Allen & Heath Qu-16 Rack Mountable Digital Mixer for Live, Studio and Installation

Would have gave 5 stars, but I have my preferences. I preferred the (black) knobs as shown but overall this is GREAT unit! Also definitely want to give Zac a shout out he went above and beyond to assist with some shipping issues.

And one of the best mixing consoles I have ever used. It will make even mediocre microphones sound better (but let's be honest, it can't fix bad microphones). Its intuitive layout, ease of use, "warm" preamp sound, good variety of onboard effects and versatility make mixing a joy, not a chore. I can actually mix, not fix, when I'm using this.

If you want to use this for home recording forget it.I run a world class studio mic through a Grace 101 and patched into this mixer.The sound was flat as d in dead sounding. Push a little on a vocal track and your vocalgets shoved into the mix. Maybe great for live use but for hone recording forget it.A Soundcraft fx16ii or Zed Fx analog board will leave this in the dust.

Difficult setting up first time - Had to call Tech Support for assistance. Like unit slow learning curve

Coming from a purely analog board, this hybrid digital/analog board is wonderful to use. We have 1 church service every Sunday and it handles our 14 inputs easily. There's a bit of a learning curve for those not acquainted with digital boards, but once the initial calibration is completed it's quicker and more user friendly.Highly recommended for the price and utility.

Although the equipment was fine, it was the wrong piece of equipment for the purpose that we needed for our church. So it had to be returned.

Very awesome board for the money. Though it takes a while to familiarize with the layout and button sequences. Very impressive sound quality and build.

I have been using the QU-16 for several years of weekly gigging after decades of running an all-analog system. I typically mix my band from the stage (I'm the guitar player) and I have enough to worry about performing that the less I need to babysit on the board, the better.I say weekly gigging as we play different venues every weekend and I bought this board in 2017, so other than the gigs we lost during 2020, it has been a killer board and paid for itself many times over just in the fact that I am no longer lugging extra racks of compressors, EQs and a power supply.In 2022, digital boards are pretty much the norm, but if you're still running an analog rig for a basic PA, especially if you're mixing yourself (I have used this for gigs that I was just running sound and not performing as well), it is going to change your life.This series is very intuitive for most functions. Select the channel and your EQ knobs and basic parameters of compression and gate threshold are right there. Tap the touch screen to access deeper functions, but for basic mixing, there's no menu diving, so it's quick and easy to get a mix going.The system is very flexible with 10 Aux sends (4 mono sends and 3 stereo sends which can be used as mono sends with careful panning of channels to adjust the mixes to taste). We run 4 mono monitor mixes and one stereo IEM with a wifi router so each band member can access the monitor mix via a phone app so I don't have to worry about tweaking what they are hearing during a show. Each aux has a master parametric AND graphic EQ and compression available. There are 2 dedicated stereo FX sends, but 4 "slots" for stereo FX where the 3rd and 4th can be inserted in series on a channel (mono), or you can use one of the auxes to send to the FX. The FX sound as good as you would expect decent digital FX to sound in 2022.Pop in a fast USB thumb drive (has to be a fast drive, as I've learned by googling) and you can record the whole show with 16 channels of audio, post preamp/pre EQ and FX, as well as a stereo mix from the master fader for 18 channels of live recording. This also works via USB to stream to a DAW, so you can use it as a 16 channel interface at 24 bit/48kHz, or even use the USB to stream the audio to a secondary rig for a broadcast mix or however you see fit. Very convenient.My only gripe, which never stopped me from getting the job done, is that some of the routing isn't super intuitive. I had to read the manual to know how to set up FX 3 and 4, for instance. Once I learned how they route stuff its been a no-brainer. It's just as easy to set up the console to receive SOME channels from Dante or an Allen & Heath digital snake and others directly from the analog inputs. Very flexible.Oh, and it sounds great. It's got really flexible EQ on each channel with a sweepable HPF as well as 4 parametric bands. It has headroom and the preamps sound really good. As good, if not much better than any typical live board you might have been using for the last 30 years to mix a club band.If it matters to anyone, I have not only been a professional musician since the 1980s, I am also a professional recording engineer/producer with over 30 years experience as well as an electronic technician/nerd, so I understand how this gear works. That's up to you if it makes my review any more credible.And to the 2-star reviewer who didn't like it because he was running a very nice Grace mic preamp INTO the Allen & Heath THEN into the recorder (a DAW, a presume) in his "world class studio", just knowing that you were doing what you did tells me that you're not in a world-class studio, whatever that means and you are criticizing the A&H because you expected it to do something it's not meant to do (you were running a mic preamp into a mic preamp from the sound of it). I advise people who read these reviews to gauge whether a piece of gear is right for them or not to take them with a grain of salt. Not everyone is a professional engineer, but everyone has the ability to write reviews.