Phonic MR2443 16 channel mixer review (short story made long)
Keith Hess
others out there who are looking to buy a low end mixer.
The short story... I returned the Phonic MR2443 and got a Mackie 1402
VLZ-Pro.
The long story...
I decided to purchase a Phonic MR2443 16 channel 4 bus mixer from Mars Music
because it looked like a good deal at $449 including a Marshall MXL-V57M
studio mic for free (a web deal that I think is gone already). Upon taking
the MR2443 out of the box, I noticed that two of the white caps had fallen
off their knobs. No big deal, I just stuck them back on. I checked all the
other controls to make sure they moved smoothly and nothing else would come
off. Everything felt solid, no complaints about the construction. Knob
spacing felt a little cramped for my big fingers, but I suppose you can only
fit so many channels into a 19" wide rack before running out of space. With
the mic hooked up, the sound quality was nice and had good presence. I
don't know whether to attribute that more to the mic or what part the
preamps play in the sound quality. After hooking up all my other gear (two
synths, a drum machine, my pc, and an effects unit) and trimming everything
out, I was somewhat satisfied with the mixer for the moment. Although I
lack any experience on any other mixer, I did notice that there was a lack
of headroom between when I had the gains just right and being able to get
enough volume out of the channels. I set the gains for each channel by
listening to the device connected playing the loudest content I thought I
could get out of it, then adjusting the gain until clipping started to
occur, then I would back off the gain enough to give the channel some more
room in case the sound input got even louder to prevent clipping. I was
happy with the EQs on the mixer. The mid-sweep was a nice touch. And last
but far not the least... in fact, the reason I returned the MR2443...
With the headphones in the control room jack (otherwise known as headphone
jack), I noticed some noise that seemed to hang onto any sound coming
through. It sounded like mid-high frequency self oscillating static. I
disconnected everything but a single device, and the noise was still
present. After much twiddling, I isolated the noise down to the VU meter.
If I were to play a sound at a low enough level to keep the VU meter from
lighting up, there would be no noise. Anytime an LED on the VU meter was
lit, there was this ringing noise. And as the VU meter showed a louder
signal, the noise would increase in volume as well. I found this
unacceptable for my composing use since I would be using headphones most of
the time. Fortunately, this ringing static noise does not show up on the
main outs, or any other sends for that matter. I happened to notice on the
simple circuit diagram that the headphones and the VU meter share the same
signal path if that means anything.
I thought maybe this was a fluke with just the mixer I purchased. So I went
back to Mars and had them hook up another MR2443. Same problem. I even had
one of their salespeople experience it as well. I exchanged it for a Mackie
1402 VLZ Pro, which I am happy with so far but have not had much time to
spend with it. My impressions of the Mackie so far are, 1) It's heavy and
built like a tank, 2) there is much more headroom and it isn't so easy to
overdrive, 3) good layout - much more room for all the knobs - granted there
are some combined stereo channels and fewer overall channels on the Mackie.
Even on the Mackie, I notice some hiss when I push the levels up a good way.
I'd rather have an A&H, but this size Mackie is acceptable for the money.
This doesn't mean the MR2443 is a bad mixer for every use. It was just not
good for my home studio/midi composition use. I wouldn't recommend
purchasing one online/mail order if only to avoid paying shipping if you
decide to return it. Gotta have a 30-day return policy.
Keith Hess
I just hope somebody can learn from my troubles.
Harvey Gerst
Had you asked here first, I would have told you that an engineer friend
of mine was considering doing some design work for Phonic, and he said
their mixers, while ok as far as sound goes, were woefully "under
power-supplied" and they had a very high failure rate. A brand to steer
clear of.
>"Keith Hess" <kla...@usa.net> wrote:
Harvey Gerst
Indian Trail Recording Studio
http://www.ITRstudio.com/
Mike Rivers
> I thought maybe this was a fluke with just the mixer I purchased. So I went
> back to Mars and had them hook up another MR2443. Same problem. I even had
> one of their salespeople experience it as well. I exchanged it for a Mackie
> 1402 VLZ Pro, which I am happy with so far but have not had much time to
> spend with it.
