Ongoing Mackie DL32R Channel Failures

Our Mackie DL32R is acting up again! I previously described this problem back in 2017, with mixer channels intermittently failing. Fortunately, we’ve managed the last couple years with minimal issues on the DL32R. But over the last couple months we’ve experienced an intermittent hum on channel 8, and yesterday channels 8,16,24,32 all died completely.

So, I removed the 10 screws on top, and 6 on each side, and popped the lid. With a mic plugged into channel 8, I confirmed it was dead. Then, I wiggled the top-right ribbon cable (directly above the row of 8,16,24,32), and the channel immediately came back to life. So, it’s clearly an issue with these connectors.

The ribbons are bent over at quite an angle, to loop down to the main board- could that tension be part of the problem? I went through every ribbon cable and carefully pried it loose, and then plugged it in again, in the hopes of making a good firm fit, and maybe loosening any oxidization.

So it’s fixed again for now. But how soon will it be before it fails again?? It’s a bit nerve-wracking! Is there a more permanent solution? These connectors did not appear loose, so I doubt hot glue would help. And it’s hard to tell, but I guess there could have been some oxidization on the connector pins, so I suppose I could try some de-oxit. I don’t have any on hand right now. I guess we’ll wait and see.

Meanwhile, Mackie has released the new DL16/32S series which again claim “Built-Like-A-Tank reliability that the DL Series is known for”.  Hmmm.