PlanetZ forums - scopeusers.com

Any reasons why they didn't put Neutrik Combos on the A16u XLR instead of XLRs Or do they cost really that much to install ?

That's a good question. They are not that much more expensive when you are looking at a device at this price point.

I don't see the point of the A16 XLR in the first place. If it doesn't have mic preamps, what good is it? What studio equipment uses XLR as its I/O connection? I thought most stuff uses TS/TRS.

Shayne

combo plugs would have been nice.

Shayne, lots of pro gear uses xlrs.

I think most people who have an A16U would have a patchbay anyway so in some ways it's almost irrelevant whether it's jacks or XLRs. I personally find XLRs easier to solder than TRS jacks, although my soldering skills are very lame. I'm pretty sure the combo sockets would cost a hell of a lot more than normal ones. And for 32 connectors, that's gonna add up.

As Gary said, plenty of pro gear uses XLRs for balanced i/o. In fact in my experience it's quite rare to find TRS jacks - mostly when jacks exist they're unbalanced.

But anyway since you can get a cable that's TRS on one end and XLR M/F on the other, it's pretty irrelevant what type of balanced connector a device has. Often multi-channel gear just has 25-pin DSUB connectors which aren't much fun to solder at all, and pre-made multicores tend to be expensive.

Overall I think the jack version of the A16U is better because it can take balanced or unbalanced signals (each block of 8 ins/outs are switchable).