Used the DL32R For First Time New Year's Eve - My Overview/Review

[WK154]

Sounds more like an unbalanced cable in the mix somewhere. The DL's don't like unbalanced.

[robbocurry]

Sounds more like an unbalanced cable in the mix somewhere. The DL's don't like unbalanced.

Are you 100% sure this applies to the DL32 since it has an internal PSU?

[sam.spoons]

The issue with the 1608 was to do with the impedance balanced aux outs rather than the PSU as such. The DL32 has a 3 pin mains connector with a safety earth where the 1608 has a two pin mains lead with no safety earth, not sure how that will affect things though.

[RoadRanger]

The issue with the 1608 was to do with the impedance balanced aux outs rather than the PSU as such. The DL32 has a 3 pin mains connector with a safety earth where the 1608 has a two pin mains lead with no safety earth, not sure how that will affect things though.

US version has a three wire IEC power cord w/ground - yous guys don't?

[takis]

Yes, I am using balanced cables for everything...  I will try to fiddle around by lowering the output AUX1 volume and playing with the gain/trim on the input returns, to get rid of the hiss...  Will check in sometime early next week with my analysis.  Thanks for everyone's input again... 

Did another small club gig this past weekend with just 3 speakers, no micing of the drums either...  everythign was very clean... barely needed to do any tweaking of anything... again quick etup and breakdown and less equipment and wiring... so far so good.

[pytchley]

The issue with the 1608 was to do with the impedance balanced aux outs rather than the PSU as such. The DL32 has a 3 pin mains connector with a safety earth where the 1608 has a two pin mains lead with no safety earth, not sure how that will affect things though.

US version has a three wire IEC power cord w/ground - yous guys don't?

3 pin in France too.

[sam.spoons]

The UK version of the DL1608 PSU has a 'figure 8', I believe the DL32R is a standard 'kettle lead' euro 3 pin connector.

[WK154]

The issue with the 1608 was to do with the impedance balanced aux outs rather than the PSU as such. The DL32 has a 3 pin mains connector with a safety earth where the 1608 has a two pin mains lead with no safety earth, not sure how that will affect things though.

Sam I unfortunately have to disagree with your assessment about the noise source. In my prior pin one evaluation of the DL1608 the problem stemmed from the simple fact that the DL grounding system is at fault. It has nothing to do with impedance balanced or active outputs. It has to do with the simple fact that there are 3 ground planes that must be carefully controlled in the mixer. These are the chassis ground, analog ground and the digital ground and their interaction and points of connection. The fact that the power supply in the DL1608 is in two physical parts ( a 12V AC to DC external converter and internal DC to DC converters for all required voltages) and the DL32R is one piece is not really relevant. The power supply circuit design certainly is. Next time you have a chance to read the UK issued PWS model # it would be informative since the UK has a different approach to AC than the US. For those interested in the various parts of the Worlds systems here is some info.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AC_power_plugs_and_sockets
takis  it would also be useful if you stated the model # of the LEX you're using.
 

[sam.spoons]

I'm happy to bow to your greater knowledge WK, but without the 'pin one' problem would the other questions not be moot?

[WK154]

I'm happy to bow to your greater knowledge WK, but without the 'pin one' problem would the other questions not be moot?

Not sure what you mean by other questions? If you saying that the DL32R doesn't have a pin one problem has anyone tested for it? For those of you that may not be aware the output impedance of the DL32R is the antique 600 ohm Telco standard on all analog outputs. The Aux's on the DL1608 are 240 ohms balanced  except for L&R at 600 ohms. What does all this mean? The recommended input/output impedance ratio should be 10 or higher to avoid introducing unnecessary noise. That means the LEX should have an input impedance of 6K or higher. I doubt that. Correct that if it's a PCM-90 a popular LEX it has 100K ohms input impedance, no problem there. There is however a consumer/pro switch which needs to be set to pro (0dBu) with the DL otherwise it easy to overdrive the LEX and it explains the low output from the LEX.

[sam.spoons]

I mean that if the DL series didn't have the 'pin 1' problem the PSU would not be the cause of noise.

Just occurred to me, IIRC the noise issue on the 1608 has only been reported on the auxs (usually when unbalancing using a TS lead), the DL32R has all it's outputs on XLR does that make a difference?

[WK154]

I mean that if the DL series didn't have the 'pin 1' problem the PSU would not be the cause of noise.

Just occurred to me, IIRC the noise issue on the 1608 has only been reported on the auxs (usually when unbalancing using a TS lead), the DL32R has all it's outputs on XLR does that make a difference?

If there is no pin 1 problem then there should be little noise. The XLR on the DL1608 had the same results in my tests, but most other posters probably had a balanced L&R out in use.

[sam.spoons]

Yeah, that does make sense. I'd pretty much forgotten about the problem 'till this thread as all my rig is balanced.

[takis]

OK.. I took the advice of soemone where I boosted the Aux1 channel to the extreme - all the way to the top... and then lowered the return channels until a slight hiss started through the system - the fader went up about 1/2 way....  then on the say the vocal fader channel, went to aux1 to add the reverb from the Lexicon and palced it up about 1/2 way and got enough reverb that I needed without not allot of hiss...  but there was just a little...

For me, the topic is over until I hope Mackie upgrades their reverbs, or a 3rd party vendor has some plugins to install...

Thanks again  for everyone's assistance.

Taki