I find it very interesting that over the three & one half year life of this thread A&H has not responded to the initial plea of the OP. It is crystal clear to me that a very large number of us have made substantial investments in expansion stage boxes that have, for either stage I/O placement needs, or for sonic quality improvement reasons, have absolutely no need for the performance XLR’s on the SQ5 for performance capture. A processing controller with a flexible 42 bus XCIV core (Exactly like the one that is in the Avantis) residing in a greatly scaled down I/O version of the dlive C 1500 offering 12 faders with six layers and one screen along with the appropriate communication connectivity, would be good for starters. Since there would be no performance XLRs on the rear deck there should be plenty of room for the following;
1) A giga Ace link
2) two DX links for our DX expansion boxes
3) I/O port (for Waves or Dante card)
4) A dedicated ME-1 48khz port
5) two network ports
6) BNC word clock I/O
All of these features are available with other A&H desks and I am certain a 42 bus flexible processing core will easily manage all of it. We are well past the ideal time for A&H to offer a small comprehensive processing controller for their world class DX168 & extraordinary high quality prime I/Os available with a DX32 enclosure. Forcing those of us that have made a considerable investment in these DX expansion boxes to accept the limitations of the entry level SQ5 or spending a small fortune for large format big channel count gear that we need like another hole in our head is not smart marketing. Obviously A&H has set a goal of offering world class sonic quality and processing at an attractive price point. Perhaps the time has come to provide a means for many of us to use their great front end capture gear with a scaled down sized synergistic controller. I expect a much bigger number of buyers that are willing to pay for the already over sold DX boxes will exist when a companion processing controller is made available at a price point that is less than the Avantis but more than the entry level SQ5 as part of a well thought out system.
Hugh
