Soundcraft 500 series

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A.David.MacKinnon
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Soundcraft 500 series

Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Thu Oct 27, 2016 6:28 am

I'm looking for a new console for my mix room and came across one of these at a decent price (and apparently quite good shape). Does anyone have experience and opinions on this series? I have an old 1S that I use for mobile work and I like it quite a bit. I've also used a 600 in my live sound days (it's the same as the 500 with different aux and master options i think?) and I liked it quite a bit although it was years ago and it was in rough shape.
I'll be using it this thing mostly for out of the box mixing so mic pres are less important to me than good sound, flexible EQ, good routing options, etc, etc.

Opinions?

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A.David.MacKinnon
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Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Sun Oct 30, 2016 5:36 am

Wow, I forget how sleepy it is over here now. Oh well. I bought it anyway. Delivery is this week. It was flawless. Not a scratchy pot anywhere. The worst I could say was that the type had worn off of some of the mute buttons. Beyond that it looks like it's been delivered by time machine from the early 80's.

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Nick Sevilla
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Post by Nick Sevilla » Sun Oct 30, 2016 6:57 am

You should be happy with this console. I only used one once in a live situation. It was good.

Cheers
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

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Post by The Scum » Sun Oct 30, 2016 1:33 pm

The 500 was sold as a "live sound" brother to the 600. The inputs and master module are all the same. The difference is the subgroup strip - a 600 has one subgroup and two tape returns on those strips, where the 500 version has two subgroups and two tape returns...leaving the 600 with 16 tape returns, and the 500 with only 8.

Interestingly enough, the double-subgroup module from the 500 got recycled on the 6000, which has 16 or 24 subgroups & tape returns. It also has some tweaks to the channel modules - updated mic pre and panpot circuits, and assignable mute groups.
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A.David.MacKinnon
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Post by A.David.MacKinnon » Sun Oct 30, 2016 7:17 pm

Nick Sevilla wrote:You should be happy with this console. I only used one once in a live situation. It was good.

Cheers
Me too. My first live sound gigs were on a beat to hell 500 or 600. It was a wreck but had it's charms and still sounded good.

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