Mackie Mix Series, 5-Channel Compact Mixer With Studio-Level Audio Quality (Mix5)

Perfect little mixer. I’m very surprised how inexpensive it is and how well it works. I’m using it to run multiple sources into active studio monitors. The noise floor is very low and barely noticeable.There are only two things that bug me:1.) somehow when the volume is almost all the way down, the right side turns off before the left ones does, which makes it appear that the sound pans left. I ordered two of these mixers and both had this. I thought it may have been caused by not properly adjusted potentiometers (it probably is the case, but it’s too nuanced for them to bother about getting it 100% right). Most people wouldn’t notice this.2.) this one is a big one: headphone out is post main mix “fader”, which means you can’t just turn the main out off (going to the monitors in my case) and listen to the signal on headphones, muting the main speakers. Mackie, what were you thinking? I can’t even think of an application where making the headphone out post fader make sense. (Maybe if this mixer is used to record with, but even then, it would be okay to run the headphone out pre-fader.) It would be nice if I could modify this internally.

Cannot use this mixer for recording because the noise floor is very hight (appx. -12db). I don't know why they put a cheap noisy18V power supply with this unit. I don't know is the noise come from the power supply but the Mix5 without any cable generate white noise and any recording with this unit can't be compress without pushing the noise at very audible level. It is not work for my needs.

The Mackie CR5 is a simple mixer to use, and for context I'm used to mixing on larger mixers (for example a behringer x32 or presonus live 16). I'm used to slightly stronger preamps, and connectivity is a little low, but for what you're paying the quality is quite good. There's no issues with the controls and dials, they all feel good, solid, and smooth. I'm only unhappy with the way the output is split. I was expecting phones and main to not be linked, however, the phones signal seems to just be split off the main, so bumping the mains will also bump the phones (annoying that I can't leave my phones at a constant level). The tape out is also split directly off mains, and there's on option to send signal to either tape or main (but at this price, what are you expecting). I wish i'd gone for the mix 8 (slightly more expensive, but theres' so many more outputs), just because I'm using it in a situation where I'm splitting the main mix into 4 other channels and the phones mix into 4 more (stereo linked, so in reality closer to 4 actual stereo channels), and I'd rather have the option to control them separately (unlike the linking that's happening here).

When I initially received the product I was very pleased, it did exactly what I wanted and it did it well. Unfortunately after 18 months of use, the left channel on headphone port became muffled and filled with static. I cleaned out all of the ports in a static-safe manner and still the problem persisted.I reached out to support but I would have had to pay to get it fixed out of pocket, which although I would have been okay with, would ultimately cost more than replacing the whole board. I am trying out a different brand now to see if I get longevity out of their product.

Purchased this a while ago and have been using it quite often for everyday and streaming. I have not had any issues at all with this. Does all of the basics that you need. Would recommend this over a phantom power supply as you get more control over your mic