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Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

My CR 1604 was finally giving up the ghost after several years of gig abuse, so I started shopping around. After looking at several that were more expensive or in this range I settled for the 1604LVZ4 because I had experience with this line. I use this board for live sound - our band playing out in clubs. I utilize the bus to send one signal to effects and two other channels to feed the Shure P2 wireless In-ear monitoring. While doing some band members one day, then the full band the nest day it was always the same response (in ear) "Wow this sound just like a studio" or "Wow this sounds just like when I played Reno and all was in ear!". The clarity and fullness of the sound through Onyx preamplifiers is amazing. Lots of range and head room and I appreciate that the trim pots are on top with the rest of the channel individual adjustments. To make it easier, I bought the kit that takes the input bank section and flips it horizontal on the same plane as the controls surface - it comes with a bulletproof heavy bottom plate section and longer side rails for the mounting. I put in in a SKB protection case. Setting up the levels is pretty easy using the solo function and then adjusting the trim using the led level indicators. For break music you can use the RCA tape input for phone, Ipod and other forms of music input without tying up any channels. Great sound, decent functions (no, it doesn't have DSP for effects) and great volume level control on the aux bus! Heavy duty and sounds great. What else would you want. I has a metal case, not a plastic one!

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Verified Customer zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.

Sound way different than the 3 model... In some ways it sounds clearer.... But it doesn't seem to be as loud....have to do lots of tweaking.... I don't like the new slider knobs...harder to see where they are set. I'm not a big Mackie fan but it's the only mixer I can use for my application. To me they sound cold.... I had a PV I liked much better but they stopped making the unit I needed.... Mackie was the only one I could find in a similar price range....with the same head configuration feature. I've had several 3 models...they don't seem to last very long in road work. I do karaoke. So I'm constantly moving the equipment....I have road cases for transport so they don't get abused...

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