all i can say so far after my purchase of a T112 is this:
I MADE THE RIGHT CHOICE!

Robert – Just get it ordered! you will not regret it – We do all sorts of events – everything from corporate AV, Bands, Concerts to Theatre productions etc. One of my main concerns was the scene capability for Theatre shows however with current firmware (vers 1.5 or greater) the scenes can be customised to include or exclude what you need to store. There are a few things that are still missing that would be a good – as Mr B said a multiband compressor would be good. You still can’t side chain the compressors so you can’t to ducking etc but these features and other requests are known to A & H and are likely to show up in future firmware upgrades. A&H support has been fantastic with listening to end user requests and technical issues. I had a problem after a firmware upgrade due to customised network address’s and this was quickly sorted via the support site and the issue was fixed in the following firmware release. I think they sound great, are easy to use, and with the wireless laptop capability/ Digital snake offer features and power not available from any other manufacturer in the price range (to date anyway).

Richard Howey
Audio Dynamite Ltd
T112/ IDR48

We received a demo unit Thursday set it up for a show on friday and our worship service on Sunday from scratch. Friday was a small show with 3 tenors and a grand piano. It was so clear that within 10 seconds I knew I had chosen the wrong microphones for the night lol. Today we ran the first music service with it some 30 channels worth of sound. I had people that wore hearing aids coming up to me and telling me how much clearer it sounded than our old board. The bass is huge and open not muddy but, warm at the same time. We were at least 4db louder than we normally are and yet it didn’t seem that way. In fact a man with hearing aids who works the lights normal has issues with them cutting off during the music every now and then did not have one cut off during the service today. It was easy to hear where things needed adjusting. I loved the eq. I even got a lavaliere microphone to sound really good which has not been an easy task in the past. The speakers voice was nice and clear.

I think it took max a couple of hours to learn the board and set up both shows from scratch(this was the first time I had ever laid my eyes on this mixer). I really didn’t watch the time so it could have been less. It wouldn’t have taken me but 3 minutes but, alas I set up the shows in the 1.6 editor and the demo unit was 1.54 so it couldn’t read the shows till I had time to upgrade the firmware on Saturday. I find the layout simple and so did most of our volunteers. It does take some thought though while mixing I kept forgetting to select a channel before changing the settings on it so I ended up changing another channels settings by mistake but, with time and practice that should happen less.

I am very pleased with it so far. Tuesday is rehearsal and I will be doing some more detailed work rather than the thrown together shows I did today. I will be digging through the effects and using the RTA. So there you have it classical vocalist and a rock & roll worship service. It passed both with flying colors.

1) We play some tight venues and some venues where having traditional snake is displeasing to the clients. So I LOVE the digital snake (ACE).

2) I love the features of a digital board. To be fair, most digital boards have these features. But I like:
– tons of mixes, tons of DCAs
– compressor, eq, gate, on each channel…. yep now I have 32 compressor!!!!!
– 8 fx
– great for a variety of venues – we use it mostly for a rock n roll band with horns but we easily created a show for a high school musical/theatre setting.
– you can set up the mixer off line using a laptop or one the mixer itself
– ability to get a card and use digital protocols such as adat, aviom, etc.

3) What do I like particular about the iliveT over other comparable digital mixers:
– The A&H team listens to their customers and implements features that they request. I urge you to participate in the forums and put in your wish list. One of the features the ilive did not have at the time I bought it was a tap tempo but on the user defined keys. One of the later firmware versions added this feature.
– The system is modular and you can mix and match surfaces and mixracks. Furthermore you can slowly build your system: you can get a mixrack first then get a surface later.
– digital snake
– ability to control the mixrack from either the desk and/or laptop at the same time. This allows you to walk around and tweak things such as speaker delays, eq, etc. I also use a laptop to mix monitors from the stage.
– If power or a connectionis lost to the mixer, the mix rack continues to pass audio
– If power is lost to the mixrack then restored, the mixrack starts passing audio in about 10 seconds.
– The interface is much easier to use than an LS9.

4) What are some Cons

– We had a preamp was acting bad (most likey the gain control circuitry). However, A&H replaced the card. Furthermore, we did NOT have to send the mixrack back. They sent us a card and we replaced it ourselves thus saving shipping time. So although we had a problem, A&H handled it without giving us the run around. The problem was not a show stopper in our case. I have heard of LS9’s freezing up during live shows.

– If you were an early adopter of the ilive, you might have to buy a new scb (1.5ghz vs 1.0ghz) so that the latest version(1,61) works. Lucky for me, I don’t have this problem (whew). However, I do feel like early adopters are being be penalized for buying the first surfaces. To me, the early adopters took the risk and believed in the Ilive series and they should have their boards replaced by A&H without a charge. Fortunately it is my understanding that there are few of these early surfaces out there.

