The Little Mixer That Could

[James91104]

In less than one year, will mark the 2012 Winter NAMM announcement and debut of the DL1608 & corresponding Master Fader App, followed by a Summer 2012 product sales release, and the reduced I/O count model DL806 follow-up in late Summer 2013.
Fast-forward to Spring 2021, the DL1608 hardware nearly unchanged except for a Lightning Dock swapped for the original 30-Pin Dock, is currently advertised for new product purchase via many of the same dealers & resellers as then and now, albeit in a more crowded segment marketplace.
While possible that this may be NOS (new old stock), fact is, instrumental in this longevity would be the upgrades, revisions, and the recently implemented platform compatibility of the Master Fader control App/Software, combined with an assumed average or better than, history of hardware failure rates.
Looking forward to dusting off myself & mixer for some live performance music mixing on a Dell 18" PC via MF5.x and docked iPad. Cheers

[Weogo]

Hi James,

    I think I got a DL1608 in 2013.
For many gigs, the 45# Yamaha 01V96 mixer and rack was parked and
replaced by the 11# DL1608/Ipad/router combo.
Last use was at a conference with two people speaking and two-track playback.
A volunteer easily adjusted levels with the docked Ipad-3.

    The DL16S usually gets the nod these days, or the DL32R for more ins/outs.
The DL1608, with one or two short, four-channel 1/4"TRS > XLR-M snakes, makes
a fine backup mixer for the DL16S.

    It's amazing what these units can do, compared to the old analog boards and racks of gear.

Thanks and good health,  Weogo

[WK154]

Yes Mackie's marketing started for the DL1608 at NAMM 2012 and the software was released before the product.  http://mackie.com/blog/check-out-preview-master-fader-control-app-mackie-dl1608    See the date of their announcement July 17 2012. They however didn't ship until late September with a useless V1.0. The real first cleanup and useful software was V1.1 in October 2012. I received mine at the end of September. They at that time had the 16 input mixer market to themselves in this price range with iPad control, but rested on their laurels instead of continuing development. The rest is history. They could have easily repackaged the DL1608 to a stage box/rack unit with minimal effort. Behringer didn't introduce the XR18 for another 2 years giving Mackie plenty of time.
Cheers

[nedorama]

I bought a B-stock DL1608 in November 2014 and it's been a great mixer - it replaced an original 01v in a rack, and it was great to have more power, more intuitive control and a smaller footprint.

I started with a 1202 in 1993, a LM3204 for my studio in 2000, bought a used 1402 in 2006, then a 1642 a year later, and then in 2009 the 01v. Still have a 402VLZ for small gigs, but just brought the DL1608 to a Memorial Day show we played to wrangle 4 mics, 2 acoustics and a monitor mix. So easy to dial in. I'm sure there are newer ones that are better, but this totally fits my needs.