Best thing after a DM, or is there?

[HiFiDavid]

My beloved DM-3200 blew a power circuit board the other day. Looking at facing a huge bill for shipping and repair to a repair center, I thought I would see if there was anything out there that would do as good. I know we are all Tascam lovers, but I have not found anything that would do as much for the value. I would think there might be? If so I would be interested in any comments or thoughts on what the next step might be?

Since I haven't had much luck I'm actually thinking of picking up a second DM3200 board on eBay and using it for parts to fix my beloved. It would actually be about the same as shipping it out for repair and then I would have more parts for the next issue.

My use case is personal Studio production, and DAW interface. I use a lot of analog and outboard gear as well so I love the i/o!

What would you guys do? Any thoughts?

 

[BLIZZY1BLIZZY]

Dang.....................crickets

 

[Peter Batah]

Hello @BLIZZY1BLIZZY . You are probably already watching this eBay item. If not, here is a link that might interest you. Good luck.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Tascam-DM480...009328?hash=item2f07c7faf0:g:z30AAOSw4CFY1eWd

 

[HiFiDavid]

Yes. So I figured it was A no-brainer. I've done some extensive research and I've seen nothing really come close for the money.

The Yamaha TF series comes pretty close, but it lacks any DAW support and has only has the usual number of inputs per channel. As I mentioned earlier the I/O on the Tascam is amazing !

 

[HiFiDavid]

@peter Thanks for the link for parts on eBay.

 

[Arjan P]

We had a similar discussion a while ago, and the Presonus StudioLive series seemed a reasonable contender for the DM job. But as for flexibility, IMO nothing comes close to the DM.

 

[Peter Batah]

@HiFiDavid My pleasure brother. How about the Behringer X32. Personally, I don't much about the product. Except that the fellow that sold me his DM-3200 replaced it with the X32. His loss, my gain! He he he! Here are the specs

http://www.music-group.com/Categories/Behringer/Mixers/Digital-Mixers/X32/p/P0ASF

 

[HiFiDavid]

So in checking out the parts on eBay I've come to the conclusion that it is better to just get a second hand unit instead. Much cheaper.

If I keep the DM3200, and so far my research shows no better replacement, I'll have a pool of parts to pull from for a long time to come.

 

[cmaffia]

Antelope Goliath paired with a Tascam US-2400 is my next platform

 

[Peter Batah]

Indeed the Goliath seems quite the "Beast" I enjoyed this review. Thanks for bringing the unit to our attention C

https://ask.audio/articles/review-antelope-audio-goliath-audio-interface

 

[HiFiDavid]

Ha ha.. I agree. the Goliath is awesome. But that's $4K plus the price of a decent board as you pointed out. Worth every penny though if you can get one!

 

[cmaffia]

About the same price as DM4800 without expansion cards or meter bridge when released. All relative. Also surface control is not required. I'm fine with using mouse and keyboard only if I had to.

 

[salty james]

This thread is blasphemy.
Imma pray for your souls.

 

[cmaffia]

Funny but it's not blasphemy . It's speaking honestly and realistically. Unfortunately these machines aren't going to live forever and sound quality is also starting to show it's age when compared to cheaper and modern conversion. Not hating, just starting a discussion about different solutions going forward because if you haven't heard, Tascam/Gibson is out of the digital mixer business. I have documented how I improved the DM's A/D and D/A conversion elsewhere in the forum.

http://www.tascamforums.com/threads/tascam-dm-4800-and-apogee-rosetta-200.594/page-3#post-23952

http://www.tascamforums.com/threads/does-the-if-ad-dm-card-do-96k.4982/#post-24254

 

[HiFiDavid]

So I just realized I needed to do an update. So here it is. First off, when I talk about the next step after the precious DM. I have to include real world today type data. There are still new DM 3200 decks out there for 2.3k. So for less then 2.5k you can get a 96k 32 i/o DAW automation capable solution which I have found can't be beat today...for the money.

Sure, I looked at Behringer, Midas, Yamaha, etc. And some had great new features, even claiming 96k at some "FUTURE" timeframe, but for todays real world money and value for quality audio, which is what I was most interested in, the value is still in the DM. I'm not gonna post a full evaluation and comparison on all these but if you have specific questions on a specific feature or function important to you fell free to post a comment and I'll reply.

So I got another DM 3200 WITH ONLY 6 HOURS OF USE FOR 1,800. It's awesome and I have an old spare for parts!

So I felt for what I had to spend, for what I ended up with I could do no better.
My search is not ending though. So I will post any new interesting gear updates if you are still interested and if you have any new finds please do the same.
At some point, it may be time to move off the DM but for now I'm great where I am.

 

[salty james]

Just have to share this.
This track ran through the DM converters twice.
Every thing was tracked with BAE pre amps, the vocals and guitars were API 3124 (w/ external shure pads of course to drive them a bit), into the inserts (my mics tend to run on inserts - vs keys and some drum machines that prefer line input), mixed in DAW and shot out through a few stereo outboard units.
The DM converters have very honest non abrasive highs and very thick and punchy lows. The preamps on the unit itself are fast and have a tasteful smoothing of the highs. Great for drums. The sterility people speak of seems to me maybe to be from the fact that the lows are fast and clear, and not smeared or saturated at all. This makes them appear snappier and louder than most other preamps that have circuits designed to saturate more in the lows while shelving highs more to the designers tastes.
More simply put. I've used a lot of desks and this one does a lot of the important stuff right!

 

[Peter Batah]

@salty james The production and sound is great. Enjoyed the track as well. Keep up the good work. Peter

 

[salty james]

Now I know you listened on good speakers.
Yeah, It's a smart arrangement. It helps things pop out a bit more.. still though. This desk makes things happen!!

 

[Peter Batah]

@salty james Truth be told. I listened to the track on a pair of Sony wireless headphones that my daughter gave me for XMAS. Still sounded great. I guess that says something about the songs production value. I only wish that I were able to listen to the song on the Westlake SM-1 cabinets I sold a decade ago. Oh well, I can dream can't I. Have a good one Salty

 

[Myrideisa96]

Nice. I thought I had a good mix on one of our tunes but your mix on this tune blew mine past Pluto. Have you had some serious training/schooling and/or mentoring to get to this point? I know that if I had some really good outboard gear that it might improve my mix but I don't know if that would help if I didn't have the knowledge to use it and the ears to discern at what point to adjust or not. I guess I don't have the knowledge or the ears. Hey, do you have the number for that truck-driving school? Not serious about that but I wonder sometimes. With all the issues I'm having between the Mac OS/the FW card driver for the DM-4800 , and Pro Tools I'm in the middle of an endless nightmare. But hearing/seeing material like yours is very uplifting and I'll add very enjoyable to listen to. Thanks so much for sharing. Very cool.