Desk Comparison Advice

[Pattern123]

We are looking to upgrade our old Yamaha Desk at a School, it doesn't have enough channels for us any more with only 10 Mono and 2 Stereo. We are looking at something 16 Mono and 4 Stereo (Tend to have quite a few noise sources with DVD, PC, MD & CD) so I am looking at the Yamaha MG24/14 FX and the Allen & Heath Zed 24. There is a difference of about £250 between them, the Yamaha has 2 channels of built-in FX and the Zed24 has none, but I could buy external effects for the difference in price - so any thoughts as to which one is better? Or any other suggestions?

[J Pearce]

I can recommend the Zed. We bought a Zed 428 last year and its been great.

The kids find it intuitive and simple enough, while it has enough features and quality for me and the more advanced music tech students to get some very good results out of it. Its sturdy and the built in soundcard is very useful for us.

 

I've never been a huge fan of yamahas smaller analogue desks, the small 60mm faders annoy me and things just don't seem to be where I want them. That said if you've already had one then you may be better off sticking with them.

 

The fx on the yamaha desks aren't worth £250, for that money you can get some good quality reverb units, so maybe the A&H works out to better value.

[Bobbsy]

The EQ section on the Zed 428 is 4 band with two swept as opposed to the MG which has only 3 band/one swept. For anyone who knows what they're doing, this is a big selling point--but I guess it's also more for the inexperienced and unwary to get wrong.

 

Certainly the MG is easy to drive and lasts well even with the abuse a school tends to give--my son's old high school has one and it's still going strong after almost 10 years now.

 

If it was me, I'd prefer the A&H though.

 

Bob

[bassnote]

what about the Allen & Heath WZ3 16:2 MIXWIZARD which seems to be going cheap at the moment £800

 

only has 2 stereo inputs which have only level only and take over the effects channel.

 

but good series of desks that sound good!

 

I have used some Yamaha decks and hate mixing on them.

[Pattern123]

Thanks for the feedback, I do like the Yamaha's myself, don't find the fader size an issue, particularly for student operators! I hate the mixwizards though, find the layout very clumsy and the sharing of buses and pathways a nightmare. The zed is much cheaper too and we do need the four Stereo channels, otherwise we'd need more Mono's!