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Aviom a-16ii purchase Vs newer rivals
Matthias McCready:
--- Quote from: Chris Eddison on November 19, 2022, 03:39:58 AM ---Hi All
Am starting to see a need for a personal monitor mixer within my setup. Largely musical theatre pits of up to 12 musicians. Lots of click track etc.
My console is a Roland M480 (at the minute - upgrade possibly coming in next 3-4 years). M48's would therefore be the most logical option, but they hold their value remarkably well in the used market, and there's not tonnes of options for cross rental near me (northern UK). Also with a move away from the Roland REAC family upcoming at some point, it seems logical to look elsewhere.
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The Roland M48's are a unique product. It is the only IEM mixer I know of, where you can control it remotely (recall mix presets, routing etc) such as on an external computer (or a Roland console). It is a great product, and I was really excited (overally hopeful?) for it to be updated (as nothing else can do what the M48 can do).
Unfortunately as you are realizing they killed the product line off.
And at this point I would stay away, it is pretty end-of-life. We are still using them where I work, but every single Roland system is having problems, and getting repairs done or replacement units at this point is nigh impossible. I have 3 S-Madi (Madi to Reac convertors) that are acting up (to the point they urgently need to be replaced), and they have been scarce on the used market.
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Avioms (while also old) are quite trust worthy in my experience, and they can often be had for pennies on the dollar. In my experience they sound better, have more headroom, and are much more durable than Behringer P16 units.
For what it is worth, if you happen to find an A&H GLD console used, it communicates natively with Aviom, which is pretty cool! That is not a bad monitor setup.Please note that QU, SQ, Avantis, and D-Live do not work with Aviom natively (from what I was told).
Mike Caldwell:
--- Quote from: Matthias McCready on November 19, 2022, 07:43:43 PM ---
For what it is worth, if you happen to find an A&H GLD console used, it communicates natively with Aviom, which is pretty cool! That is not a bad monitor setup.Please note that QU, SQ, Avantis, and D-Live do not work with Aviom natively (from what I was told).
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Yep the GLD will let you easily select ME or Aviom, no such option on the others.
Maybe some is out there working on standards converter box!!
Matthias McCready:
--- Quote from: Mike Caldwell on November 19, 2022, 08:25:30 PM ---Maybe some is out there working on standards converter box!!
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To be fair there are plenty of options for protocol conversion, just the solutions can cost just as much as the IEM systems to begin with.
Chris Eddison:
Thank you everyone for your responses. I think Aviom is the way to go. Especially with the link outputs on the mic input unit, which really helps me out.
The seller has a number of "as is" faulty units too. Many look to have missing buttons but some look pristine, suggesting electronics issues. I'm considering opting for these units rather than fully working ones - I'm an electronics engineer by trade and am quietly confident I can make a good number of working units out of the faulty ones. I've missed my deadline for them arriving for my next show (being in the UK, Thanksgiving had completely passed me by) so may as well take more time to fix them up and spend a bit less money.
Final question; anyone repaired these before who can give me an idea how straightforward they are to work on? I won't be able to look inside one until they arrive, by which point it's a bit too late! Button swapping, encoder replacement, common electronics issues would all be really useful to know about.
Thanks
Scott Helmke:
--- Quote from: Chris Eddison on November 24, 2022, 04:41:09 PM ---Final question; anyone repaired these before who can give me an idea how straightforward they are to work on? I won't be able to look inside one until they arrive, by which point it's a bit too late! Button swapping, encoder replacement, common electronics issues would all be really useful to know about.
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They're a bit finicky to work on, because they have a multilayer circuit board with ground planes and rather tight component holes. Generally when I replace an encoder or pot I'm just cutting all the leads so that I can pull them separately. Pre-heating the circuit board helps a bit, though. The button switches are pretty common tactile switches, surface mounted so they are pretty easy to replace. You can buy a kit of replacement knobs and buttons for the exterior stuff, and you can also still buy encoders, pots, and the jacks and such. In some cases Aviom will just give you a Digi-Key link for a part.
As far as getting one open, it's pretty easy. Just remove all the screws on the bottom, including the one hidden under the label, and the back comes right off. Then you just pry the circuit board up to pop all the buttons off from the front side. Remove the knobs first, of course.
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