Flexible, Bulletproof I/O

Pros:

1. It's still a reliable audio interface on OS X, after 8 years, 3 computers, and 2 (TWO!?!) Firewire-to-Thunderbolt adapters. I rely on the interface portion of this mixer all day, every day.

2. Full-featured 4-bus mixer with more analog, digital, and analog/digital hybrid routing options that I will likely ever need.

3. Clean, clear, dynamic sound quality in all contexts.

4. Firewire I/O doesn't hinder full-analog operation w/o computer turned on.

5. Very usable EQ, w/ sweepable mids.

6. Rugged and rack-mountable chassis.

7. Headphone amp has power to spare -- you won't leave first 1/10th of volume knob to power ATH-M50 or HD 280 Pro.

8. Never required any drivers or management apps on OS X, and never will.

Cons:

1. For recording spoken-word volume material, usable gain on preamps is in the last 25% of the knob range -- regardless of whether I'm using condenser or dynamic mic booted with w/ cloudlifter. For drums and mic'd guitar cabs, I'm sure gain range is likely appropriate. It's not just me, this characteristic of the preamps was also noted by SoundOnSound. Not a deal-breaker, just surprising.

2. Will occasionally develop minor pops and clicks when used as an interface, but a simple restart of unit (w/o restarting computer or DAW) always resolves. This behavior is likely due to unit being used with 2 stacked Firewire adapters. I'm just happy a Firewire interface works at all in 2022. I don't expect miracles.

3. I have to resort to the user manual whenever I need to change or re-route digital signals to/from my computer; the button layout for digital routing (sandwiched in with all the traditional analog mixer controls) just isn't that intuitive. The good news is whatever it is you're trying to route in/out is likely possible -- the button configs are just hard to commit to memory.

4. The mixer section is fully analog, but don't expect this unit to impart any kind of magical analog character to your tracks and mixes; it's a big, clean, reliable, feature-laden mixing utility, not 16-channels of vintage charm. You CAN overdrive the inputs and distort in the analog domain, and I do that, on occasion, when running something like a 909 kick & snare through it, but such feats are not this mixer's speciality. Expect to get back what you put into it, and no more... expect very useful EQ, but not an EQ that's going to be clearly superior to your DAW's bundled EQ.

Final Thoughts:

• Mackie's Onyx mixers are good enough for most of us, but buy one because you need a solid and capable mixer that will last, not because you need some secret tone-defining/mix-gluing weapon.

good out of stock mixer

good mixer , good sound , good eq, no so more good (gain) pot, after one year it's make crack and crock when turned left or right and it's difficult to remove .

A reliable analogue desk with clean preamps and versatile routing

A nice analogue desk - clean, trustworthy preamps and versatile routing options.