Ecler Nuo 3/4 - opinions wanted

[Lanz the joiner]

Hi all, 2nd post here :)

Main question:
Are these mixers any good, is there anything rubbish about them (build quality, functionality)? In particular, how are the EQ's; how do they compare to Pioneer and A&H ones?

Background information:
I am a somewhat experienced deep techno/house/minimal DJ, having held some residencies and played in a few clubs over the years, and I'm looking to buy a mixer for home use primarily. I have always loved the sound of A&H mixers, especially the EQ's and filters, and I have always disliked Pioneer mixers, in particular the EQ's and filters. Maybe the shape and curve of the EQ is different, I'm not sure. A bass cut just sounds more like I want/expect it to sound on A&H, I feel like I don't have to think, or guess, while using them. Whereas with Pioneer I often take out too much or too little of whichever frequency I'm adjusting. Or the frequency I intended to alter doesn't change in the way I wanted it to.

I can't justify paying for the best Xone (92) despite really really wanting those two VCF filters and DJ style fader caps. The ideal choice, the 42, is overpriced for what you get, and there seems to be none on sale second hand. Xone 62's are selling for cheap, and I would like to have one, but the 4-way EQ is slightly offputting, and also the tiny LED meters, and lack of full-kill on the EQs.

So it's a second hand Xone 62 versus a new or used Ecler Nuo 3 or 4. The problem is that I'm having trouble finding any comments on how the EQ's sound. Many of the reviews I've found have been relating to scratching, which is pretty irrelevant to my style of deep techno and house. So, if you have tried one yourself, how do you think they sound, and do you think they would appeal to an A&H fan?

Thanks

[Nicadraus]

Sound and feel, Ecler mixers are superb. I even like them better than Pioneer to be honest and so much better than A&H (I don't and never liked A&H). The EQs are fantastic to work with. Probably the best EQs on DJ mixers. Ecler mixers' built is top notch. The only thing I didn't like with the Nuo 5/Evo 5 was the effects but mapping the Nuo 4 with MIDI function especially Traktor (tsi file available) is excellent.

I highly recommend the Nuo 4. :tup:

[djmickyk]

I own an Ecler evo 5 and have to say it wipes the floor with any other mixer ive used,including varies Pioneer models,the sound quality and the faders are so good,so i say go for it mate, im sure you will be very impressed also.

@Nicadraus: I dont suppose you have the drivers that came with the evo 5 bro,i got my mixer without the install cd,and am having no luck setting up timecode vinyl. (windows vista 32 bit) thanks..... ps. sorry for high jacking the tread :)

[light-o-matic]

I have actually three Ecler Nuo's (selling one of em soon.. too many mixers).. Also have a Pioneer 800 and Xone 62. Like mixing on the Ecler the best.

To answer your question more directly about the EQ's.. yes the Ecler EQ's are great.. but they are very different from the Pioneer. First of all, they are full kills.. all EQ's down gives you silence. But also means that unlike many standard EQ's, the response remains flat when you run the EQ's higher or lower.. it's a "constant Q" response that really feels different. You can truly mix on the EQ's, I barely touch the faders when mixing. The other major difference is that Ecler EQ crosses from mid to bass at a lower frequency than most, and from mid to high at a higher frequency than most. So the mid is wider, and the high and low are both narrower. Again, I like it. With the Pioneer I find that when I am mixing just the mids I need to add a touch of bass to make the kick mix right, same thing if I'm mixing just the bass. With the Ecler the mids can stand alone, and if I mix the bass alone, since it is JUST the low bass, it mixes more cleanly with the mids of the other track.

The other thing I like about the Ecler is the gain setup. Unity gain is with the channel fader all the way up, and the master level controls are AFTER all metering and headphones. This means that the headphone volume doesn't vary when you vary the master.. and if you gain a channel and its meter is peaking at 0db, when you flip that fader up to max, that track will come in on the master meters at EXACTLY 0 db.. When you set the headphone mix knob in center, you will get a perfect 50/50 mix, always. Also the output headroom is enough for you to be able to run the master at 100% with no danger of distortion...

