Ground noise with Mackie DL1608?

[vlakanas]

Okay, so without ever knowing about this problem, I purchased a Mackie 1608 DL, this year. Used it at home, for band practice. Then we decided to start using it small gig, where we needed a head phone distribution system ) some had item). What a problem with noise. I used a behringer Pro-XL ha4700. Balanced 1/4 inch out. Also. 1/4 inch to split 1/4 . Big problem. What happens now? For sale? Or contact Mackie? Is there anything to do for a fix?
Thanks
Peter

 

[Scottkarch]

I have Mackie Dl1608 with a noise problem too. Its NOT a hum but a hi pitched whine. It is coming from the mixer. Not loud enough to be detected by anyone in the audience during a show but anoying to the musicians during sound check. Have ground lifted every thing but the mixer. It sounds to me like the high pitched whine of a digital switching power supply or some thing. Has anybody had this kind of problem before??

We had a problem similar to this one gig. We switched to our backup power supply/brick And it went away. We'd been using the power supply for over a year it seems to have just gone bad. Our power supply only has a 2 pronged power cord dl1608. I'm surprises anyone has any grounded plugs. The power jack into the mixer is just a 2 contact D.C. Plug. I'm surprised that changing the ground could make any difference.

 

[Kim Bowman]

I am SO bummed, as I bought the DL1608 and we have had a high pitched buzz. We changed the XLR's on our powered QSC speakers and it went away. We plugged in a monitor and same buzz. Changed the balanced quarter inch cables twice, used different outputs, switched to a different speaker, nothing helps. We couldn't use a monitor for our rehearsal.
I know nothing about ground isolating plugs. But have not tried that yet. Is it just an adapter like this?AC 3-Prong Grounding Plug Adapter 38975984193 | eBay

 

[stonecoldbass]

17298738[/URL], member: 278619"]I have Mackie Dl1608 with a noise problem too. Its NOT a hum but a hi pitched whine. It is coming from the mixer. Not loud enough to be detected by anyone in the audience during a show but anoying to the musicians during sound check. Have ground lifted every thing but the mixer. It sounds to me like the high pitched whine of a digital switching power supply or some thing. Has anybody had this kind of problem before??

ZOMBIE! Just wondering if you ever managed to get rid of the high pitched whine from your Mackie? I recently got one and had no idea about the whine until my partner said 'can't you hear that?!' And so did the female singer at the gig! Guess I must have some hearing loss in the 11khz plus area!

 

[Mike Caldwell]

The zombie awakes! Try lifting pin1 on the xlr connection at one end of the cable, aka open up the connector and cut it. you can buy pin 1 lift adapters as well or make up a short pin 1 lift cable.

Also when walking into a service call that has a buzz in the system quite a few times I have found one or multiple cheap import mic cables in use and many of those seem to have the XLR pin 1 tied to the outer shell of the xlr. Doing that can cause issues as it connects the audio ground to the chassis ground of the equipment.

 

[surfguitar]

I bought the mixer in July, and it has had the same problem the whole time- When ever I connect it to an amplifier or powered speaker, I get a distinct hum at 2Khz, 3Khz and 6khz, and a raised noise floor. Turn off the mixer, or disconnect the XLR cable, and it goes away.

It does this at my place, at the drummer's house, and when fed in to four different amplifiers/powered speakers. I've used TS and XLR cables and disconnected everything else, but still get the noise. My Yamaha mixer does not have this problem with the same cables and amplifers.

It appears to be ground noise, as it doesn't vary with volume output from the mixer (it can be muted), but does vary with amplifier volume levels.

I've talked to Mackie (very slow customer service!), and they even sent me a replacement unit, which does the same thing.

The only solution is to use a ground isolating AC plug on the mixer, then all problems go away. It then works fine with all amplifiers. I repeated that test at the drummer's house (in another state even), so it's not something local to my house.

Mackie has given up, but I'm still thinking it's an design issue with the way they ground their system.

Anyone else seen this with that mixer? They swear I'm the only person in the world with this issue.

Attached are two screen shots- The mixer is plugged in to the wall and has one XLR cable attached to the amp, no other connections and no ipad on the mixer. The amp has one speaker plugged in to it. One picture is with the mixer on, the other with it off. No other changes.

As a side note, their tech support is nearly unusable. Can't be bothered to reply to some emails, slow to reply, asks for data I've already sent or to do tests I just told them I did, and in general were incompetent. They wanted me to ship my brand new mixer to their repair depot for diagnoses, but when I called they agreed to ship me a replacement. I'm very disappointed, and am having serious second thoughts about the SRM650 and SRM1850 speakers I wanted to get.

I too am very regretful I bought a Mackie. I played in a group that used a Mackie that was about 10 years old and it was fantastic. Based on that, I decided to purchase my own. I'll write it off to a bad experience. I am going to do research before buying another brand.

 

[Bonecat]

I was an early adopter of the DL1608. We had noise issues in bars where the power wasn't clean that our friends at Furman helped mitigate. More disturbingly, our DL1608 started throwing random tantrums in the form of full volume feedback storms during use. Mutes didn't work - had to pull the plug. There's one local spot that will never have us back because of that. I made innumerable calls and emails to Mackie and the most helpful thing that happened with them was a tech guy on the phone saying, "Huh. That's weird." He said he'd call back. Never did. I went back to analog for several years before revisiting the digital world. My soundcraft analog mixer is on the shelf for backup duty if needed.