Soundtracs Topaz 4-Buss mixers

[Roy Mills]

I have been looking for a mixer for a while and have been considering the Soundcraft M8. Mackie is also a possibility but a friend has one and what I’ve heard so far is a little on the sterile side for my taste, but features are quite good.

The opportunity has now arisen to buy a Soundtracs Topaz S24-4 mixer. I know these are discontinued but this one is still new and boxed and the price is the same as a new Soundcraft M8. My use for the mixer is nothing too elaborate, just multi-tracking guitars, drum machine, mic etc. and mixing at home from a Fostex D108 eight-track hard-disk recorder and a couple of outboards.

A search of this site has turned up quite a few references to Topaz mixers but mostly the 8-Buss variety that seem to be held in high regard. By comparison, the S24-4 seems fairly limited in features, but it’s quality I’m after.

- It has 10 mono & 2 stereo strips. Then the master and group section in the middle, followed by 10 more mono strips. All faders are 60mm like the Mackies. The M8 has 100mm.
- There are no direct outs, but the mono channels do have TRS inserts, so they could be used instead
- Eq is three-band, but all shelving - no parametric
- There are no clipping leds on the channels, so you have to use the master level meters

Despite these shortcomings, I have read that this is both a quiet and fine sounding mixer.

What are your views? Is this just a smaller version of the 8-buss Topaz but of just as good quality or are the mic pres and eq etc. of lower quality? If given the choice between a new Soundcraft M8 and a new & unused (but probably a couple of years old) Topaz for the same price which way would you jump?

Thanks for your time and expertise.

Roy

[dudleys100]

I would like to know this exact same thing. Does anybody know?