– The T Series does not come with a case. A&H does not offer a case to purchase.. You will need to spend around $1000 to get a high quality case custom built. We purchased one from Olympic case. We gave them the specs and the case fits like a glove.

– I would have liked to see some of the outputs on the surface be xlr instead of trs.

– Output cards are avaialble but must be purchased separately. I purchased the Mult out card for the IDR series. It is very hard to find. The part numbers for the mini multi out varies from dealer to dealer. A&H lists it as M-MMO-A on their web site. Searching for M-MMO-A on the fullcompass.com site yields no results. Fullcompass lists the part number as M-MINI-MOUT-A. The card sells for $699 which I think is overpriced. However, I had no choice but to buy it so I could do live recordings. Fullcompass was the only place I could find it. Other dealers acted like I was smoking crack when I tried to explain what I was looking for. So this card was a bit tough to purchase.

Misconceptions about the Ilive T:

The problem with the ilive T series is that people compare it to a variety of products without keeping the playing field level.

Misconception #1 – The LS9 costs less for a similar product

First of all, the T series is comparable in price to digital mixers such as the yamaha LS9. However, the ilive is much better in my opinion. One of the big advantages is that the ilive has a digial snake. Its actually ACE which has some control and audio both so its not exactly a digital snake. However, the bottom line is that you have a single piece of Cat5 cable instead of an analog snake. If you get an LS9, you need to buy a say a 32 or 48 channel snake to make it comparably equivalent to an ilive T. Further more, if you do want to use a digital snake with an LS9, you would be spending several thousand dollars more for. I personally like the ilive T series better than the ls9 plus it already has a digital snake. So the street price of the ls9 is lower than the ilive T112 with a mixrack, the T112 + mixrack is a better value.

Misconception #2 – “The Ilive T is not rider friendly. Get a PM5D”

I do not argue that the Yamaha, digidesign, etc are probably at the top or riders. I don’t think that it is fair to say that the ilive T is not rider friendly when the rider calls for PM5D. You are comparing apples to oranges. The PM5D is tens of thousands of dollars more than an ilive T.

The ilive T costs *little* bit more than an LS9.
The ilive T costs *ALOT* less than a PM5D.

You will hear these arguments to get an LS9 but remember you don’t get a digital snake.

Then you will hear people argue get a PM5d, venue, etc. instead of an ilive T when you only considering an LS9 to begin with.

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I hope a presented a fair and balanced opinion of the ilive T. All in all I am very happy with my ilive T112 and the IDR32 mixrack. The ilive T series has TONS of pros and just a few cons. There is not product that is absolutely perfect. The good thing here is that A&H respects the wishes of the users via comminucation on their forums and they are constantly improving the ilive series. I would recommend buying it!

I’ve had a T112/IDR48 combo since fall of 2009, and am very satisfied. Our company does a variety of show types including orchestra, choral, and musical theater, just finished “The Music Man” with lots of wireless mikes, and the system ran flawlessly (aside from the operator making some mistakes, grin). The CAT5 connectivity was a big selling point, as was the human engineering that A&H uses. An easy desk to learn the basics, does take some time to learn it all.

Customer support from A&H is unparalleled. They are responsive and interested in keeping you as a customer after the sale. My T112 lost the first 8 electronic scribble strips early on. I got a personal call from A&H’s national sales manager, and a replacement within a couple of days. That’s service.

I, too, had difficulties in finding a case, but finally had one made from specs by Crown Case Company in Charlotte, NC. Joe does nice work with reasonable prices, and can build anything you want. Not quickly, mind you, seems to be pretty busy, but the end result was excellent.

I think the T series boards are the best kept secret in the industry, head and shoulders above the LS9, as good as or better than the MC7 at a better price, probably the most reasonably priced system for the features out there. Good job A&H, I love my iLive.

Geep Howell
HH Audio, Inc.
Lynchburg, VA

Our church purchased a T112 and 32×16 stage rack 3 weeks ago. Very impressed with the ease of use and the excellent sound that it produces. It has multiple ways of performing various tasks and each person can set up their own preferences. The only drawback we found was there is no preamp on the surface so we can’t run a condenser mic directly from FOH. It is a minor issue but worth noting.

Love the unit, buy it you won’t be disappointed!

iDR32 T112

I echo many of the good responses from this system and how powerful it is. I may be the only one to experience it yet, but I will say the church I run the board for had to send back the first console they got because of a freak-out in the middle of a show. the board lit up like a Christmas tree and the rack defaulted to the last configuration it was given. Luckily, with the system being able to run off a computer, we finished the show with the laptop setup. How many system can you say will have a major problem and still be able to function? A&H was great about getting things taken care of, and we are now back up and running. I would def recommend, just realize that with a new system such as this, there me be kinks here and there that will be worked on.