This board was manufactured at the same time as a cost efficient alternative to the more expensive M-3700's The M-3700's were somewhere around $10k new while the M 2600 sold for about $3k or $4k.

Almost any analog board will work with a DAW if all you need it monitor with it ... I would not use even a M-3700 for the mic pres on critical projects, if I could avoid it. The M-2600 pre are most likely the same as those in the M-3700 series. The pres are ok but not too robust sounding ... not very warm or dimensional. Typical flat sounding, solid state, designed to a price point kind of mic pre probably along the lines of a Sytek kind of mic pre ... no where as good as a Sebatron or any of the boutique offerings from Great River, Vintech, JLM etc ....

I think even the less expensive Tascam stuff sounds way better than any Mackie or Behringer and I would be more than happy to have one (if someone gave it to me) to use to monitor my DAW but I would not spend very much to buy one ... certainly no more than what I could get a used Mackie for ... because there's just not very much demand in the marketplace for this kind of thing any longer.

thanks for the quick reply Kurt, you were kinda the one i was hoping would chime in the soonest, so thanks again. The reason for asking is that I have seen it for sale for only around 800 dollars, and it seemed like a decent deal....however, if the preamps are terrible, then i may just keep looking for a decent board, thanks again...

Probably a bit noisy on the preamp side, at least that was my experience with an M2524. Decent build quality, flexible routing. Very useable EQ. I really REALLY liked the EQ on the M2524.

If the price was right, I'd get it. I think you could even automate the mutes via MIDI.

I think a price in the low mid hundreds would be pretty fair for this thing...

I can think of some pres that are considerably worse than those found in Tascam products ... I actually have liked Teac / Tascam stuff for a long time. It's well built and lasts a long time ... I have some old Teac gear that is 20 years old that I still use everyday.

The pres in the 2600 / 3700's are not as good as what I call "real" pres but on the other hand, if you're not going to dump a lot of cash, the pres in the M-2600 will be as good as anything else available like PreSonus, RNP, Focusrite Platinums, Syteks etc. .... when you consider that, $300 is a good price for the board ... at worst, it would be a killer PA board. BTW, the 3700's were midi mutable but I don't think the 2600's were. Look and see if there is a midi jack connector on the board to be sure.

Kurt Foster wrote: I can think of some pres that are considerably worse than those found in Tascam products ... I actually have liked Teac / Tascam stuff for a long time. It's well built and lasts a long time ... I have some old Teac gear that is 20 years old that I still use everyday.

The pres in the 2600 / 3700's are not as good as what I call "real" pres but on the other hand, if you're not going to dump a lot of cash, the pres in the M-2600 will be as good as anything else available like PreSonus, RNP, Focusrite Platinums, Syteks etc. .... when you consider that, $300 is a good price for the board ... at worst, it would be a killer PA board. BTW, the 3700's were midi mutable but I don't think the 2600's were. Look and see if there is a midi jack connector on the board to be sure.

Yeah, I aree with Kurt on this one! I have the M-2600 mkII and even though the pre's are not the best, (IMHO) I think the board out perform the Mackie,etc. Actually, I think it's underrated giving the fact when it was introduced, about the same time as the Mackie 8bus, it didn't get the press and "hype" that the Mackie recieved. Sorta over-shadow under all the Mackie marketing! No, it don't have the midi features Kurt mentioned, that the 3700 has. For $800.00, I think it's worth it (IMHO). Hope this helps! 8)

wth happend to my post? i posted something but its not here :roll:
but i have a m1600/24 setup with my nuendo daw. it is a nice board and outperforms the mackie i had.
i might be getting rid of the 1600 soon b/c i'm gonna get a FW1884,FW1804 and 2 fe-8 expanders for my new setup

It's an absolutely useable console. I liked the 2524 better than the Mackies we had elsewhere. I did find that the pre's had a bit more hiss than I preferred, but if you can't make decent stuff with this console, something's wrong.

