Jason -
Your assessment is pretty much spot on.
Rather than understand and accept a review in the vein for which it applies, many on this board would rather "spew" than simply make the decision to NOT POST. I fully understand the value of your review, there are tons of novices for whom this mixer is a viable solution, for solid reasons. Most of the replies to your review are from users with more sophisticated needs; I suspect they are outnumbered in the audio field by an order of magnitude by unsophisticated users for whom the Carvin is a good piece of gear.
I think you can hold your own here, don't get overly offended. I'm a part time sound "hobbyist" who has spent over $50k on digital mixers over the last 8 years and still have a use for my 8 channel, battery powered/wall-wart Peavey mixer.
Cheers,
-Tim T
We all have use for small gear. It's part of a package. However for the use that was described in the post it is not appropriate. Maybe for the PA at a Kiwana's hall but this is a pro sound forum. The venues that use these are use to marginal sound.
I can tell you that when I was just doing bar gigs I had microphones that cost more than this mixer. You certainly can't make a living with it, I can't imagine you could get hired with a rig like that so just who does the review benefit?
The worst part is the band is getting the worst side because only the first 20 feet is getting a tolerable at best show.
Elitist would be snubbing you, we are simply pointing out that low end vendors are can't defy the laws of physics (except Seismic Audio) no matter how much the person wants to believe that gear will do what is being described it will not without significantly altering the original signal.
Not rebutting the review would be a disservice to all that read the review and say, wow this is just what I need.