I used one on a festival last year, i had it for 3days.
It would be fine for corporate, weekend warrior type shows but it aint ever going to be rider friendly.
It is a fair comparison if you were thinkin of buying a LS9 though.
x
For reference the above is speaking about the Roland M480 suggestion by me from a few pages back (not a regular visitor to these parts! - sorry!)
It's a real shame this board isn't rider friendly. I really liked it! It's nearer M7CL or T112 money once you add the stage box, but still fits in the same footprint as the LS9 (plus you've got to carry a stagebox of course). I could lift the console under one arm (not in the case mind you - SSE build some hefty cases!) and if it had come with stage boxes rather than the rack input version, i'd have been easily capable of the get-in on my own.
The addition of DCA's and recent announcement of an ipad app are making it a very tempting option Vs an LS9. It sounded really nice too (and no jumpy stepped gain control unlike the LS9), the onboard FX were pretty nice.
It probably isn't the console for the original poster, but i really enjoyed my time with it and will look forward to another opportunity to take one out some time. The footprint, cat5 snake and light weight make it ideal for short run regional theatre, which is the world i seem to find myself in. 24 faders are its' only limitation for me, and whilst having 3 user layers is really nice, i'd still like a few more faders. 20+ radio mics, plus DCA's for band and stage mics, plus FX returns, plus sound effects - that's pretty much my requirement. On the LS9 i've still got space for a few key instrument mics from the band on the top layer, with the rest hidden back in the layers and routed through a mix bus with the master on the user layer. Unfortunately faders seem to be the first place recent consoles make the cuts. Only the new CL5 has the fader count i need from the new Yamaha range. The T112 and the M7CL are the only options (in my price bracket anyway) to give the fader count required for musical theatre.
Console of choice has an Avid badge on it, but i don't think one of my kidneys will fetch that much on the black market......
I'll be picking an M480 Vs an LS9-32 next time i'm renting.