Near The Top of The B List--which console would you choose?

[Simon Fuzzy]

Hi All, this is my first post, so be gentle!

Like many of my colleagues in South Africa, I own a mid sized commercial studio that's pretty well received but, for various reasons (most notably the size of the local industry) would be called a production facility, or a C Room, by our first world counterparts.

There aren't that many top-end large format analog consoles that get sold here, but "budget" and mid sized Soundtracs, Ameks, DDA's, Soundcrafts so on do pop up second hand every so often.

So here's an opinion poll I put to the people who've used a wide variety of consoles: What would you consider to be a "bottom of the top" or "Good B studio" console?

An example. A while ago I replaced my previous desk with a Soundtracs Megas, which sounds pretty good although limited on the EQ side. Now A DDA DMR12 has come up for sale and I'm wondering if it's a significant enough upgrade to install the DDA and move the Soundtracs to one of my smaller branches, or if they're actually pretty much the same quality-wise and I should just leave the Soundtracs where it is.

Would really appreciate your opinions, as would many up and coming South African studios owners.

Thanks! Simon

[desol]

Harrison. I've seen a few go on ebay...from south africa.

[allencollins]

Trident 80 series

[Stormkloud]

Neotek Elan II

[phelbin]

Originally Posted by allencollins

Trident 80 series

Best sounding consoles under $100k.

[babelfeesh]

The Nintendo Wii

[DirkB]

You might want to look into the Audient ASP8024.

Good luck,
Dirk

[Simon Fuzzy]

Thanks for responses so far. I've used some Trident and really enjoy the sound. The Audient does seem to be exceptionally good value for money. Although if I was going to spend in that price range I'd probably spend a bit more on a Euphonix CS2000.

OK, cool, what about consoles below $10K?

Thanks again!

[Simon Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by Simon Fuzzy

An example. A while ago I replaced my previous desk with a Soundtracs Megas, which sounds pretty good although limited on the EQ side. Now A DDA DMR12 has come up for sale and I'm wondering if it's a significant enough upgrade to install the DDA and move the Soundtracs to one of my smaller branches, or if they're actually pretty much the same quality-wise and I should just leave the Soundtracs where it is.

Would really appreciate your opinions, as would many up and coming South African studios owners.

Thanks! Simon

By the way, any opinions on this? I have a couple of rooms so don't mind shuffling the gear around every so often and working my way up the console ladder