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moosers
Published on 12/26/10 at 11:41
The Mackie Onyx-800R is a set of eight microphone preamplifiers. It comes in a single space rack mountable casing and also features digital outputs. Each of the eight preamps has it's own XLR input, with the last two having 1/4" inputs in the front for plugging directly in. In addition to digital outs and ins, it also has optical outs. It can support up to a 192 kHz sampling rate or has support for external word clock syncing.
UTILIZATION
It's not hard at all to use the Mackie Onyx-800R once it's all set up, which also shouldn't be very difficult. Each of the eight preamps has it's own phantom power, high pass filter, and phase reverse buttons. You can also set each to four different levels of impedance and choose between mic/line for the two preamps where that applies. Lastly, of course each features it's own gain knob as well. The manual should have everything you need to know about the Onyx-800R if you have questions...
SOUND QUALITY
The sound quality of the Mackie Onyx-800R is a lot better than I was expecting it to be. A lot of these eight in one preamps come off sounding a bit digital and not full enough for my taste, but this one actually sounds quite good. I don't own it but have used it as extra preamps at a producer's home studio where I sometimes work. They're not the first preamps we use, but if we need extra for larger sessions we'll use this. It's not going to sound as good as something from API or higher end preamps, but it's deifnitely good enough to use in smaller home studios or larger ones as extra preamps to have around.
OVERALL OPINION
For the price I don't think you're going to find too many eight channel preamps like the Mackie Onyx-800R. It's not the cheapest way to get this amount of preamps, but considering the quality, sampling rate options, and digital connections available, it definitely offers up a plethora of options. I wouldn't get this as your primary set of preamps if you're semi-professional or professional, but for it's great as an extra set or a primary set for those who just have a demo/project studio...
UTILIZATION
It's not hard at all to use the Mackie Onyx-800R once it's all set up, which also shouldn't be very difficult. Each of the eight preamps has it's own phantom power, high pass filter, and phase reverse buttons. You can also set each to four different levels of impedance and choose between mic/line for the two preamps where that applies. Lastly, of course each features it's own gain knob as well. The manual should have everything you need to know about the Onyx-800R if you have questions...
SOUND QUALITY
The sound quality of the Mackie Onyx-800R is a lot better than I was expecting it to be. A lot of these eight in one preamps come off sounding a bit digital and not full enough for my taste, but this one actually sounds quite good. I don't own it but have used it as extra preamps at a producer's home studio where I sometimes work. They're not the first preamps we use, but if we need extra for larger sessions we'll use this. It's not going to sound as good as something from API or higher end preamps, but it's deifnitely good enough to use in smaller home studios or larger ones as extra preamps to have around.
OVERALL OPINION
For the price I don't think you're going to find too many eight channel preamps like the Mackie Onyx-800R. It's not the cheapest way to get this amount of preamps, but considering the quality, sampling rate options, and digital connections available, it definitely offers up a plethora of options. I wouldn't get this as your primary set of preamps if you're semi-professional or professional, but for it's great as an extra set or a primary set for those who just have a demo/project studio...