I am not posting this for the sake of taking sides with Mackie, but,,,....
knowing a little bit about marketing and profit margin,,, Mackie certainly did not choose to use this brand of ribbon connectors for the DL32R because they knew they would fail.
Then there are some folks who may think that Mackie knew that they would have a short life, but a life that is long ENOUGH to last a little past the warranty period.
I know I am guilty of that negative but logical opinion.
If Mackie spec'd to the manufacturer to use Brand X connecters, then the fault would not be the "cheap" connectors, but in fact Mackie's fault for not doing enough research on those connectors to determine their quality. In my humble opinion, Mackie did not have a couple of years to waste to determine if these connectors would eventually become intermittent.
Regardless, we all know that we live in a "throw away" world, and "things" today are just not worth being repaired when the hourly repair tech rate is considered.
So, I say all that to say this.... Y'all are not alone. I too have had to remove the lid of my DL32R and re-seat the ribbon cables, once in four years, and it is not hard to do.
When I consider how many years, and how many events my DL32R has completed flawlessly, the very occasional disappointment of a bad connection is something I have chosen to accept. That is not an excuse, it is just how I have decided to deal with the issue. There is no such brand of audio gear that is made in this country or elsewhere that is free of some type of eventual failure.
As WK mentioned earlier, gold plated connections are the best, but if Mackie used the most expensive, and most reliable components to build these mixers, they would not sell for a few grand. Even Digico consoles have major issues, so Mackie is not alone here either.
Just my opinion, and we all know about those
