn't surprise me if they saw more Mackie boards simply because we sell so many more of them. If, for example, we see three times as many Mackie boards as Yamaha but sell ten times as many (again, this is justy hypothetical) that's not a bad thing at all.

-Ted

[Foreverain4]

ted,
i have a mackie 32-8. i really love the thing for its versatility. i have used it live, in my studio, and to record live concerts. i do, however, have two channels going out on me. the faders do not work til i am up around "0" then all the sudden i have a big jump. below 0 there is about a 10db difference and it sounds kinda harsh. any idea what is wrong? this probably is what is common in most mackies. how much do you think it would cost to repair?



lynn
www.therecordinghouse.com

[xstatic]

Actually, the reason is not that more Mackies are sold. The techs have given us a list of reasons why they see so many Mackies. Its is int the production. Basically all of the Mackies above the 1604 series have serious problems. One of the probs is the dead fader spots such as lynn is describing in the previous post, another is horribly scratchy and sometimes popping gain pots, bad crosstalk between auxes, there is a list a mile long. The bottom line is that it seems a lot of the problems are due to 2 specific things. 1) cheap parts in production (that is partly why they are more affordable though). 2) consoles are not pretected against dust, dirt, etc... well enough and the internal parts are obliterated quality whise by this. I think that there is some truth though to the ratio between Mackies and other consoles being related to amount of sales. But I also believe that to only compare to things like the yamaha, or Spirit , or Carvin or Behringer mixers. We don't see nearly as many Allen Heaths getting repaired though. That I think is why they are popping up more and more now. Its a tough market, a lot of manufactureres putting out a lot of function for a lot less money. But sacrificing quality seems to be how it happens. I don't blame them though. Thats what all too many people want