Cacophony Forums
Unofficial Mackie User Forums => DL1608/DL806/DL32R/ProDX Mixers => Topic started by: sam.spoons on April 14, 2014, 06:47:52 PM
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The X18, "DL killer" :lol: is looking close to release. It appears to have all the features we'd like the DL to have, built in wifi, USB multitrack recording 4 x fx engines, combo sockets on all channels, phono I/O, PC, Mac and (third party) Android apps and US price is reputed to be $799. If it'll work as a stage box for an X32 (when I get mine) I may have to buy one :eek:
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Nope, won't work as a stage box. I inquired on that a while back. It does not have the aes50. There are features you missed. One being programmable gains. Having these are HUGE!
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Yes JL, you're right, I'll try to read the manual at some point.
The 'stage box' comment was slightly light hearted, I didn't really expect it to be the case :(
I hope to buy some flavour of digital desk later this year (especially as I've just finished a production of Sweeney Todd on a GL3300 and outboard, a digital desk would have made life considerably easier) favourite ATM being an X32 Compact but I'm still considering A&H Qu and others. If it ends up being an X32 I may eventually replace my DL with an X32 Rack as it will double as a stage box. TBF the DL is still a great mixer and the other option (and the one I'll follow for the time being) is to keep the DL for my 85% smaller gigs and buy the bigger digital desk for the few bigger gigs, hiring in a digital snake when I need one.
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It's still worth selling the dl while you can. The used market, and new, will plummet when the x18 comes out. Why rent a stage box when you can add that cost to what you sell the dl for? Then work a deal for the rack. I sold my dl and paid less than $250 difference
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Yup JL that's definitely up there amongst the option list. OTOH the cheapest option is always to use what you already have. Hire of an S16 and CAT5 will probably be less than £20 a day so would be an economical solution to the occasional bigger gig. A weeks hire would be more expensive (I'd guess £50-60) but the theatre gig I've just finished has an analogue multicore installed.
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Looks like Behringer has been looking in on the DL1608 wish list. When does this puppy hit the streets and how much is it going for?
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Street price is $799 vs the dl's current $999. I really doubt the dl can stay at $999 when a far superior product is $799. And with the X series popularity the x18 should be a huge hit.
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Depends on your definition of soon Sam! I wonder how many more DL's will be sold before this materializes in "September or October" according to the Behringer rep?
The X18 has a good feature set but by that stage the QSC Touchmix should be there to throw the cat amongst the pigeons. If it's priced properly, it could be the one to get.
I heard a rumour A&H were bringing out a product similar to the DL as a ZED series replacement/upgrade/alternative, very interesting times if you're looking for a new compact mixer :)
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I'll almost certainly be buying a digital desk with faders before the end of the year, it won't do all my gigs, probably only 20% or so but if I'm to use an X32 on my higher profile gigs I need to learn how to use it so hiring one in for each event is not an attractive proposition.
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I have to be honest, if the X18 had been available when I decided to buy the DL, I would have bought the X18 instead, especially with its wealth of features compared to the DL. But now that I have the DL and have used it, I wouldn’t switch at all even for the difference in price between the 2 products. The DL more than fills my particular needs. 8) What's the old phrase? "I'd rather fight than switch." <=== Just kidding ;)
Sorry 'bout the error on the name. (X16 :eek:) :facepalm: I changed it to correct one, X18 ;)
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With the X18 looking like being 2015 before it gets to Blighty I guess I can defer the decision regarding the DL for a bit. Sweetwater are advertising he QSC Touchmix 16 for $1299 (list $1799) that makes it a lot more expensive than the DL or the X18 (more even than an X32 Rack). It'll need to be bloody impressive to tempt me to spend that much money on one. :o
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You know we're going to get stiffed on the price of the Touchmix over here Sam, and the X18 will probably be £800 :(
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Oh yes, was it ever thus. For UK prices take the US price and swap the $ symbol for this one £ >:(
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The issue I have most with Behringer is that they are quick to advertise their vaporware and it takes years to hit the market. Back when I saw the X32 first at NAMM it tool over 2 years to materialize. I got tired of waiting and purchased the DL1608. Was interested in the iX16 to replace the DL1608 and that product will never come to market. I suppose that will be replaced with the X18 if that ever materializes. I'm not holding my breath ::).
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The x18 will materialize. What behringer did was to add in things that would future proof the ix16. They had some limitations they wanted to remove. Of course there are always limitations. They more than certain were following the dl1608 threads. And they decided to add the things most of us were asking for. The x18 will be an amazing piece. If it was out when I bought my rack it would have had a big debate on my hands. I probably would have still gone with the rack because since then I have spent over $15,000 upsizing my pa. I have gotten a lot of sound gigs and need more ins. The rack is cutting it for now. It has 22 ins. 23 if you count the talkback mic which apparently is usable. I haven't tried it yet.
