Which board for less than $1500

[Esurreal]

Alright. I need a good board. In my local area I have found the following boards.

1. Soundtrac Topaz w/+4 mod
2. Yamaha rm800
3. Tascam m2600
4. Soundcraft spirit powerstation
5. Hill 24x4x2
6. Yamaha MG32/14Fx 32
7. Mackie 32x8
8. Allen & Heath mix wizard2

I am most interested in the Pre's, but an all-around good board is important.
Any suggestions on these?

E

[kurtr2]

this shouldnt be in this forum.

[firby]

I have a M2600 mkII and I really like it. It sounds good. The eq is usable. mine has the meterbridge which I really like.

[Terco]

Whitout a doubt, Allen .. Mix Wizard, great pres, nice EQ, no practical noise floor.

[Snatchman]

Originally Posted by firby

I have a M2600 mkII and I really like it. It sounds good. The eq is usable. mine has the meterbridge which I really like.

I second the M-2600mkII.......

[aussie_techie]

i would take the wizzard. series 2 does have some noise, series 3 doesnt have any significant soise.

mackie onyx is another option.

[(DC)]

8. Allen & Heath mix wizard 16:2

My favorite. Great Pres, nice EQ...

Overall, it's a great selection.

[PhilRanger]

Originally Posted by kurtr2

this shouldnt be in this forum.

So where?

[AMIEL]

aLLEN AND hEATH!!

[bunnerabb]

My pres consist of 16 A&H 16:2 MixWiz, atm.
No complaints.
Surgical E.Q.
I sum to a different desk but the routing is dope.
16 pres with good E.Q, 6 headphone busses, preouts, inserts.
These are the pres that everybody says the PM 1k channels are.
Shit.. buy two.

[foldback]

I use a Yamaha MG32FX14 for budget rock location recording work. Before I bought it we did an A-B test with just about every mixer under $5K. We needed 24 real channel strips with mic pre's (not compromised line inputs).

Each of our field recording packs has a wiring harness that plugs into the insert points to route the preamps to a 24 track recorder module.

We made recordings with a variety of mixers and then headed back to the studio for some A-B comparison. The Yamaha had a real smooth and natural sound, not bright or muddy, just representative of what went in.

I liked the sound quality on the Mix Wizard and we experimented with it for almost a month but we had problems with the build quality on two of them.

In our testing we liked some of the older Mackie pieces better than Onyx.

The Behringer MX9000 had a ton of features, was low noise and the mic pre's sounded good but it was too heavy in weight for our application.

The Carvin Concert mixer had a nice natural sound but the noise floor was noticeably higher.

A small Soundcraft Folio mixer was also tested and it sounded surprisingly good tho slightly noisy and it did not have enough inputs.

In the end we chose the Yamaha based on sound quality and features, it has a natural and neutral timbre. The two free SPX signal processors in the Yamaha sound good and are very easy to use. Overall the whole workflow with the Yamaha reflects a lot of thought from all their years in pro audio. Hard to believe it can be had for under a grand at Guitar Center. Not a real heavy build quality, but we put them in roadcases and so far we've never had a problem.

[the russian]

If you can score a Mackie D8B, that's the ticket. That machine is a monster. The going price is about $2000 used, but a lot of the owners are desperate to sell. You can find them for $1200 from private sellers.

[Andrew Kinsey]

to the MixWizard!

[Esurreal]

Thanks for all the info fellas and fellettes. I checked out the mix wizard yesterday, but did not buy it because I want to check out the other boards too. haha. I'm going to try out the two yamaha's tomorrow. Anymore suggestions are welcome.

Also, do you think it's worth it to buy the mix wizard 3 brand new for $1000 instead of the mix wizard 2 used for $450?

E