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Soundcraft EFX vs Mackie CFX?

bassman10096

bassman10096

Supporting Member
Jul 30, 2004
2,670
950
MKE
#1
For anyone who has experience with both mixers, I am trying to compare the Soundcraft EFX8 and the Mackie CFX 12, because both have 8 mic preamps. It's possible I could wind up upgrading to the EFX 12 and CFX 16 respectively, but I'm interested in sound, reliability, features, built-in effects quality, value for the buck, etc. I've used the Mackies and liked them OK and never had one fail, but have recently had some hands-off experience with the Soundcraft EFX12 (my sound guy brought one in and it sounds great).
Any first-hand comparison info would be appreciated.
 
#2
Not a fan of The mackie CFX on sound quality alone... they are just not great sounding boards. Lot's of features, relatively cheap... something had to give. Compare one with one of the Mackie boards with the VLZ-Pro channel strips and you'll walk away from the CFX - IMO and the other 40 disclaimers...

My preference in the low end through mid range would be for Yamaha based on the mic pre's / channel strips and overall sound quality.

I don't have a ton of experience with the Allen & Heath Zed series but what I have had sounded really good...
 
#3
I have the Soundcraft EFX12. I love the sound of it - it's really amazing. But there are also some things about it that i don't like: No volume control for the aux send to the monitors; no mute or solo/PFL light on each channel strip (good luck finding which one is on in the dark!); the effects section (while sounding great) is difficult to use.
I wish they had skipped the recording-oriented features and instead focused on live sound usability. But... would I buy it again? Absolutely.
 
#6
I have a Yamaha MG24/14FX but recently specced out a mixing desk for our vocalist to buy (so that he owned his own small PA) and for the band to use, because the Yamaha is overkill for my current band.

For the same sort of money that you're talking about I found the Allen & Heath PA12 to offer the best features for the money, so that's what we got.

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#7
I don't have experience with the exact boards you mentioned, but I did recently migrate from a Mackie ProFX12 board to a Soundcraft Notepad 124FX. It's night and day, sound quality is much improved, eq's are subtle but sweeter, quality overall is a notch up. The effects were easier to dial in on the SC. For one of the groups I play with I really had to work the eq to get something usable with the Mackie, but with the Soundcraft everything just fell into place with minimal tweaking. We run the Soundcraft into a Bose Compact, sounds great.
 
#9
I have used many boards over the years for my bands, including a few Mackies (cfx, dfx, vlz). I am currently using an Allen and Heath zed12fx and an Allen and Heath Mixwizard 16. The sound and quality of the A&H stuff blows away the mackies. If you can find the money, the A&h stuff is worth it
 
#10
I work with one band that owns a PA that includes a Mackie CFX mixer. I'm not a fan, to be honest - it has a cheesy bussing setup (where everything has to go through the busses, like it or not), overall limited headroom (a major pet peeve of mine), and thin sound.The built in FX sound good, but clip too easily.

Also, it has too few Auxillary sends, (4 - 2 pre/post, 2 post) which may or may not be an issue for you.
 

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