Where is the breakline between lexicons amature and pro stuff?

[tjohnston]

Im guessing somewhere between the the mpx stuff and the pcm stuff. I know that companies make some cheap stuff aimed at home recording only. Somewhere there has to be a line where the gear magically becomes professional. Im on a mission to find a quality reverb for vocals only. I have 600 hundred to spend on a reverb new or used.I dont care about usability just sound. I work like a slave for this stuff so its very important to me. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[littledog]

usually the most obvious distinction between consumer and professional gear is the kind of connectors (RCA vs. XLR), unbalanced vs. balanced, and outputting -10 vs. +4. Also, whether they have digital ouputs, (and whether they are SPDIF or optical vs. AES/EBU.

in terms of internal features, one of the main differences is how much control over the individual parameters you have (as opposed to having just set presets), as well as how much overall DSP horsepower.

By these standards, at least some of the mpx offerings could be classified as pretty close to being pro gear. Still, it's pretty safe to say that the more you spend on a lexicon, the better it will sound.

 

[Stefan Elmblad]

PCM would be pro, and the ones below that would be semipro or budget.

 

[pundit]

Yes the PCM series Lexicon gear is the more serious stuff.

If you don't have a huge budget I would actually consider auditioning a TC Electronic M-One XL
I chose this over a Lexicon MPX-550. IMO the it just puts more 'air' around everything.

How the Lexicon MPX-1 compares I can't say.

A PCM-91 I've used, didn't exactly totally smoke the M-One XL into oblivion, in fact for quite a bit of stuff I prefered some of the algorithims in the M-One. Basically it comes down to whether or not you prefer the TC sound over the Lexicon sound or vice versa!

Generally I find the TC verbs tend to have a more ambient 'airy' quality that really give the source clarity and presence without managing to bury it, and as a result I find myself hearing the source 'enhanced' rather the hearing the effect as a seperate entity, which I often do with other verbs... even Lexicons!

TC are about to bring out their TC Reverb 4000 which I think will smoke a PCM-91. It's basically a single engine version of their flagship M6000 Studio Reverb which seems to have taken over the mantle from the 480L.

I wouldn't hesitate to buy a Reverb 4000 based on my experience with TC verbs.

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