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[Mal Brown]

How's the sound quality of the UI-16 ?  I have an SI-1 and 3.  Love the sound. Wanting to upgrade my personal mixer from a dl-1608 to well something...  the UI -16 will handle my band...  not for sound company use..

[Will Knight]

How's the sound quality of the UI-16 ?  I have an SI-1 and 3.  Love the sound. Wanting to upgrade my personal mixer from a dl-1608 to well something...  the UI -16 will handle my band...  not for sound company use..

Not familiar with the DL-1608 so a bit hard to compare.  I have a Ui16 as well as an Impact. Love the latter.  The Ui16 has had a history of maintaining wireless connections as it's a 2.5G only unit.  Majority of those bugs have been rectified in the last firmware.  I've not had any issues wrt sound quality for the most part though others on the forums have complained about noisy Mic Pres.  You may want to take a look at the U24  since that's a complete new unit built from the ground up and first impression by others who've made the leap indicates a major improvement over the U16.  Personally, I'm fine with what I use the U16 for at this time.  YMMV

Bill
 

[Christian Ekren]

How's the sound quality of the UI-16 ?  I have an SI-1 and 3.  Love the sound. Wanting to upgrade my personal mixer from a dl-1608 to well something...  the UI -16 will handle my band...  not for sound company use..

I purchased a UI16 around when it came out and while the device-agnostic web-based interface was very nice it had several drawbacks. The biggest by far was the unreliability of the wireless connection - even with a higher gain Wifi antenna, if the connection was lost to the controlling device it was almost always impossible to reconnect without restarting the entire console. Even persisted when using an external router and after getting a replacement unit from Soundcraft! The outputs were not relay-muted and would send the typical pop through any connected speakers still turned on which made an already red flag even worse. (You should obviously only turn anything upstream of the amps on/off with the amps off, but when you're in the middle of a gig using active speakers and your console crashes sometimes there isn't much choice..)

This may have been rectified by a new firmware update, however I ended up selling the unit last year after receiving less than stellar support from Soundcraft/Harmon on the issue.

Something that couldn't be fixed with a firmware update however were the preamps. I have never heard such a noise floor, especially with phantom enabled. It was impossible to use my Beta87c's on the console as turning the gain high enough to get a useable signal resulted in an incredibly loud hiss - which differed by up to 10dB on the meters between channels(!) I have not tried the Ui24, however if it truly was build from the ground up, it may be worth looking at. The system overall has a lot of potential and is a very good idea, but between the wireless issues and preamp noise and QC problems, unless something has changed substantially in the manufacturing process I would not recommend it.

I have heard good things with the X-Air series from Behringer (also available in Midas flavors if the B-word is a nonstarter). The app is not as good as the UI's or even the x32's, oddly enough. Allen and Heath also has the QU-SB, though it is quite a bit more expensive and the app is, in a word, terrible - though the system is incredibly stable. An X32-rack or even Core would provide a lot of room for expansion while offering rock-solid stability and one of the best apps available, though is also a bit more expensive..

[Steve M Smith]

I have heard good things with the X-Air series from Behringer (also available in Midas flavors if the B-word is a nonstarter). The app is not as good as the UI's or even the x32's

I use Mixing Station for my XR.  I prefer the version for the X32 to the official iPad app.

Both the XR and UI internal wireless systems are terrible.  I wouldn't use either.  An external router is a must, as is a backup hard wired laptop - although I have run many times for eight hours at a time with no disconnections.

Behringer also has the X-Touch controller which has been provided with new software to run the XR mixers.  Works with the X32 as well.


Steve.

[Mal Brown]

The UI-24 is attractive but really more than I Nasdaq and more than 8 want to spend on this box.  Already have si 1 and 3 for sound company use.

Maybe the XLR-18 is a better choice then.  The noise floor issue alone would drop the UI-16 from contention for me.

I will admit to not being a fan of that company based on some of their early business practices.  Ripping off QSC's RMX design for the EU power amps ...  I am not at all down with that... 

I see plenty of the X series mixers though so clearly they are doing something right today...

[Tim McCulloch]

The UI-24 is attractive but really more than I Nasdaq and more than 8 want to spend on this box.  Already have si 1 and 3 for sound company use.

Maybe the XLR-18 is a better choice then.  The noise floor issue alone would drop the UI-16 from contention for me.

I will admit to not being a fan of that company based on some of their early business practices.  Ripping off QSC's RMX design for the EU power amps ...  I am not at all down with that... 

I see plenty of the X series mixers though so clearly they are doing something right today...

Less than 14 years ago I swore our shop would never buy anything B-word and encouraged my 'thrifty' boss to purchase dbx.  We did, for the A rig, but B/C/D were B-word.  We also had a dozen or more of the cheap knock off of the BSS DI (all of which eventually failed, I covered them in black gaff tape and they make nice wedge chocks).  We sold off or otherwise got rid of the B-word compressors and parametric EQs and were free of the evil Uli business practices and knock-off products.

FWD to today... and we have M32 and X32 in our inventory and use them when a gig doesn't justify the Avid Venue desks.

[Scott Holtzman]

I use Mixing Station for my XR.  I prefer the version for the X32 to the official iPad app.

Both the XR and UI internal wireless systems are terrible.  I wouldn't use either.  An external router is a must, as is a backup hard wired laptop - although I have run many times for eight hours at a time with no disconnections.

Behringer also has the X-Touch controller which has been provided with new software to run the XR mixers.  Works with the X32 as well.


Steve.

The xtouch extender is the one you want.   I see they are finally shipping.

[Alec Spence]

I have heard good things with the X-Air series from Behringer (also available in Midas flavors if the B-word is a nonstarter). The app is not as good as the UI's or even the x32's, oddly enough.

The PC and Android software are (now) almost identical between the X32 and the XR series.  Both are very good.  Can't speak for the iPad software, though.

I will admit to not being a fan of that company based on some of their early business practices.

Yawn...

[Bob Leonard]

I own a UI16 and when I bought it I upgraded to the latest firmware. All of the issues people talk about have been resolved. Good sound, easy to use, no distortion problems, no WIFI problems, no problems, period.

[Mike Caldwell]

My UI-16 works fine, just used it for a three day event where it was the perfect fit in what I needed it do. Yes you do need to run it with an external router or access point. I just put a UI-24 in an installation and 24 does take the UI series up few notches. The built in WIFI if much better.

As for the mention of Allen Heath Qu app being terrible, everyone who has mixed on my Qu Pac32 system with in minutes has commented how much better they like the Qu app over the X32 app and all coming from people who have never used the QU app before.

Had the same basic comments recently about from a band who likes to mix their in ear mixes each with a personal monitor mix app if one is available on the system. Within five minutes that had all downloaded the QU-You app and after a quick lesson on the app they were tending to their own mixes.

[ProSoundWeb Community]