"Near-Mackie quality for hundreds less"
This reviewer purchased this item from Same Day Music.
Sound:
I purchased this about three months ago, and am using the bus system to feed a DAW. For that, its perfect. I've mixed on Mackies (24/8 and 1642) at school, and to my ears, the preamps in the 1204 are just as clean. I rate it a 10, because I paid around $125 for it, which is about 75 percent less than a mackie, and it's got virtually the same features and sound. I recently mixed an acoustic set with a baby grand, acoustic guitar and vocals, and I was amazed by what the board was capable of.
Feature:
It's got 48 volt phantom power, plenty of gain, low noise, and is a great match with Rode mics (I use the NT1a). The bus system is perfect for feeding a DAW. I picked it over the FXpro version, because I patch my plugins in Cakewalk so I have clean audio going in. I really wish it had TRS insert points on the four mic channels, since it has only two single aux sends, and one is fixed prefader. Consequently, I have to put my compressor in the program bus which is somewhat irritating, and makes inserting multiple effects more of a chore. It would also be nice if it had more robust RCA jacks for the tape I/O as I have used them twice and they are already cutting in and out as they are bumped. Parametric eq would be nice too...
Quality:
Overall- it's pretty solid. Behringer has no R&D- they take apart a Mackie and copy it. If you don't mind that aspect, then by all means, spend less for virtually the same performance. Not road-worthy, imho, but for a project studio, and maybe remotes with a laptop or something, its great.
Manufacturer Support:
I haven't had to deal with Behringer's tech support, thank God. My best advice is buy it from a reputable company, and pray it doesn't break before you upgrade.
Value:
You won't do any better for a little over a C-note.
The Wow Factor:
Let's face it- Behringer is not a name that impresses anyone. But it gets the job done, and there are uglier mixers out there.
Thanks for your vote. Can you specify what about this review did or did not help you?