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So, with the eventual release of the X18 and QSC TouchMix, will this pressure Mackie to bring feature loaded software updates to Master Fader and a better hardware version in the future?
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$64,000 question that is :facepalm: I'd like to think so but I'm slightly worried they'll bring out new hardware and stop supporting the DL1608 mk1. Don't get me wrong, it won't stop being a great mixer but it'd be nice to think we've got a few more improvements on the way before that eventually happens.
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Sent an email to "DL1608.Feedback@mackie.com" and received quite a nice reply from Ben Olswang and the last line in his email says: " We’ve got more cool stuff in store for the DL so your mixer will only get better with age. Happy mixing."
If you take it literally, obsolescence for DL owners won't happen too soon. Maybe, hopefully a few more years before we need to consider upgrading or changing platforms? I'm hoping for at least 5 years of good use from mine barring any new iOS/iPad updates, etc etc. I have the 30 pin dock connector and am willing to buy a lightning tray if I have to change out at least one iPad to keep my current DL. After that, who knows?
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That's encouraging and Ben is a straight guy, he gained my respect on the old forum fielding some difficult questions from the bolshie lot on there (most of whom are on here now) ;D
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I kinda got that impression of him from the emai and the very fast response to my email. I hope that customer service will turn out to be just as supportive too.
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Hey JL,
I'll wait and see. Probably won't ever need over 16 channels. To me it's all about the footprint of equipment. Smaller is better for me. I just sold my Behringer XL3200 analog board because it was just sitting in storage :(.
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Future Proof????? Can't be done. Even Behringer's products will have to compete with better products and they will fail as quickly as the DL did. (Oh? That's right, it really hasn't failed yet.)
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I do like my DL but i am getting frustrated with it's form factor. I would like a rack mounted mixer like the 32.
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That was my thought when I first had the DL but, with hindsight, a rack box would be bigger, it would probably have connectors and/or controls you need access to on both front and back panels and it would not have the iPad dock. I like the DL as it it, it fits in a small ally case (bolted into the lid on a home made 'rack mount' tray)
(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15685857/DL1608%20case%20b.JPG)(https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15685857/DL1608%20case%20d.JPG)
and everything I need to see is on the top panel. Suits me fine (ok, I'd like the numbering/layout of the gains and input XLRs to be consistent, farthest row of gains equals nearest row of XLRs, not intuitive but I've got used to it) 8)
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I currently have mine in a soft case originally used for my Presonus 1602?. It holds my WAP as well. But the top is attached and drapes over the side when open. What I really want to do is to be able to rack up my IEM and power unit all in one box to save wiring time and space. :thu:
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Currently my bag does allow me to leave my 30' 12 channel snake plugged in and I put the stage box in the front flap.
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I just bought the rack mount kit and placed it in my mixing stack where my MixWiz used to be. That way, I can leave the outputs, Aux 1 and 2, my DriveRack PXs and wireless mics hooked up. Honestly, I don't like hooking everything up every time I set a mixer up. (Something I need to do for recording through my Alesis MultiMix 16 firewire mixer. It doesn't get used very often.) I do want to move to a lighter weight mixing rack. (I've got two amps in my stack. But one only weighs 8 pounds.)
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Wynnd, that's the way to go and I know you realize how much time is saved as well!! Here's my setup, I made up three cable runs that are permanently hardwired in my rig, one for stage inputs, one for amp rack and one for drum kit. I show up for a gig, whip out three runs and done in ten minutes, breakdown is even faster!
(http://i1318.photobucket.com/albums/t647/tommyrimshot/00b59a89da03ef93e60ff9c6cb58facd_zpsb363284d.jpg)
(http://i1318.photobucket.com/albums/t647/tommyrimshot/49edccc4ebadc9dea160ef5aada106b1_zps78c82045.jpg)
(http://i1318.photobucket.com/albums/t647/tommyrimshot/Mobile%20Uploads/26D63196-3882-4ED2-986B-9171D91BDEC6_zpsl2urjpia.jpg)
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I do several different line-ups and configurations of monitors and I use all active speakers and no outboard so I don't think I could save setup time by having anything else hardwired (the router and PSU are permanently wired up in the bottom of the case, just take the lid off and plug in an IEC mains lead). The compact size of the case is also an attraction, as I've mentioned elsewhere the whole rig (sub, 5 x tops, desk, mics, leads etc) will fit in a VW Golf, a big rack would not.