The EQ with sweeps and shelves was great, the routing and busing kicked Mackie's ass. I thought the 2600 would have MIDI mute, IIRC, our 2524 did. If it doesn't, that's still not such a big deal, living in the land of the DAW, as we do.

I used to bus out the PT outputs and mix to DAT with the 2524.

I've done a bit of work on this and a couple of 'other' Tascam consoles and this one is a nice piece. As was said "if you cant make decent stuff with this, something is wrong"
....I find this to be true with all B and C level mixers....including Mackie. A good engineer can find a usable sound on anything that has halfway decent specs...and the Tascams of this level all have decent specs.And decent EQ and very good routing...and the ability to work well past their expiration date...they are bullet proof.

I personally bid on one a couple of years ago off of Ebay and was willing to live with it no matter what...It went for $1130 and was bought at the last minute past my own $1100 bid...now they have to be less...I wound up buying a Ghost for a VERY good price and have not looked back.Tascam stuff will raise the IRE of some (mostly stuffy audio-jerks who think that anything less than what they think is good is bad) and the others who have used such gear for all sorts of projects, have gotten to 'know' its sound and workings and swear by it. Not many in the middle. Personally I think the audio-jerks are missing out on a lot of very usable gear because of this.Or maybe they like not having to work so hard for a great sound....lazy.

Davedog wrote:
Tascam stuff will raise the IRE of some (mostly stuffy audio-jerks who think that anything less than what they think is good is bad) .... Personally I think the audio-jerks are missing out on a lot of very usable gear because of this.Or maybe they like not having to work so hard for a great sound....lazy.

Why such negativity aimed at a whole segment of people? Actually most "stuffy audio jerks" I've met, kind of like Tascam gear ...and I count myself among them .. I have always like the sound of that stuff. At least Tascam doesn't try to market what they make as "used to record countless professional albums" or as something with "British EQ" like many makers of cheap table top consoles do. It is what it is ... but it's not a Neve and I'm not about to try to say it approaches the quality of one. The differences between cheap and high end preamps is not so much a tonal one (although it can be) but rather a sense of depth in the sound field. With high end ear, there's more sense of a front to back element in the sound, even in mono. Cheap pres, no matter how they spec out or how good a tone they get, simply do not deliver this effect.

As to "the audio-jerks are missing out on a lot of very usable gear", I don't think they would consider that stuff as useable ... I know I don't.

Regarding being lazy or not, I don't think I or these others are that lazy. Some of us have worked very hard to get what we have ... I have enough expierence to know I'm just not willing to waste my time futzing around with crappy gear that isn't going to make me happy when I'm done. Think of it as perhaps some people being capable of hearing differences others don't ...and being willing to recognize it, rather than living up the "River Denial".

Anyone who thinks there's no difference in the quality that can be recorded between high end gear and budget equipment is either deaf, living in "Never-never-land" ... or is just full of sour grapes. You can fool around with cheap mics, going into cheap preamps, eq's and compressors and fool yourself that there's a world of difference if you move the mic an sixteenth of an inch but in the end I suspect that what people think they are hearing is more placebo effect than anything else. I'm not saying that placement doesn't matter ... it does but so does the gear you are using. If it didn't all the top engineers would be recording with a Behringer mixer.

Bottom line, there is no substitute for quality mics and front end. I will put my raw unmixed tracks recorded with my 9098's, Sebatrons, STT-1 and MP2NV, up against anyone's recorded with cheap mixers, eq's and mics for comparison anyday. Don't disrespect a person just because they can afford stuff you can't. Perhaps they have different set of priorities that makes them able to spend more money on their music? Maybe they didn't have children or drive a nice car or spend money at Blockbuster every other night or move into a new house every two years? ... You never know until you've walked a mile in their shoes.

I guess its best not to say anything aimed at 'tongue-in-cheek humor'....

I'm sorry, I didn't see the humor in calling people "stuffy audio jerks" ..... it seemed more like a jab at someone. My bad, now I get it. Ha Ha!