This may start a firestorm, but here goes!
So, I’ve been following all of the comments all over the net for some time on the DL1608. Of course there’s good and bad. There always will be with new technologies. Even before I bought the DL I was caught up in all the “should’ve been added features”. When it boils down to it, the way it is now is practical for anything I’m going to use it for. The biggest feature for me is wireless operation from anywhere in the venue. Yes, I know that you have to buy a separate compatible wireless router to use this feature. In an ideal world it should have been built in for the price they are asking for it. So should a whole bunch of other little features. That’s neither here nor there for me.
I could have saved up some more (a lot more) cash to buy one of the other brands with more features per dollar, but the ones that had the cooler stuff in this price range are not available yet. The Behringer X18 may show up sometime this year? The QSC TouchMix is not out yet. The other digital boards that are available like the X32 etc. are out of my price range at the moment. The Mackie was available now with features that fill the bill. I think Mackie pushed it out to the market to fill a need in that price range. IMHO they are a little behind the times now. I don’t know if the Line 6 StageScape came out around the same time or not, but it’s about $1000.00 more than the DL in Toronto.
I just purchased it this month, so I really debated a long time before buying. Where do we draw the line with all the desired features? I’m sure that now that I have purchased this particular iteration of the DL, they will probably bring out a version 2 model with some much needed hardware upgrades before the end of this year. (I know wishful thinking!) Myself, I am not going to jump until I’ve had a few years use out of it. By that time I’ll probably have to get to my gigs with a walker.
No I do not work for Mackie and if Yorkville had come out with something similar I would have jumped all over it. But they didn’t and probably won’t ever, or at least in my lifetime.
That’s my rant. Thank you to all that have taken the time to read this.