soundcraft vs. Allen & Heath

For the money?

  • Allen & Heath

    Votes: 25 58.1%
  • Soundcraft

    Votes: 18 41.9%

  • Total voters
    43

Kasey

New member
Are Allen & Heath boards worth the extra cash? i'm using this board for front end and post production.
 
I'm reffering mainly to the soundcraft M series. And with the Allen & Heath, probably the mixwizard.

i'm not asking which one is better. I'm pretty sure most people will say allen & heath is better. I'm asking if theyre worth the extra cash.
 
Ive seen this post a gazillion times. Allen and heath baby.... If you want better look at crest audio. They make a compact board similar to the 14x4x2 Mix Wizard. Routing is going to be even with soundcraft or AH, but the pre's and eq's are better quality in the AH. The mix wizard pre's are good for drum tracking, headphone monitoring via aux sends and mix monitoring . I would have a good outboard pre for single tracking (vox,guitar,etc...)
 
i have owned several Allen/Heath desks in my time and never had any problems except for wear. they are solid pieces built with well thought out circuitry.
 
Some people may prefer Crest audio consoles opver Allen heath, but I for one am not one. My gig yesterday with Tesla just reconfirmed that belief. They used a Crest V12 ( Crest top of the line console). It was absoluteley horrid. The slightest little clip on the Crest resulted in horrible popping noises. Other Crest consoles are the same way. Other than that it functions OK, but that issue alone is enough for me to never touch one if at all possible. That is also why Crest never made or sold very many consoles, and why more often than not they are listed on riders as unacceptable and not reccomended.
 
I am a SoundCraft M Series Mixer user. I really like the sound and the features of this mixer, especially the Digital Output. My only complaint is the Aux Sends are phono plugs as opposed to 1/4" plugs. That is really lame. I had to buy 1/4" to phono cables, not a big deal but just a stupid design.

I have never used the Allen Heath Mix Wizard. However, after looking at the layout, it would not work for me. All of the connections are made in the back of this unit. I use my mixer on a recording desk and I am constantly changing inputs and using the Aux Sends for different outboard gear. If I had to turn that mixer around every time I wanted to connect something it would drive me nuts. Just my $.02.
 
I have never liked the feel of the A&H faders. They are way to loose and all the knobs feel really cheap and plastic like. My main FOH desk is a Soundcraft MH3 and I love the thing. Even when you get into the high end desks like the MH series or the upper level A&H boards I think the MH series is designed much better. The VCA assign seems more intuitive as dose the mute automation. The M series pre's sound fantastic (the same used in the Ghost recording line. Although for recording I chose the Soundtracs MRX 32. If your interested in a 24 channel soundtracs board let me know I can point you in the direction of a good used one.

Goodluck,
Kyle
 
sajs said:
II have never used the Allen Heath Mix Wizard. However, after looking at the layout, it would not work for me. All of the connections are made in the back of this unit. I use my mixer on a recording desk and I am constantly changing inputs and using the Aux Sends for different outboard gear. If I had to turn that mixer around every time I wanted to connect something it would drive me nuts. Just my $.02.
The connections are adjustable 90 degrees so you can have them up top(desk usage) or out the back (rack usage).
 
xstatic said:
Some people may prefer Crest audio consoles opver Allen heath, but I for one am not one. My gig yesterday with Tesla just reconfirmed that belief. They used a Crest V12 ( Crest top of the line console). It was absoluteley horrid. The slightest little clip on the Crest resulted in horrible popping noises. Other Crest consoles are the same way. Other than that it functions OK, but that issue alone is enough for me to never touch one if at all possible. That is also why Crest never made or sold very many consoles, and why more often than not they are listed on riders as unacceptable and not reccomended.

Awesome advice.
 
gcapel said:
The connections are adjustable 90 degrees so you can have them up top(desk usage) or out the back (rack usage).

Not exactly, the connections adjust 90 degrees to the back for rack mounting
 
I have a soundcraft m4 (which I'm currently selling in the free ad's but not because it doesn't sound great) and I really like the sound of both its pre's and eq section. I think the Allen and Heath pre's might be a bit more bright but the Soundcrafts are not muddy at all. I've stacked up many tracks with a great deal of clarity and I think the pre's are perfect for recording drums. Very thick yet punchy. However, the Allen and Heath's offer a lot more routing and connectivity. So I think they're both great products for different reasons.
 
I just downloaded the MixWizard's manual, it states:

" the rear connector pod cab be easily rotated for rear facing or underside connectors when rack mounted".
 
sajs said:
I just downloaded the MixWizard's manual, it states:

" the rear connector pod cab be easily rotated for rear facing or underside connectors when rack mounted".

Exactly. However, rear facing works for me on the desk.
 
KamikazeKyle said:
I have never liked the feel of the A&H faders. They are way to loose and all the knobs feel really cheap and plastic like. My main FOH desk is a Soundcraft MH3 and I love the thing. Even when you get into the high end desks like the MH series or the upper level A&H boards I think the MH series is designed much better. The VCA assign seems more intuitive as dose the mute automation. The M series pre's sound fantastic (the same used in the Ghost recording line. Although for recording I chose the Soundtracs MRX 32. If your interested in a 24 channel soundtracs board let me know I can point you in the direction of a good used one.

Goodluck,
Kyle

Allen Heath uses Alps faders in their products. So does Soundcraft. However, different models of each use differnt quality of Alps faders. As for the preamp myth, when I talked to the guys at Soundcraft, the M series DOES NOT use the same preamp as the Ghost (which is not all that either) but a preamp based on the Ghosts preamp. Much of the other integral circuitry is different as well, so an M series does not sound like a Ghost.

As for the MH series stuff. Price to price, the Allen Heath ML series still beats out the MH when you factor in features. Also, the VCA routing ion my opinion is MUCH better on the Allen Heath than the soundcrafts. If you do not like it that way, you may want to avoid Midas as well. Now you mention high end desks as well.... I certainly would not place either the MH series or the ML series in that category. I do like the aggessiveness of the Soundcraft MH and series 5 EQ better though:)
 
if you do not like it that way, you may want to avoid Midas as well.

Well I'm used to working on the MH3 constantly so the features feel more fluid to me. But unfortunately I've never been able to work on a Midas desk as much as I would like to the chance just hasn't arisen quite yet. Well technically I was trained on a Midas. It was a DDA Q-Series board with the Midas Logo on it but it didn't have VCAs, or Automation of any kind but it was a fantastic board. In fact I have a chance to buy it this fall and I do plan on it despite the fact that the fantom power is blown and two channels are down due to dust problems.

~Kyle
 
Be ware before and if you buy it... There are not many similarities between what people now consider to be a Midas, and what that DDA is. I know there are some personnel similarities between DDA and Midas if you look back aways, but what people consider to be the real Midas (Heritage series and XL 4) really bear no resemblance to anything from the DDA line. In fact, the only Midas console from after the XL3 that really "failed" was the DDA contracted XL200. People were actually sup upset about the quality and the sound that Midas stopped making it.
 
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