So yea, it's a good mixer.

Now as far as how it compares to the xone 62.. some people love the xone, and yea there are things I love about it. The buttons, the faders, the filters... It feels a bit more solid than the Ecler.. less wiggly. BUT this is just perception, my Eclers have never failed or broken in any way, despite coming out to many parties including outdoor in the woods with dust all over them.. they are very solid. It sounds great (whether it sounds better than the Ecler is debatable, but it definitely doesn't sound worse). The EQ's are similar to the Pioneer but 4 of them so you get more flexibility, I do like them but mixing with 4 EQ's.. yea I can do it and like it in some ways but don't really feel like it adds that much to my mixing vs the Ecler... I suppose that if I put more time into playing on it I would learn to love it. I've played a few times at a festival where they always have a xone 464 which is kind of like a 62 on steroids, it has the same EQ's.. and I do enjoy playing on it. But really, given the choice, I'd rather mix on the Ecler...

[Estacy]

Having owned some of the highest end mixers, I still regard my old Ecler Nuo 3 as one of the best mixers I've ever had.

Regarding the EQ and quality, I fully agree with above posters.

[pete]

Ditto. Over 10 years ago I joined this forum and first heard about Ecler.

I was all set for buying another mixer, but gave an Ecler a try in the shop. I was converted.
What they do, they do very well indeed, and are solid, dependable mixers.
No mixer is without flaw, and all will eventually break down, crackle and bleed. But I still use all of my Eclers.

As for the routing, I would not accept anything less... although I do prefer the Urei 1601, but I'm weird.

The EQs are very nice for dance music of all genres, beat the pants off most other mixers like Vestax and Pio. Full kill and very natural sounding EQs. As mentioned above.

Basically ... on the back of one of my Eclers it says "Performance Mixing Instrument".
And you end up using it like a musician uses his tools, it becomes an extension of your physique.

[Estacy]

I also really enjoy the versatility of Ecler mixers. Because a Nuo mixer is a jack of all trades, master of quite a few.

The sound quality is way above other mixers in its priceclass

You can scratch with them, even with the stock CF. If you dont like it, its plug and play with the magnificent eternal fader.

EQ and adjustable fader curve means the smoothest of mixing is also possible.

But I do think the headphone amps could use some more power.

[Lanz the joiner]

Thanks a lot for the input, people. It was much quicker and more detailed than I had expected.

I think I'm sold, now I just need to decide if I need four channels or not. That's not really a question specific to this mixer though.

[Nicadraus]

Thanks a lot for the input, people. It was much quicker and more detailed than I had expected.

I think I'm sold, now I just need to decide if I need four channels or not. That's not really a question specific to this mixer though.

The Nuo 3 or 3.0 will be perfect. Because eventually, you will need that extra channel later on.

[Renog]

I'll have to echo what everyone said. I had a Nuo 2 but needed the extra channel so I sold the 2 and got the 3.0. Because I like to scratch I dropped in a innofader which put this mixer on a whole other level for me. I was a die hard Rane fanatic and no one could tell me any different until I needed a new mixer and wanted to see what else was out there. The folks here convinced me much like this thread to try out of the Nuo. I got it and no other mix can come anywhere close sorry Rane.

[Puregroove]

I own and use and old NUO 3 (the all black one without the silver bits) and it's still my mixer of choice. The sound out of them is just so musical, one way or another.

I got it about ten years back, and at the time I had exactly the same question, I think it was about the time everyone was buying XZones and Pionerr 400's.

Everyone was telling me I must get an A&H. The Ecler just seemed more organic.

They are very basic, but they do actually feel like a musical instrument. I would heavily recommend a NUO3.

They're not perfect either - they have a couple of quirks, but that only seems to add to the charm rther than being annoying like on other mixers.

Only thing is - didn't they go bankrupt a while back? Or are they in business?

