Great Sound 
by Pedro from Newark, CA, June 2008
Music Background:  Vocalist

My review is from a musicians perspective, not a sound engineer. It is based merely on the sound that enters my ears from a loudspeaker or headphones.

The Onyx 1640 was my first ever mixer. I did not know how great it sounded because I had nothing to really compare it to. Now that I have owned a VLZ, and currently a Midas Venice, I can truly say that the Onyx is, for me, the best sounding mixer in it's class. I sold my Onyx mixer a couple months back on ebay in my quest for the best sound out there, and that is why I went with the Midas Venice. After using the Venice now for a couple months, I find myself missing the Onyx. The Onyx Pre's sound incredible! They sound exactly as advertised. They have a warm, flat, response. I beleive that the pre's alone make this board worth buying. I find the pre's on my Venice to have a peircing, hard sound. The Perkins EQ is great. It boosts/cuts in a way I cant explain really. You can hear it working, but at the same time it does not degrade the sound / source. Very smooth. The Venice has an extremely touchy EQ, and very noticable when applying. The Onyx board layout is perfect. All the knobs are positioned in a way that makes mixing quick and easy, very much like my Venice. The Onyx is built tough. Not as tough as the VLZ or the Venice, but damn close. The only thing that I think the onyx small format mixers need are sub group inserts, again... like the Venice. This would save an engineer/musician some money on outboard gear. I just can not believe that something that sounds so good can be this inexpensive. After having used the Venice, I can not believe how they get off charging SOOOOO much for a Mixer that is, in my opinion, not as good as the Onyx. Even if you believe that the Venice sounds better, the +/- margin is extremely small. I will give the Venice a go for a few more months, and then decide to keep it or go back to an Onyx, because right now I am trying to hard to like the Venice. I should not have to feel that way after the 3k I spent on it. OUCH!

  Best Pre-amps & EQ's Mackie eve made! Slight compromise on build quality! 
by Sonic Sculptor from Chester, WV, May 2008
Music Background:  Live FOH Engineer, Recording Engineer/Producer, musician

I've used this mixer since they were first introduced primarily for project studio recording and video. The pre-amps are very transparent unless you push them hard, in which a little color comes out. A good color, though not much. What goes in- is pretty much what comes out. The EQ's are very nice, though only 'really' useful for live use, as the signal goes straight from the pre-amps to the firewire card. Great for live recording, as mixing does not effect the recording as long as you don't move the pre-amps around. Would be nice if, pre-/post eq could be chosen for firewire card. Seems many folks have 'modded' their 1640 to do just that. Made in China and it show's. Build quality is 'good' but not up to past mackie standards. I would not stand on this board, and I doubt it could take the fall out of a truck, as past Mackie users have sworn previous models have withstood. Knobs are not as tight/solid as they could/should be. They wiggle a bit.

All in all- good console for the $$$. Firewire card works well, though Mackie has just announced plans to begin their own software developement group. ABOUT TIME! To my knowledge -not Vista compatible as of yet! (i don't care!) Uses 2-4% of pc resources when ON! Again, pre's are very clean and transparant, eq's are grand. Many configuration possibilities, will adapt well to real world use. Direct out via DB-25 connectors. Not questionable build quality, just less so than previous Mackie models IMHO.

Superior sound quality to ANY previous Mackie small-format console(I've used them all!!!) Best ever pre's, best ever EQ's.

  One small step for a modle series, one giant leap for sound quality. 
by JP from Jerico, VT USA, November 2006
Music Background:  Recording Student, Live sound, Music/Voice-over Enginering.

I purchased the Onyx 1640 as part of an upgrade/overhaul for my churches A/V system. When it arrived I wanted to test it out and just put it in the place of the VLZ-Pro 1642 it was replacing. After the service, a few people mentioned that "the sound was better today." I had made no mention of the change, and most of these people only notice when something sounds bad, not good.

I was astonished, the main reason for getting this unit was to make transitioning to digital recoding cheeper, I had no idea how much better the pre-amps were going to be.

The Onyx series my be pricier than an equivalent VLZ-Por model, but it is definitely worth it for the superior pre's and expanded I/O even if you don't get the FireWire expansion, especially with the same Mackie bomb proof construction.

My only complaint (I can't even justify penalizing the review for) is not even for the mixer its self. FireWire card only sends a stereo pair back to the mixer, which limits ability to use it for studio I/O.

  awesome 
by cypress sound , September 2006
Music Background:  semi pro recording eigineer

built in preamps are good
firewire connectivy is awesome
this mixer is awesome for live or studio
sweetwater has great service and support
it arrived 2 days after i ordered it
and they gave me candy with it

awesome 
by jcaldwell , December 2005

this mixer is awesome. i bought this right before our first gig, and the guy we got to run sound was really excited to see it. the routing options it has are quite impressive. yeah, it's a big step up in price from the other onyx mixers, but with mackie quality being what it is, you will use this for years and never want for more - which is what happened to the smaller mackie mixer i bought. it still runs great, but i had to keep coming up with clever ways to work with it since it had so few channels and routing options.

(see additional review of the great firewire i/o card.)

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