Karaoke Forums

Mixers and Quality

Why do some Mixers cost so much more but offer fewer features? Typically, in mixers, you get what you pay for, and you really can't go by specs in terms of its durability. Quality components cost money, so does rugged, reliable construction. Keep in mind that mixers have many moving, mechanical parts. If you are going to gig with a mixer, it has to be pretty solid. The really inexpensive mixers often have less headroom, more hiss and susceptibility to picking up hum, so you have to be real careful about overloading it, wiring, and not EQ-ing as much. That is particularly true of older, used mixers you might find at online auctions. Today, however, the sound quality of most mixers, even the budget Behringers, is very high, and some say indistinguishable from mixers that cost 2-3 times as much. However, the inexpensive mixer may have wobbly, sticky faders and knobs. Or it may have had less than rigorous quality control at the factory where they were built. A mixer is full of complex wiring and circuitry and if even one of internal connections goes bad, it may be extremely difficult to fix. Warrantees and repair policies may figure into the price of a quality mixer.

There is also the matter of microphone preamps, which have to boost the relatively weak signal coming from a mic into useable line level signal. The cheaper the preamp, the more garbage will be included in the final signal. Now if you are just mixing synths (which are usually all at line level already, you don't need mic preamps. But if you are wanting to record acoustic guitars and vocals into your computer, you need good preamps. The Mackie's, for example, cost more, but are built like tanks, sound excellent, are great work surfaces, and they have their much hyped XDR preamps, which will not let you down. You might think that the Behringers, due to their inexpensiveness, might have bad preamps. However, they are in use in many home studios, and people often remark in my forums how good they sound. As people go more professional in their studios they typically get outboard preamps to bypass the mixer's preamps.


Courtesy of TweakHeadz (http://www.tweakheadz.com)