You can call the manufacturer and ask where you can listen to one. You can get the GC people to set up a few in one of their isolated rooms, as long as they know you will buy one from them, they will do it for you. They are in the sales business after all. All you have to do is ask... That is what I did. I listened to a GL2400 (exactly the same as my GL2800, minus 4 busses and a few extra features, but otherwise the same electronic signal paths throughout), and a Mackie Onyx 4880. the Allen & Heath shocked the store guy... it sounded heads and shoulders above the Mackie.jgimbel wrote:I might come off an as an ass too, and I'm not really in a place to be spending thousands of dollars on a console, but I'm just curious, how possible is it to use your ears when picking a console? It's easy to use your ears when buying a guitar that you can try yourself, or hear other people play, or a microphone that you can test or have heard many times before. But with a console, it doesn't seem you'd be able to go to a store and try out everything in their console section. It seems like you kind of just have to learn as much as you can about a console, then hope one comes up used or go buy a new one. In that case it's even easier to think the more you spend the better you'll be getting. I think a lot of those "it's cheap but it is actually awesome" situations rely on something being cheap enough you won't be losing much money by just getting it and trying it even if it sucks, which doesn't seem like something folks would be doing much when spending thousands on a console. So maybe you'd rely more on what other people say about a board, and that part of us that does say "you get what you pay for". But I've never looked to buy a console. I have one but I don't have it set up yet, it's sitting patiently in the corner of my room (which is killing me!).noeqplease wrote:I may come off as an a*hole, so here goes :mattcastore wrote:i don't know, i had a mackie 8-bus for a while and i didn't really like how the preamps or the EQ sounded. i liked all the features. i mainly got rid of it because i was able to sell it for $800 and buy the tascam m520 for $300. so that worked out okay.
i feel like my biggest concern with any console is going to be the EQ. i've been totally spoiled by always using super flexible ITB EQs, and i don't want to have to buy like ten channels of good outboard EQ and ignore the EQs on the mixer. seems wasteful. but i don't know if there are many consoles with really serious fully parametic EQ sections on them. which makes me think maybe i'm better off just sticking with what i have instead of buying a new mixer that isn't quite what i want.
In the audio world, please use your EARS, not your WALLET to make decisions about sound equipment.
Sometimes cheap is good, sometimes not.
I recommend you look at Allen & Heath GL Series. I own a GL2800-32 channel, and it is a dream.
Cheers
Also, using these forums to at least get a picture as to what is acceptable in the community, and then asking a friend for a listen to theirs is s great idea too.
Cheers
