Mackie 1604VLZ vs. Behringer IMP preamps

[bitman]

Is the mackie that much more sonicly bitchin?

This question is related to my post over here in the drawing board if it helps. http://www.groupdiy.com/index.php?topic=17758

:LSB

 

[Handcrafted Tone]

both suck pretty hard. Mackie actually sued Behringer at one point for stealing their designs.

Both are fine for simple live work or a monitoring system, but I doubt anyone here would recommend them for recording.

but to answer your question: No, Mackie is not more sonicly bitchin than Behringer.

:grin:

 

[jetboatguy]

Let's take this up a notch...
At my work, we purchased a Mackie ONYX series console... and I'm quite happy at the sonic signature of this console for it's price... the preamps have a nice even character (low frequencies is much more solid, less merky than the VLZ stuff) and the EQ's are more pronouced to the point of musical sounding... I recommend ONYX over the VLZ stuff anyday of the week... don't even get me talkin' about Berhinger stuff !? :evil:

 

[mhelin]

[quote author="jetboatguy"]don't even get me talkin' about Berhinger stuff !? :evil:[/quote]

How about the new Behringer XENYX line of mixers, aren't they supposed to equal or even better the ONYX line? :green:

http://www.behringer.com/2442FX/index.cfm?lang=ENG

The new XENYX Mic Preamp matches the sound quality, transparency, headroom and even the dynamic range of boutique-style, stand-alone mic preamps.

Our neo-classic?British EQ?brings back the warmth and musicality of those ?60s and ?70s mega-console desks that made music history."

 

[ChrioN]

I had an Onyx some years ago. Back then I was very happy with the sound. I don't think its crap at all. The build quality was killer.

 

[bergstein85]

[quote author="jetboatguy"]don't even get me talkin' about Berhinger stuff !? :evil:

How about the new Behringer XENYX line of mixers, aren't they supposed to equal or even better the ONYX line? :green:

http://www.behringer.com/2442FX/index.cfm?lang=ENG
The new XENYX Mic Preamp matches the sound quality, transparency, headroom and even the dynamic range of boutique-style, stand-alone mic preamps.

Our neo-classic?British EQ?brings back the warmth and musicality of those ?60s and ?70s mega-console desks that made music history."

[/QUOTE]

 

[JohnRoberts]

Marketing....

Read the data sheets.

JR

 

[Bo Deadly]

How about the new Behringer XENYX line of mixers, aren't they supposed to equal or even better the ONYX line? :green:

They're probably almost exactly the same. The preamps in pro-sumer mixers usually all the standard CFIA / Cohen topology which is basically as good as it gets for low noise / distortion at all gain levels. I haven't looked at the Behringer schems but the Mackie mixers made by LOUD Technologies are known to be quite good. At least the ones with more than 4-6 channels. Something like a Mackie VLZ3 or VLZ4 with 12-16 channels from Ebay for $200 USD is a great bargan. The only caveat is that if it breaks it's difficult to fix but for that price just buy another one.

 

[pucho812]

both suck pretty hard. Mackie actually sued Behringer at one point for stealing their designs.

Both are fine for simple live work or a monitoring system, but I doubt anyone here would recommend them for recording.

but to answer your question: No, Mackie is not more sonicly bitchin than Behringer.

it's more than stealing designs. It was the fact that at one point uli had a product out that the PCB layout was copied from a mackie design, down to the word mackie on the silk.

 

[CJ]

you can get API opamps on evilbay for like ten cents.

 

[JohnRoberts]

it's more than stealing designs. It was the fact that at one point uli had a product out that the PCB layout was copied from a mackie design, down to the word mackie on the silk.

its interesting how the old folklore gets distorted by retelling, it is pretty much ancient history at this point.

Some of us here lived through it fighting from opposing ditches. (He lifted one of my small mixer designs so closely his marketing pukes copied my spec sheet for their trade show lit they introduced it with.

JR

 

[iomegaman]

Just for info...Greg Wells swears by the VLZ for recording drums, has kept one for years and uses it on a regular basis...he posted this in the last 6 months.

I kinda trust his ears.

 

[pucho812]

its interesting how the old folklore gets distorted by retelling, it is pretty much ancient history at this point.

Some of us here lived through it fighting from opposing ditches. (He lifted one of my small mixer designs so closely his marketing pukes copied my spec sheet for their trade show lit they introduced it with.

JR

My buddy HR who worked at Aphex as an engineer has the distinct pleasure of having his Aphex unit as the very first product uli cloned. As hr says not only did they copy his layout, they copied the mistakes too.

 

[JohnRoberts]

My buddy HR who worked at Aphex as an engineer has the distinct pleasure of having his Aphex unit as the very first product uli cloned. As hr says not only did they copy his layout, they copied the mistakes too.

Uli started out making rack efx and I think that was a lawsuit he lost for ripping them off (Aphex was not the only company he nicked IP from but one of the few successful lawsuits). Over the years he got better at the game, and better lawyers. Peavey lost (didn't win) our lawsuit against him for ripping off one of my patents (FLS). I still get angry thinking about that. The one small mixer he knocked off wasn't copyrighted, but we had a patent on FLS (I also blame Peavey's patent lawyers for not writing and air tight patent).

He did worse than just copy, at a couple early trade shows he passed off competitor gear in his booth as his own. But that was in the early days of his large scale borrowing designs and building them in China cheap phase.

I friend of mine who wrote owners manuals for QSC noted how when they ripped off the QSC power amps , they copied the owners manuals word for word in some sections.

I repeat this is pretty much ancient history at this point but for some extra color... I recall at a NAMM show last century a few years after Uli was successfully knocking off Mackie 8 bus mixers, Greg (Mackie) wandered into the Peavey booth to chew the fat with me and whine about Uli. He joked about Uli copying his mistakes and all... This is from the horse's mouth. I was surprised to hear Greg admit that there were mistakes (Rick Chen was a pretty solid design engineer). Greg was not a regular visitor in the Peavey booth but this was a bit of an "enemy of my enemy is my friend" conversation.

JR