R: Loopers-Delight-d Digest V01 #389

["Luigi Meloni" <Luigimeloni74@libero.it>]

I was talking 'bout the series before the end of the controversy between 
the
two, but (as far as I noticed by opening my old series mx2004a and a new
one, just to polish some contacts) the only thing that the mackie succeeded
to do was to make behringer change the color of the mixers. As far as it
goes, the mic preamps are the same of the first vlz mackie bunch. And, 
using
my computer spectrum analizer and my akg mic , and recording the mixer
output directly to my lexicon core2 the result was exactly the same. And
remember that in Italy, where I live, the mackie cost 4 to 5 times the
behringer. With the list price of the 1604 here you'll buy the 3242 (32
channels, with a 24 bit multifx processor) or the 3208 (32 channels on 8
subgroups, a very close copy of the mackie 3208). And, namely, the mackie
and behringer are economic quality mixers (at least the analog mackies), 
and
really you get what you pay for, which is 90 % the same result form the two
machines, sonically speaking. And if I have to buy cheap chinese or 
japanese
components, I don't really care that much if they are assembled and boxed 
in
USA or in Germany, as far as the result is very similar.

Peace
Luigi

----- Original Message -----
From: Rick Walker (loop.pool) <GLOBAL@cruzio.com>
To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com>
Sent: Monday, July 23, 2001 10:58 AM
Subject: Re: Loopers-Delight-d Digest V01 #389


> Luigi wrote:
>
> "You could try giving a look at Behringers and Mackies (not to get back 
>to
> an ld discussion, but they are almost 90% the same)."
>
>
> Please forgive me, Luigi, but I have had a very different experience with
> comparing these two companies.
>
> Behringer, of course, reverse engineered the Mackies and were 
>successfully
> sued by Mackie.  In a strange twist, Mackie has let them keep selling
these
> ALMOST perfect copies at 1/3-1/2 the cost of the Mackies and, I suspect,
> that they are having to pay Mackie some kind of licensing
payment---although
> this is mere conjecture on my part.
>
> Where Behringer scrimped, unfortunately, are on the microphone preamps.
The
> Mackies are really incredible: very low noise, high gain and very, very
> transparent sounding. The Behringers are, by far, the inferior mic
preamps.
>
> When Behringer first put out their
> $100, two mic preamp mini mixer I got very excited and bought one for my
> pedal board for low tech blitzkreig looping gigs (one trip from the
car!!!).
> I just recently
> gave mine away because the mic preamps were so noisy and coloring of the
> sound.  They don't even compare to the Mackies even though the boards 
>look
> identical.
>
> Just a warning.....you frequently get what you pay for.   I actually
bought
> a $100 ART microphone preamp and use that to amplify my voice going into
my
> pedal board Line 6 which works great even though I don't think the  Line 
>6
> was designed for this kind of application. It is pretty easy to overload
the
> Line 6.
>
> My 2 cents.   Rick Walker (loop.pool)
>
>
>
>
>