ME-U with Dante SQ 32 vs Aviom D400-Dante vs Other

[ScottParticipant]

Hey Folks,

I am playing integrator for my church, and we are about to go through a relatively major (for us) overhaul. We are finally ditching the old analog snakes and cobbled together system to get a complete, thought-out digital install, and are going to be going with Dante as we have a campus move coming up in a couple of years, and will be integrating into that network as well.

Just for context on the over system components, we are going to be going SQ mixers for house and stream, 3 DT168s, the appropriate Dante cards, Cisco CBS350 switch for network, with half of a dozen additional network drops in locations where flexibility would be needed. We are also shifting from a mix of passive and powered monitors to go completely in-ear, with 6 personal mixers for band, and 5 wireless in ear mixes (Sennheiser IEM g4) that will be mixed for the musician or via the app themselves. We are also running 7 Sennheiser EW-D systems, a combo of handset and body packs.

So when it comes to the Personal Mixer aspect of it, I have some questions that the folks that poke around here will hopefully be able to help with. I am generally looking at the ME-500s or the Aviom A320’s. I would prefer to get the ME-500s because I have concerns about the Aviom sound and build quality. Where I am getting stuck is the ME-U hub with a Dante Card. At best that’s $2700 with the newer (cheaper) SQ32 card. Compare that to the Aviom D400-Dante hub at $1400. And unless I am missing the boat, it looks like I can just hook the ME-500s right to the Aviom hub, and still have that integrated into the Dante Network. So what does the A&H gear give me in this case (assuming I am getting the compatibility correct…lol)? Are there additional benefits to it that I haven’t found yet?

On the other side of the same coin…would it be worth running a 2nd network cable (the first being the gigabit network) back from the house mixer’s s-link port to a 10/100 poe switch, and go that route instead?? Would that even work at the same time as the Dante cards are working?

I appreciate any advice here!

[Nicola A&HKeymaster]

Hi Scott,

All the options you mentioned are valid (ME-U with Dante, Aviom D400, or second Cat5 from SLink).
I would say the Aviom hub would limit the ME-500 to 16 mono channels. With the ME-U or SLink route, the ME-500 can take up to 16 mono OR stereo channels (by reading the stereo information from the mixer or the hub). There are more advantages if you later decide to integrate one or more ME-1, such as auto channel naming and grouping of up to 40 channels from Dante or SLink.

Since you mention sound quality. When connected to an Aviom hub the ME-500s will use the Aviom clock, this can have a slight impact on overall sound quality. Probably not as major as the difference in DACs and headphone amps between ME and the A320, but worth mentioning.

[ScottParticipant]

Awesome, thank you for the info!

It feels like an extra newb question, but I am just wanting to be extra sure…so don’t judge me! 😀 Even with a mono source in that situation, we would still be able to pan the mono feeds/individual channels to L or R for a local stereo mix for ears right?

[Nicola A&HKeymaster]

Yes, you can still pan sources.
The advantage of stereo channels is that they occupy a single key on the ME-500 so more sources to the mix overall.

[ScottParticipant]

Excellent, thank you! One more question and then I think I’ll have made my decision. Are there any negative impacts or implications from a latency standpoint when it comes to utilizing the SLink connection and a 10/100 switch?

[Author]

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