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I have two mixers. I have one with all the bells and whistles and one without.
I practice on both to give myself as many variations as possible so that I am better prepared for what I get in a club situation.
Over the years I have played on some of the best (and sometimes rarest) mixers in the world but a whole plethera of shiite mixers.
Will the sound quality make that much of a difference, the answer is yes but it depends on what you are comparing. If you compare a Xone 92 with a Numark Blue dog, then sure the difference will be noticable without question. Not to mention the difference in life expectancy in the two.
Once you start moving up the scale and compare like for like then what I think you get is more a question of the 'personality' of a mixer rather than a difference in sound quality. Some mixers can sound a little warmer than others and so on but not necessarilly worse.
In a club scenario this shouldn't make any difference as the theory is that the clubs EQ should be set according to the clubs accoustics and so on.
For home use one could argue in terms of actual need to have it but on the other hand, if you can afford it why not?
In a lot of cases, the life expectancy is one of the things you pay for and the more expensive club mixers do in theory at least last longer than the cheap stuff (with exceptions both ways of course).
Club mixers (Pioneers excluded) are generally easier to repair should you need to. Once one of the cheaper ones goes it's more often than not a case of it coming to the end of it's life.
More expensive mixers also allow for user maintainance such as the replacment of faders and so on. Some even allow for customisation.
The effect quality if that's what you are looking for is going to be different in tht mixers depending on their price class and this is the area where you get what you pay for.
This is also true for EQ response in most cases.
In my case, I make mixes for radio and promotional CDs that are handed out at club nights so I like to have the tools to do the job in the best way I feel possible.
I think that feeling might be true for a lot of the guys here, and they just want to do the best that they possibly can. Even if the difference is psychological, if it helps them get to where they want to be then who are we to argue.
There is a definate plus to the feel of a smooth well put together mixer at your finger tips but I agree that you should be able to get the job done on lesser quality gear.
There are many reasons why you may want to pay extra for a seemingly unjustified piece of kit, but I think the reasons go much deeper than sound quality alone.
Edit - The sound quality is only as good as the weakest piece of kit that you have, but you have to start improving somewhere.
Cheers
Nem 
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Last edited by Nemesis44 on Apr-13-2006 at 14:42
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