You mean the TOPAZ project8 (24)?

I have one at my home-studio

... compared to the Mackie the Soundtracs has:
-better EQ's
-less Headroom on mix-bus

thats the one. would you consider it able to give the mackie a run for its money? also, are the bus outputs balanced? i would like to run it to the 8 balanced ins on my 1224.

Originally posted by natan666:
thats the one. would you consider it able to give the mackie a run for its money? also, are the bus outputs balanced? i would like to run it to the 8 balanced ins on my 1224.

I liked it more than the Mackie (SOUNDWISE)
The biggest difference made the EQ's.

An "easy-making feature" =
the desk employs an elegant floating-bus scheme, which allows you to record using direct outputs or the group bus, without repatching. The tape out jacks connect to your tape inputs and serve double duty as both direct outs and group bus outs. These work in conjunction with the bus switches on the channel strip. When the bus switch for a channel is not depressed, that channel's tape out jack functions as a direct out.

Unfortunately the:
Tape/Group/MainMix/MonitorMix/Aux/Studio/ControlRoom - OUTPUTS are unbalanced!
That's one of the CONS of this desk...

And you can't use all six auxes at the same time... Aux2 is limited to Monitor-Mix only!.. so you have 5 auxes of wich you can use 3 per channel... (of wich Aux1 is PRE-FADER only!)

Check out: http://www.topazmixers.co.uk/pages/prods/old_topaz/proj8_1.htm
for more info.

Here's a Quote from a review I found somewhere which seems to have the same opinion on the desk as I have (but says it better):

The Project 8 sounds fabulous. From the moment I first heard it, I was impressed by its sound quality. Even with the EQ set flat, I liked what the Project 8 did to the sound. With virtually any signal that I tried with it, the Project 8 imparted a very pleasing, slightly "compressed," yet natural sound. It tended to make all my mixes sound smoother even with the EQ set flat. So yes, the Project 8 does have a distinct tonal quality, but I like it. I felt it improved the sound of my recordings and mixes.

Another major plus for this board is its so-called "British EQ." Soundtracs has a winner with the EQ used on the Project 8. I can't say enough good things about it. The lows were tight without being boomy. The highs were crisp and airy, yet not shrill. The two mid-bands were well-defined without being muddy or harsh. In a word, the Project 8 equalization is musical. The EQ is a standout in this fine-sounding mixer.

The Project 8's mic preamps were very quiet. I used them with dynamic and condenser mics, and I was perfectly satisfied with them for a mixer in this price range.

The Project 8 also has plenty of headroom. I could always get ample gain for any signal I fed to the Project 8, yet I never encountered any distortion problems. The board is very quiet and is particularly well-suited for digital recordings. However, there was one slight problem. The peak LEDs on each channel tend to light at too low a level (that is, even though the peak LED was lit, I could still increase the gain quite a bit without hearing any distortion). The manual states that the peak LEDs should light 5 dB before clipping, but in fact they light at a much lower level. For example, when recording kick drum, the peak LED would be continuously lit, yet no clipping was present.

GRTX,
GIE

check it out yourself...?!

i will check one out personally as soon as i'm off the road, hopefully next month. i did write to soundtracs technical support (who were very fast to reply and thorough i might add), and was told that the outputs are unbalanced, however they are ground compensated and can be utilized with a standard TRS connection. i will definitely check this board out.