Like many of us here we probably migrated to the mackie DL from some other form of mixer, most likely an analog desk. I went from a Yamaha or Carvin desk to the DL. Since one band I work with had already made the change and I was impressed with the ease of use, it made sense for me to switch too. I liked having to only remember 1 board, at my age it's important to save brain cells.
At that time, and even now I had no expectation of the DL having every available feature, I knew I was not buying a DiGiCo board and at $800 and a used iPad I sure was pleased with the offering. Yeah, the FX were not the best, but I always had the option of using an outboard processor. For the average Joe, doing club and corporate dates it was perfect. I was not planning on doing big multi band festivals so that was not even a consideration. Larger shows that needed more inputs I have done I borrowed a X-32.
I have not been disappointed in the purchase to this date and feel the upgrades have added value to the money I already paid. Having subgroups, VCA groups, more routing options and the misc. upgrades
have been a bonus. Sure the lagging display period was not a pleasant time, but is now a thing of the past.
I have run the X and M series made by others and feel they are great boards with amazing flexibility and features, but comparing costs I still think for my needs the DL is great bang for the buck. My main gig has just switched to the 32R for this coming years shows with a little prodding from me, and we are able to put the patches together via Dropbox, very cool.
So while I agree with those that are supporters of the "other "
mfgs. that tout the wonders of their product that they offer a plethora of great features, I always keep in mind that the cost is 3 times the DL1608, and my needs are not at this time 3 times the capability of the 1608. So for now I won't throw stones at Mackie especially when they are stepping up with communication and product improvements.
