Product: Mackie 1604vlz
Price Paid: USD 500
Submitted
12/29/2006
at
02:27pm
by
tim
Email: timbr88 at sbcglobal<dot>net
Ease of Use
:
8
Manual and Operating guide are very easy to understand. Easy to use.
When working properly it delivers excellent sound. My unit appears to have been repaired before I got it. Doubtful of any upgrades.
Sound Quality
:
6
Great sound. No onboard effects. None needed. Add your own effects. My unit has an output issue. The left output dies out delivereing a crunchy output if any at times. I have had to increase the trim full up until the channel clears itself out. That just won't do during use so it pissed me off to no end and consequntly I refused to use it for a long, long while. Finally, after reading the Mackie on-line faqs forum its apparent that I was not alone.with this problem so before taking it in for repair I tore it apart and disconnected as many ribbon contacts and other wire harness connections, srayed electronics cleaner on them, carefully reseated them a few times, closed it back up and found it to be working real nice. For now anyway. So maybe that's it maybe I saved some money. Mackie recommends to upgrade the ribbons and contacts. That would not be cost effective for me. Otherwise I'm using it now for routing live band sound at the same time recording onto a 8 track recorder.
Reliability
:
5
I believe that the metal housing could be made with a thicker gauge material so as to stand up to any pressure on the chassis which in turn may distort the large pc board, solder points, and ribbon contacts. Some of those who have had similar issues with have posted their comments on the Mackie site. I wonder how wide spread the problem is? Mackie claims it's a rugged piece of equipment. I do not agree.
Customer Support
:
5
The Mackie site helped me repair my unit for the time being but the info came from other owners.
Overall Rating
:
4
Classic rock. 35 years. I would not buy it again because it's too expensive for me to afford. I just wish it will stay working the way it is now because the way it is now is working fine. There should not be any non-working issues thats tracable to a week chassis design and loose connectors or anything for that matter. It helps me enormously when working, when it don't work right it belongs in the trash for its unreliability. Hopefully you'll get a good one, but it shouldn't come down to the roll of the dice.
