x
KurtFoster 14 April 2014

i've been noticing that a lot of the newer stuff they make in China has been breaking down, channels out, power supplies failing, effects boards not working . . sigh :( tons of it on c/l

They used to have a good rep for reliability things like "you can stand on the thing and not harm it " . . seems like no more. Not much better than crahpinger now . . disappointing. a perfect example of how a bottom feeder can bring the level of the water down for everyone. "A low tide puts all the boats in the mud" . you can tell 'em i said it. kf

Comments

RemyRAD Thu, 04/24/2014 - 13:02

What really upsets me is not so much their lack of quality control. That's a given. Americans are known to be a disposable society. Nobody fixes anything, anymore. Technology marches on quickly so you are expected to keep up, by regularly purchasing newer equipment. It's all planned obsolescence. Just another take.

What's really upsetting to me is all the talk about lowering our green footprint. Aren't we all supposed to work at this? And when the equipment doesn't last, can't be repaired, it goes into the landfill. All those dinosaur's oil, for nothing. But then again why do we need plastic bumpers over our metal bumpers on our cars? Everybody is a hypocrite! No one wants to spare creature comforts and visual aesthetics, to help save the planet. Why don't we have generic automobiles? Compare generic medications to brand-name medications and you save a bundle. We're going through some strange economic times around the world. You'd think... that people would think? But they are incapable.

I just want to pollute the planet with well recorded music. From old equipment.
Mx. Remy Ann David

Tony Carpenter Wed, 08/20/2014 - 14:40

In defense of Mackie, I have had a few Mackie mixers that worked well. The latest I am just giving up, no problems, was a 1640i Onyx it's clean, behaves under fire. Also does reasonable round trip latency. Just doesn't do what I want, talk to my faders on the screen :D. Now flying a MCU Pro 4.03 and extender instead, good solid, fuss free controllers.

Josh Conley Wed, 08/20/2014 - 18:16

ive only ever owned one mackie product, my HR824 monitors. they were used when i bought them 8 years ago and have been slowly falling apart since.

one is about 3 db louder than the other, but there is an adjustment knob on the back.

the hpf filter is a ?pole triple throw i never took the cover off to see how many terminals on the back, but they need changed and/or something else is shorting because a) theyre scratchy as hell and b) i have a piece of paper jammed on their top side to keep them from providing what can be described as an elliptical sloped filter at 1.2k and with 12 db of attenuation ;) aka shite ;)

also the outer faux wood grain sticker they put on mdf is peeling off everywhere.

woofers and tweeters are still mint.

on/off switch on lefty stays on in the off position unless i jiggle it.

is this normal for their age?
im guessing they could be up to 10 years old?

eventually they will have to be serviced by mackie, but im used to them so theres no way i can get something different now...

anonymous Sat, 08/23/2014 - 04:38

Back in the early days of my involvement with digital home recording, I was using a Digital Labs PCI card, and front loaded that with a Mackie VLZ 12 channel mixer - (This was my home rig, not my studio setup).

I never disliked the way the Mackie sounded, ( I sure as hell liked it a lot better than any Behringer stuff I ever heard) but after about a year, it began giving me problems on the 2-bus. I looked into it at the time and found that there was a ribbon connecting the channels to the 2-Bus, as well as to the "alt 3/4" output, that was known for having problems after about a year of use. The audio would cut out completely to both the stereo bus and the alt output. The repair would have run me around half the price of a new one, so I broke down and bought another (new) because Mackie had released a statement saying that the problems with the ribbon cable in the VLZ models had been addressed. Within 3 months, the new one started having the exact same problem. Luckily, I was able to return it and get a full refund, at which point I finally dumped the whole mixer approach and just went with a rack mount pre/I-O.

As a side note, while I would never consider "Behringer anything" for the studio, I do use a Behringer powered mixer for my live solo act, ( I bought it used for $100 in late 2006) and after almost 8 years, it's still going strong - and that's under continual load-in / load -out conditions, where gear is getting moved all the time, subject to all kinds of weather, not to mention rattling around in the back of my SUV -( because I get a lot of last minute gigs this time of year, I just keep my vehicle loaded with my PA gear, as opposed to moving it into the house all the time)...

So, under far more stressful conditions than the Mackie ever faced, the Behringer is still working perfectly after 8 years of live gig abuse... go figure.

FWIW

d/

Josh Conley Sat, 08/23/2014 - 07:19

isnt behringer known for reverse engineering other products, cutting corners on the design, then mass producing in foreign lands with cheap labor?

while not reputable or respectable, im living in a corprate oligarchy cleverly disguised as "american capatalism", so it would be hypocritical to judge based solely on questionable ethics. screwing over your neighbor to make/save a buck IS the american way. just ask walmart. anyhow, im full on rambling waaay off topic...

just playing the odds, you would think behringer "did it right" once or twice, and pulled off some fairly decent products over the years.

x

User login