The good folks at PSW Road Test sent me a nice new Sabine NAV4800 Navigator 4x8 DSP Unit. I've had the chance to put it to work at a few shows so far and the experience has been positive.
Initial impressions:
Build quality of the unit is fairly solid. From my understanding, these units are very similar if not identical to the Xilica DLP4080 processors. It comes shipped with a copy of the control software and all the paperwork. Right out of the box the unit is easy to navigate (as the namesake would suggest.) It does seem to take a long time to boot compared to the XTA and DBX Driverack units.
In Use:
I programmed it for my first show via the front panel with ease. As many of you know, some DSP units are a bit clumsy to work with if you're not programming them on a PC, but this wasn't the case. The first show was a simple rig...a GL3300 console to the navigator to a couple compact speakers on poles and a pair of SB1000 subs. The navigator performed well.
I decided to program it for a stereo 4-way system (Turbo Flashlight) via the control interface software (see screenshots below.) The software is easy to use and is very straightforward. Enough DSP horsepower is available for any application that I can think of.
In use with the Flashlight system, unscientific listening tests proved that it sounded as good as my usual flavor of DSP (XTA DP226 or Driverack 480.) I can't say how the EQ filters sounded, as the Flashlight boxes do not require any output EQ as per the factory settings. I assume the output parametrics sound as good as anything.
The Navigator offers a pretty good DSP package (4x8 in 1U of rack space) for a competitive price. For those of us who can't afford a Dolby Lake or an XTA DP448, the Sabine NAV series are a good option. They're also available in 3x6 and 8x8 models.
Good:
-Full featured, affordable DSP
-Flexible Routing
-Software Interface is well designed
-Decent sound quality
-Easy to use
Not as good:
-Encoder wheel on front panel seems fidgety
-Takes longer than expected to boot up
See below for some pics.
-JB