Dan Gruner Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 Has anyone used a Midas Venice 320 (or any other desks in the "Venice" series) with the external rack-mount PSU? Does it make an appreciable difference to the sound quality and operating headroom of the desk? Interested in opinions here, since its an expensive optional extra! Thanks, Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mervaka Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 expternal supplies aren't really for this purpose, they serve as a backup should the internal one fail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Jeal Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 Why even buy a Venice they aren't a real Midas merely a rebadged Dynacord with an odd layout and less than useful aux configuration. For the same money you could get an A&H GL series desk with more facilities and the same if not better sound quality. Charlie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrighty Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 A mate of mine sold his Soundcraft GB2, bought a Venice and immediately regretted it. He's since sold his Venice and is now looking at getting a bigger Soundcraft or A&H instead. I've never used a Venice but one thing which stands out immediately (like the Soundcraft GB series) is a lack of input pads which, in spite of what Graham Blythe says about the mic preamps having enough headroom to cope with anything, is rubbish, IMO. I've had a loud snare mic'd up with a Beta57A peaking with the gain control on minimum... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob_Beech Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 What are you drinking Charlie. Bloody horrible things IMO. breath on the faders and you've suddenly found another 18dB. And they sound very abrupt, if that's a universally known word to describe a sound. They really do drag the name of the company down, same with the Verona. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Jeal Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 Mine's a Guiness Rob, I simply hate venices nasty nasty little things, I'm still not sure why our american cousins are so enamoured of them other than the "but it's a Midas" thing. The Eq sucks as do the preamps and those piece of ###### 60mm faders are a real pet hate as is the "interesting" choice of location for the phantom buttons.Once more with feeling it's not a real bloody Midas get over it. Charlie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbsy Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 May I have a pint of bitter if I chip in to agree completely? The Venice is a pain in the anatomy to use, the 60mm faders are amateur time and, though the EQ is okay, the sound is nothing special. If I was going to spend that money on an analogue board it would be A&H for sure...sounds just as good if not better and a joy to use compared to the cramped and awkward Venice. Anyhow, back to the OP...an external rack mounted power supply won't make one jot of difference to the sound. It's only offered to those who want a hot backup in case of failure. Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nag1_uk Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 Gary at Zique Audio uses one with his Sienna. He does say it makes a big difference in the sound but due to other issues does not like the desk at all. But then he far preferes the XL3 which is in a different league to the Sienna. http://www.zique-audio.co.uk/gear.html Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Jeal Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 External PSUs do not make a desk sound better full stop or are you one of these people who believes an iec lead that costs £1k will make your gear sound better? Charlie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mervaka Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 well if it *does* make it sound better, then the main power supply doesnt er... supply enough power? but I highly doubt that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nag1_uk Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 A Can of worms here but..... An internal power supplly will be of SMPS design which unless designed well could add high frequency noise to the audio signal etc. An external Supply could be of a linear and more traditional design and should not add any noise to the signal. I guess this is hard to prove and is just my opinion! :blink: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shez Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 An internal power supplly will be of SMPS design which unless designed well could add high frequency noise to the audio signal etc.I've not taken apart all that many desks, but I've yet to encounter an SMPS in an analogue desk. External PSUs always do seem rather more substantial than their internal equivalents; I imagine it's quite possible that they're built to a higher spec. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Gruner Posted February 13, 2009 Author Share Posted February 13, 2009 Why even buy a Venice they aren't a real Midas merely a rebadged Dynacord with an odd layout and less than useful aux configuration. For the same money you could get an A&H GL series desk with more facilities and the same if not better sound quality.Charlie Right... I asked a question with regard to getting an external PSU for the desk and NOT a debate on how "crap" you think a Venice is and how I "could have" brought a GL series desk. Read the topic! Put a GL series desk and a Venice side by side and I know myself and may other people would take the Venice any day for sound quality.... and yes, I have owned several of the GL series desks. External PSUs do not make a desk sound better full stop or are you one of these people who believes an iec lead that costs £1k will make your gear sound better?Charlie Is this your usual level of manners when addressing people? No, I am not "one of these people" who believes in £1k IEC leads and all that nonsense. There are several good reasons why PSU's are typically external to the desk, if this wasn't the case the manufactures wouldn't bother. Electronic engineering is one of my professions also, so I understand all the reasoning's behind this. Dan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Jeal Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 Dan, The comment about the psu improving sound wasn't aimed at you as from your posts over on PSW I'm pretty sure you're not a snake oil buyer. As for the Venice sounds better than a GL I'd put money on you not hearing a difference in a double blind test sorry to say but most people are hearing the badge on a Venice, they are not made by Midas but by the dynacord factory.basically buying with your eyes not your ears. I know a lot of our US friends on PSW have a lot of love for the Venice but more ppl dont like it. PSU's are typically external to a desk to minimise any noise generated by the power supply on those without an internal supply and to provide a redundant backup in the case of desks with internal supplies. The external supply will give you no improvement in headroom or sound quality as its simply an external version of the internal supply unless the internal supply is shot in which case you'd be better off getting it fixed and buying something else more useful with the left over cash. Charlie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mervaka Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 Dan: if you know anything on switch mode power supplies, I'm sure you can appreciate how an inline inductor can filter out high frequencies. oh and, +1 for the blind test. like I said originally, external supplies are for redundancy. switch mode power supplies really arent as bad as you make out, they're perfectly fine to use. linear power supplies are still suseptible to the 50Hz hum remember! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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