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Tonesmith Tonesmith

« One of the Best Stanton Mixers »

Published on 09/25/21 at 00:31
Value For Money : Excellent
Audience: Advanced Users
It's fair to say that Stanton have made some pretty bad mixers, but luckily this isn't one of them!

Despite some innovations like the focus fader, most of Stanton's early mixers had the THD spec of a portable radio and were really not fit for purpose.

The SA series was essentially Stanton's first attempt at addressing this, and the sound quality on offer here is actually very good. The EQs are a little soulless if I'm being critical, but this is unlikely to be of too much concern for its intended user & I'm used to better gear.

The build quality is still very much Stanton - there's nothing to complain about, but it's quite agricultural. It has a solid metal case and the pots & switches are all great, but the overall feel is still of a modern day small-scale electronic item from China.

Competing products from Allen & Heath, Rane and Ecler from this era are far more refined but this will be more than acceptable next to the better budget kit.

Faders are acceptable for scratching but obviously you could do much better - think clacky old school Vestax. You could of course put a modern fader in if you wanted.

I think this would be worth picking up in 2021 if you can find a good one. These days the scratch boom is long past and the best mixers are also sadly out of production, so the benchmark is lower in general. This is available for very little money now, and I can recommend it on sound quality alone.

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