Hi Peter,
You make a good point, unless you know the console works and it can be proven to work in all capacity, buying it is a risk not worth taking. If you know the person who is selling the parts and that person has a good reputation, you might have a real relationship with this person that would be ok. Buying from a brick and mortar or a reputable eBay seller, that might be ok too but either way, it's risky if there is no way to test it out to make sure it works.
These threads are full of "problems" with the d8b and there are a lot of common ones. I think of Steve T and how much trouble he had with his board. He was tinkering with it as much as he was mixing or recorded on it.
Myself, I got lucky, my d8b has always worked real well and I bought it second hand from a well known guy who bought it new - I have one of the earlier ones, maybe that's it... maybe Mars took real good care of it, I don't really know.
Someone random is d--u-- m-- b --- too many bad people out there. Makes me sad, but I put on my gloves and fight (well it's hockey playoffs, so I take my gloves OFF and fight
) because I am not going to roll over and let these thieves have a day with me. I had a whole van load of top of the line equipment stolen right out from under my nose and just a month ago my buddy had the same thing happen to him! Not cool to steal!
Desperate times now so I gotta be careful. I basically trust people and I really want to trust people. I want to believe that my fellow man is upstanding and authentic, honest and willing to help. I am up early most days and to bed too late and still I am not making it. I don't ever remember working this hard and I am not old but I am not a young man anymore. So yep BE CAREFUL –
As you might remember a couple of days ago you got my E-mail and some other members of this forum got my E-mail – but it wasn’t me it was a robot that hacked my E-mail account and spammed all my contacts – I sent out an apology letter ASAP.
So a multitasking early morning caused a guffaw that was just a careless mishap - but I do still care and I do think positive and I do still make music.
I want to have the attitude as if this "economic downturn" is merely a bump in the road, not the end of the world. And really, there is much more opportunity now than there ever was that I can remember... opportunity is knocking at my door everyday.
The reality is that there are separated units, units that were never together to begin with, spare parts, parted parts, and all sorts of misconception with our beloved d8b. After all the d8b was released in the mid-nineties as I recall, could be wrong there - I often am.
Those of us who have and use the mixer know what to look for and are able to make an informed choice when buying parts.
I bought my d8b from a well known musician in town and I didn't know a thing, but the seller was available to me via telephone if I had any problems; but I really got all my info from the Mackie d8b forum and all the information there. As you might recall I was a bit of a PITA for some time
How I got this extra unit was due to the DXB scare and I wanted to be covered "just in case". I was reading all about the nightmares DXB owners had been talking about on the forums with the motherboards failing and other stuff that was going south on the DXB... I called my friend that knew the guy that is very knowledgeable and serviced most all the Mackie product in LA about getting this extra unit. He is an authorized service center and really knows his stuff and I trusted him - he was the guy who sold me the v2.0 EPROM chip for my original DIO-8 card so the board would work with the other DIO-8 cards I bought on eBay, couldn't figure out why it wasn't working and he had the answer in about 2 minutes.
I mentioned to him about the CPU for sale and told him the price the guy wanted for it, and he said it was a fair deal so I pulled the trigger for a spare unit. Little did I know that the d8b didn't have these problems, the DXB did and most of the problems associated with the d8b is inside the console, I would have been smarter to buy a spare console for the fader boards, ribbon cables, ad nauseas.
I actually ended up using the "spare" unit because it is faster and newer, and my original went into a box and wasn't used. I am selling the newer spare so I don't break up the original pair.
I got this one from the guy up in Woodinville WA that ended up with a lot of parts and units that were not shipped, he bought up all the surplus. He bought it as a lot and I got a pretty good deal (for the time) on it and everything worked even though the case was a little beat up. I have surmised that I will most likely never need a spare CPU and I have less space and even less dollars. My house is still there but I am not there, I am renting a little place and everything that isn't nailed to the floor is going to get sold. There are some things I might not sell but I have to consider it all.
Does this remind you at all of the old days Peter?
Anyway, I agree with you, as I often do, that you have to be really careful when buying a used d8b especially if it is not the original set.
Michael
Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2012 8:50 am