Edit - they have the best eq's hands down. This is the main reason you buy an Ecler.

[Puregroove]

Actually I suppose I'd better be bothered to explain the quirks :

1 : They're very light, despite their outstanding build quality. They can slide around a bit if you don't sandwich them between something.

2 : It's a touch fiddly on the gain controls if you want your faders up at full and setting the volume on the gain. The reason for this is that if you want to stay in the green, it's quite a fine adjustment due to the phono preamps being of a very high calibre, therefore you have so much headroom, often you are about volume 1 on the gain otherwise it starts going into the yellow. But weigh this up against the fact that they respond very favourably to going into the yellow and even the red, like analogue gear does. Also, the gain controls are very responsive to fine adjustment, so it's just a matter of getting used to making tiny adjustments on those particular controls.

3 : They have a jumper which controls output, and I'm sure lightomatic can explain this better, but they don't have the most powerful output straight out of the box. I understand you can adjust this internal jumper to make the output higher. Light can correct me if I'm wrong here.

I hope point no. 2 made sense.

Points 2 and 3 I suspect arise from Ecler being concerned about sound quality.

[light-o-matic]

Yea I agree the gain is pretty high, mine stay under 12 o'clock most of the time with Pioneer CDJs as input, but iPods etc have lower output and I'm glad to have the gain. It's a tiny bit fiddly but not terribly so.

And yea full up on the channel fader is how these work best.. that's where the master meter/master cue will exactly match the level of the channel meter/channel cue.

As far as the output setting, yes there's a jumper to increase the output from I think 0dBv nominal to +6, but I've never switched them.. The mixer has plenty of output for my system.. if anything I prefer that it doesn't have more output because this way I can run the master at 100%, and have the meters hitting even +6 yet have enough headroom coming into my analog leveler (first piece of the audio chain in my amp rack).. So a DJ pushing the levels can't distort easily.

[Puregroove]

Yea I agree the gain is pretty high, mine stay under 12 o'clock most of the time with Pioneer CDJs as input, but iPods etc have lower output and I'm glad to have the gain. It's a tiny bit fiddly but not terribly so.

Exactly. They seem to understand about headroom. The vinyl preamps seem bionic in them - straight through vinyl is about 9 or 10 o clock I find, with all the headroom in the world. Playing Serato through the line inputs I find the same as you, it's about 12 o clock.

I'm glad to see this little gem of a mixer hasn't been forgotten about, and people are still thinking of it as a possibility. I always thought they were overshadowed by all the A&H hype and Pioneer stuff, but it's nice to see people still considering them as a great alternative.

Reaonably priced, too.

[light-o-matic]

Yea they are trying to accommodate all possible inputs.. The standard RCA line level is -10dBu, but Pioneer and other DJ brands often output much higher.. eg the CDJ-350 is spec'd at +2dBv.. that's a 14dB difference between sources before you even get into level differences from one recording to another. There are also vast differences in output between many DJ carts (which tend to favor high output) and Hifi carts. So for the quite high output of the CDJ and the aggressive mastering of the tracks to cause me to ride the gain around 11 o'clock or less is not unreasonable.

I actually have the same observation re my old Soundcraft dmix club mixer, it has quite a bit of gain compared to the newer stuff.. Prob because there is less need to accommodate different types of analog sources these days so they optimize for CD and computers.. and for carts they assume high output DJ carts.

But yea the Ecler is still my favorite to mix on.. Plenty of headroom.. and the gain structure is exactly right. Having unity be full up on the master, as well as having the meters before the master, is a godsend for sound engineers and for djs who mix in headphones.. and I am both :) And of course yea, the EQ's are fantastic. It is a shame that these are now discontinued.

[aza]

The Nuo 3 or 3.0 will be perfect. Because eventually, you will need that extra channel later on.

Any major differences between the two?

[Nicadraus]

Any major differences between the two?

Nuo 3 has more inputs but the Nuo 3.0 has individual LED meters on each channel.