gespot op newsgroup: Pro-Live-Sound over de toekomst van Mackie ?

What happening in 2003?

Laying people off
Moving 80% of high volume production to China
(Any surprise? get fortune cookie with mackie)
Dropping MDR and large format analog consoles(40/8, 56/8)
No new Digital consoles for now.



Zeer duidelijk taal over het Mackie design ?

Having Become increasingly more disillusioned about Mackie boards
(Mainly from servicing them - o.k I confess I still Run an SR32-4)when I decided to replace my Venerable old Yamaha MC802 (In sydney this is the size of board that goes out the most often Pokies have completely killed most reasonable sized Gigs)
I ended up going an A&H GL2200/20 and I have to say .... what a breath of fresh air I can pull a reasonable mix on the SR32-4 but the twin sweep e.q, the quietness, the flexibility and Routing etc etc etc. WHY THE F^)K DID I BUY A MACKIE!! several years ago .....
well actually at the time there was nothing much near it for the price the Soundcraft Spirit was twice the price in Aus but I wish now I had waited 12 Months or so.
My only negative comment is that the Pad switch does not indicate that it is also the Mic/Line Switch - had me stumped for a couple of minutes.
Sorry just had to express my delight in some forum this happened to be it.
Regards Richard Freeman
Olli Rajala wrote: - - Sorry if this is a stupid question.
- At least it shows up that I don't know yet much about this NG but it's not miracle because I have read this group just about a couple of days. -
  • - I have seen some messages that have said that man should avoid - Mackie's mixers.
    Why you said this? I've always believed that Mackie - is a good mark. Is the reliability in the Real Use (tm) the reason - for that? Or is there some other reasons? -
  • Probably best to do a google search on the subject, but to sum it up... Mackie might be ok (not great, mind you) for a small, amateur home studio. For professional live sound however, they have no real use. The term "pro" technically means that you get paid, but it also carries an underlying theme of reliability and competence, hence the term "professionalism." A Mackie console has no "professionalism". It's components are sub-standard and fail regularly, compromising it's reliability. It's competence is undermined by it's inability to do a good job when it DOES work. The mic pre's pick up RF better than my walkman radio, the EQ is less adequate than many others in it's price range, and the power supply does not deliver enough power to run all of the mixers' op amps without sagging, shutting down or failing all together. When you're in a home studio environment, you have the time to repair and/or work around these shortcomings. Your project can wait a few hours, or even days and weeks. In a live environment, the conditions are much worse and the time available to fix or circumnavigate problems is practically non-existent. Since a person who lacks reliability and competence is often considered an amateur, regardless of his payment status, I feel Mackie also fits in this category. Mackie is an unprofessional mixer whose shortcomings cannot be circumnavigated in a live environment. I believe this is why the regulars of alt.audio.PRO.LIVE-sound (a.k.a. the Million Dollar Snob Team, or MDST) do not recommend Mackie for use in a PRO or LIVE environment. Ralph



    "Jason Lavoie" wrote in message news:3b521738.154444290@news1.on.sympatico.ca...
  • have seen some messages that have said that man should avoid - Mackie's mixers. Why you said this? I've always believed that Mackie - is a good mark. Is the reliability in the Real Use (tm) the reason - or that? Or is there some other reasons? -
  • I asked the same question a while back, and I found it hard to get - specific answers. partly because some people on here are dead set - against everything mackie stands for, and partly because the rest of - the people are afraid to speak up. -
    snip
    - some say that since the mackie is built all on one board and since it - is made with surface mount components that it is more likely to have - trouble, but speaking from an industry that relies heavily on this - type of construction I'm inclined to believe that the mackie should be - more reliable (as long as it's built right)
  • That surface mount construction is one of the biggest shortcomings in my book and I'm also speaking with experience in an industry that relies heavily on SMD components. When using SMD components, they are first glued in place on the PC board and then the whole board is run through a solder bath that is around 700 deg F. Most components can withstand the short term high temperature of the solder bath without ill effects. Unfortunately, SMD aluminum electrolytic capacitors are not one of those components. Tests by the actual manufacturers of the SMD electrolytics reveal that the average working life of an SMD aluminum electrolytic is (a poor) 2000 hours when the temperature of component remains below 300 deg F. If the component temperature EVER rises above 300 deg F then the working life of the component is 1000 hours or less. The 700 deg F solder bath obviously raises the component temperature above 300 deg F, thereby degrading component performance. The degradation takes the form of electrical and physical leaks. The electrical leak will cause a circuit to consume more current than designed, meaning that the power supply has to work harder. In a device that has a marginal power supply to begin with, this will cause voltage sagging. The physical leak is the electrolye itself. Outside of the capacitor, it is corrosive and when it contacts the copper traces of the PC it begins to corrode them. You can bet that Wackie doesn't use any more copper than necessary, so the corrosion can do a lot of damage, possibly rendering the traces unrepairable. OTOH, only the leads of through-hole components are heated by soldering, not the whole component and the exposure time in the solder bath is reduced, since there is less mass to be heated. The only conclusion that I can draw from this is that devices using SMD aluminum electrolytics are intended by design to fail early. One would expect to find this design ethic in consumer grade products and I guess that's what class of product this thread is about. GK