Did they let you keep the "free" MXL mic when you exchanged the mixer?
Sounds like the Phonic mixer had a problem with its circuit board
layout and something generating noise in the metering circuit, perhaps
a multiplexer that drives the two meters alternately, was leaking into
the headphone monitor channel. They should have been more careful.
Good thing that you were. It may have had other problems that you'd
have discovered later on as you got further into it.
--
I'm really Mike Rivers (mri...@d-and-d.com)
Predrag Trpkov
(the Mackie 8-bus clone). Similar problem, only audible on all outputs,
including the main outs.
Predrag
"Keith Hess" <kla...@usa.net> wrote in message
news:XOmO6.4414$LT4.2...@e420r-sjo2.usenetserver.com...
Scott Dorsey
>Stay away from the (optional) meterbridge for Behringer MX8000 Eurodesk
>(the Mackie 8-bus clone). Similar problem, only audible on all outputs,
>including the main outs.
This is a very common problem, and it's not just on the low end gear
either. It's often the result of power supply contamination from the
fluorescent display.
I worked at a radio station that bought a new Radio Systems board, not
a cheap device, and found that the fluorescent discharge audition buss
meters were leaking noise into the cuing buss when they moved. Didn't
affect the program outputs and didn't seem to bother most of the
announcers, but it was annoying as hell to me until I threw some junkbox
caps across the supply leads on each of the meter boards and on the
cue speaker amp.
And you know that if it's bad now, it's just going to get worse in the
future as the electrolytics degrade.
The weirdest one I ever saw was one of the Broadcast Electronics FM
exciters, where the LED display on the front would actually modulate
the audio level a bit because lighting the LEDs was actually pulling
down the supply. THAT is inexcusable design work. Turns out that
keeping the display on dot mode instead of bar mode (so only one segment
was lit) solved the problem well enough.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
Analogeezer
they looked kind of cheesy.
Most things photograph better than they look in person (especially when the
photo is only an inch big), so I figured, "ok, now somebody is trying to
undercut even Behringer, pricewise".
About 10 years ago, Keyboard magazine did a shootout of mixers that were
considered suitable for submixing keyboards for live rigs and recording
purposes.
At that time, Phonic made a fairly nice looking rack mount 16 channel thing, but
they did audio spec testing back then (now Keyboard reviews really suck,
they don't actually do any actual tests, it's all subjective opinion) and the
Phonic was absolutely horrible. As I recall the Signal to Noise ratio was about
20 dB less than even the worst of the other brands, crosstalk between channels
was really bad, etc.
I think it was the only mixer they said "we can't really recommend this one",
and there was some pretty cheesy sub $300 stuff they were looking at.
I'm not a big fan of Mackie (although I admit to owning three pieces of their
gear), but the little mixers are pretty decent, good move on your part to trade
the Phonic in.
Analogeezer
j. taylor
Eeuuuwillll Hunnnnt
KFLEDMAN
things......Maybe the specs are horrible, but it gets the job done in my
apartment for now and was well worth the hundred bucks I got it for used
(although it has deteriorated into a 15 channel unit and I have no plans to
repair it...)
Ken Feldman
Stranded on the Island Manhattan
hear my songs FREE @ www.MP3.com/KenFeldman
(did I mention that was FREE?)
Ricky Hunt
the money. The preamps were unusable. The layout and operation was
confusing. I nor the Martians could figure out what some of the buttons did.
I don't even think it would pass as a line mixer.
"Analogeezer" <jst...@usgs.gov> wrote in message
news:2df27a88.01052...@posting.google.com...
fmdru...@gmail.com
mako...@yahoo.com
> Hi, would you mind telling me the specs of the power supply for the phonic mr2443?
the thread you responded to is over 13 years old..
Mark
hank alrich
--
shut up and play your guitar * HankAlrich.Com
HankandShaidriMusic.Com
YouTube.Com/WalkinayMusic
