Jump to content

Help with buying a mixer


Recommended Posts

  • Members

Hello everyone. I would like some help with mixers. I am looking to buy a mixer for a small church. I looked to some brads like, mackie, behringer, carvin maybe yamaha. I would like to know what are de differences between them and wich one would be better for us. I look for some effects to be incorporated into the board. I looked into Behringer Eurodesk SL3242FX-PRO Mixer, Carvin C2444, Mackie CFX20 mkII Mixer. If you have something else i can look into let me know. Thank you all.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

There are a couple of things to be aware of. First, Yamaha, Mackie, Soundcraft, Allen & Heath have excellent track records for being very reliable mixers and giving years of trouble free service.

 

Behringer gets mixed reviews with some folks hating them, some liking them, but as a general rule, they don't get high marks for reliability. I have five Behringer mixers that have never failed, but still.. I like my Soundcraft and Yamaha mixers better as far as sound quality.

 

Carvin is an interesting brand. I never hear anything much good or bad about their stuff and they are priced pretty good.

 

Mackie is hard to beat. They sell a lot of product and are more expensive than most other similar mixers, but there are a lot of them out there and a lot of folks like them.

 

So.. just my opinion.. First.. Mackie. Second...Yamaha. Third..Carvin. Fourth...Behringer.

 

In reality, I would buy an Allen & Heath or Soundcraft first.. but as you said, those are over your budget. Check out the CFX Mackie mixers or the MG series of Yamaha's..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

FWIW, I've used the A&H Mixwiz and a Carvin concert series. Of the two, I prefer the Carvin, but they're both decent. I prefer having the inputs on the top of the mixer. Easier for setup. The main complaint I hear about the Carvins is that they're smaller and harder to use in the dark. For me, for storage and transportation, smaller is better, but keep that in mind.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I'd have to put Yamaha in the lead from the list you posted, obvious choices are A&H, soundcraft, bu I understand the whole budget thing. I guess there are plenty of Mackies out there, and maybe some are OK, I've never encountered a mackie that didn't develope problems (the last two churches I've run sound in had SR 24.4's and both had dead channels in under a year (and no, it was not from abuse....)

 

My band uses a Mixwiz, i love it, we have no need for subgroups, so it handles our input and monitor options well, and sounds friggin' great!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Hello everyone. I would like some help with mixers. I am looking to buy a mixer for a small church. I looked to some brads like, mackie, behringer, carvin maybe yamaha. I would like to know what are de differences between them and wich one would be better for us. I look for some effects to be incorporated into the board. I looked into Behringer Eurodesk SL3242FX-PRO Mixer, Carvin C2444, Mackie CFX20 mkII Mixer. If you have something else i can look into let me know. Thank you all.

 

Save your money and buy an A&H....;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

You might be able to buy a better but USED board somewhere local, even or at E-bay. I have made about a dozen ebay purchases of new and used sound equipment, all from different ebay sellers, and have not lost out yet. One guy took a little while, but finally the mic did come.

 

You might look for something from the Peavey RQ line, for a good deal... even new, as these are getting discontinued, I believe.

 

What I own is an Allen Heath Mix Whiz. I bought it used on Ebay, and have been very happy with it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I'd put the Yamaha first too as far as the Mackie CFX and Behringer are concerned . I heard a VLZ next to an MG3214 one time and there was a bit more headroom available on the Yamaha. Now my guess is that the CFX construction/internal processing/eq/pre/whatever wouldnt be any better than the VLZ -so therefore the Yamaha would be my personal choice between the two. Anyone else have direct experience with a Yamaha VS a CFX?

 

...I may be wrong -but I have a hunch.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

I haven't checked it out in detail but I suspect the UK mixers like Allen & Heath and Soundcraft work out a bit more expensive in the USA. So on a tight budget you might be best going for the Yamaha - which I haven't used but is well thought of.

 

Buying used is something I might do on a mixer with separate boards for each channel, but I wouldn't risk it on a down-market mixer. However, if you don't need the extra facilities you get on the Allen and Heath GL series, you could try the A&H PA28 which has the inputs you want and is more simply configured. It should be a lot cheaper than a similar sized GL. It has 4 auxes rather than 6 and they're labelled differently, but if you only need 3 monitors you may be OK with that.

 

I use mostly Soundcraft, but they don't seem to be quite as well made as A&H. Oddly enough, most classical engineers here like Soundcraft as the mic preamps are honest.

 

Let us know what you decide and how you get on ...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Hi, it's me again. Here's a rough comparison of UK prices for mixers, taking the Soundcraft LX7ii/24 channel as 100%:

 

Yamaha MG32 69%

A&H PA28 87%

LX7ii/24 100%

LX7ii/32 123%

Soundcraft Spirit live 24 160%

A&H GL2400/24 160%

 

So maybe there isn't that much difference between UK and USA.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Members

Carvin mixers are great.

 

behringer is not bad. Only prob I had was a bad XLR solder joint. That was from the cables inserted and removed often. most of these mixers are wave soldered instead of handsoldered where it matters (jacks). Reliability anymore is up in the air. Even on mackies. You hear good and bad on them all. Since this is a fixed station (permanent) Carvin would be a great board for the lowest end pricing. AH and Soundcraft and even Crest Audio are in the same zone.

 

good luck

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...