OK, so I just returned from the AETA Audio Services labs today. That place is like mad scientist insane. Lots of workbenches with units in various states of assembly / repair / testing with lots of oscillating waves and half-built computers everywhere. You knew it was an engineering place because the desktop wallpaper on all the computers were pictures of girls in bikinis and such.
I talked with their international director of sales, a technician, and the designer of the PSP-3 and their new MIXY 3-channel mixer. First, sorry to disappoint all of you, but AETA will never produce the PSP-2 or PSP-3 ever again. They said that the cost of setting up a new assembly line and of the components required for their assembly renders them economically unfeasable to produce. They did give me the last three battery sleds that they had for the PSP-2 / -3 so I was happy about that. I also found out that my PSP-2 is in perfect working order and now have the graphs to prove it.
The designer sat down with me and explained every feature on the MIXY to me. It has a mind-boggling array of features and functions. If you do M/S recordings, this is the absolute perfect device for you. I can't even begin to describe all the M/S options that it has, but some of the relevant ones are a fine gain control for M/S mode and separate input sensitivity settings for each direction.
The MIXY is also almost impossible to clip. I was screaming at the top of my lungs directly into a dynamic microphone at 1 inch away and the red light never even went on showing that it is -10 db away from clipping. It also has a built-in limiter that works very well and has an "intelligent" limiting function so it will gracefully limit; it is not a hard limit. It has a high-pass filter at 50, 120, and 300 Hz with a -18 db / octive slope. The external power supply can take anything between 8 and 18 volts; the MIXY has an internal rechargeable battery that can last about 10 hours at a charge.
A very important note about the MIXY is that the unit automatically adds some gain so you should always engage the -10 db pad on your mics. The MIXY has a check about this on its digital display so you can't blow your mics up accidentally. The MIXY can power any microphone made; anything from ribbon to dynamic microphones.
The input and output options are probably the strongest point of the MIXY. On the output end, it has balanced and unbalanced outputs (with 22db to -9db output signal, adjustable in 1db increments), a RF transmitter output, a line out (that is -6db down from the balanced output) digital AES (and includes an AES > S/PDIF cable) and optical outputs, and a USB output. You cannot mix the S/PDIF or USB inputs with the analog inputs through the MIXY (you need a PC for that), but you can use a synchro function to use sampling frequencies at 32 / 44.1 / 48 / 96 when externally using a S/PDIF signal. The MIXY outputs a 20-bit signal dithered to 16 bit, so it has a 16/44.1 or 16/48 A/D built in to the device if you want to digitally output the signal through the digital outputs.
I asked AETA if they had any plans to modify the unit for a 24/96 A/D converter to be included instead of the 16/44.1 or 16/48 one. They responded by saying that it would take a lot of work. I would not rule this out in the future, but it did not seem to be on the table for the moment.
On the input end, it has three microphone inputs, each of which have a 0-50 db continually adjustable gain at the input stage. Their maximum input level is from 22 to -9 db, adjustable in 1db increments. The USB port allows the MIXY to be used as a slave device by a PC. You can run a total of seven channels through the MIXY when used with a PC, which is way cool and can output the USB signal to the AES port.
The designer said that the MIXY preamps are the best that AETA has ever designed for a portable unit, even better than the PSP-3. He also said that it absolutely blows away the preamps on the 722 / 744, although he did acknowledge that the 302 has good preamps.
AETA will be at the AES convention in NYC in early October and they will be there with several MIXYs. They are looking into the possibility of leaving some of them in the U.S. as demo models as well so we can play around with these to see how they work. The target market for the MIXY is the radio / TV / ENG market, but they are interested in seeing if the MIXY can have some use in music recording or nature recording because they are convinced that its preamps are really good.
The final thing that they told me is that the MIXY currently costs 1,600 Euro, but acknowledged that the exchange rate is hammering their sales in the U.S. They are looking into the possibility of manufacturing some of the MIXYs in the U.S. in order to create a lower price in dollars.
Anyway, sorry for such a long post. It is uncommon that a company has opened its doors so wide to somebody who was going to the lab for a totally unrelated reason. This is a way cool product and if I had 1,600 Euro burning a hole in my pocket an an extra Gefell body, I would jump all over this thing just to give it a shot. Please contact me or AETA if any of you have questions about this product; I am not a shill for AETA, but they are good people and are trying to get their name out there in the U.S.
Topic: Visited the AETA Audio labs and saw the MIXY (Read 7002 times)