Our three year old QU-32 has had faders gone bad in 3 of the 4 banks this year. According to Tech Support, the repair center would take 5 weeks. That’s not an option for us so we are buying a new one on fire sale instead and then mothball the bad one or do a DIY repair to be a backup. Two questions:
Is storing the “SHOW” to USB enough to clone the old unit configuration, settings and scenes?
I have an investment in 80 or so labels and have never had good luck peeling and resticking. Is it feasible to just swap the top cover?
The show file will contain about 98% of all settings. There might be a few “console specific” settings that are not included (like the IP address of the console, etc), but you really don’t want those included. Long story short, copying the show file from one console to another and loading it on the new console should bring the new console in line with your setup on the old console.
As far as the cover/console frame, I’m sure it is technically possible to swap it out, but I think it would be a pretty big job because there are a lot of internal components that are anchored to the cover. For example, the fader bank boards are anchored to the cover using the two screws on every fader. There are obviously other boards or connectors for all the buttons, lights, screens, etc that would have to be disconnected as well.
Great. Thanks. Swapping covers is a dumb idea. I looked closely and all the connectors in the back are attached to the covers plus the faders you mentioned and all the knobs have to come off. Looks like I’ll be in sticker hell ….
As for panel swapping, by the time you would get the mixer disassembled to point to swap the front panel you would be to the place where you could just replace the faders.
Your issues could be the fader it self or maybe deeper in the circuit that drives the motors.
As well as creating a show file, you could also copy all your scenes to a USB stick and reload along with the showfile into the new desk. Have you not considered the new QU series?
You mean the SHOW file doesn’t bring over the scenes?
I considered the new series but they are another bunch of money. The fire sale pricing on the QU-32 is what made the decision to not do a repair easy. Woulda been harder opting for a new model. Also, we have another QU-32 in another venue … so compatibility. Then there’s training ALL THE USERS …. mistakes will be made etc. This is smoother. Not looking forward to moving labels tho.
What was also appealing is having a backup unit if/when the problem happens 3 years from now. I see another person on REDDIT complaining of the exact same problems.
Sorry, les, that was a reply to dirkphc. Your Qu doesn’t have scribble strips, it has your stickers. Like most current digital mixers, the new Qu has a little display in each channel strip for the name. On SQ, you can make that display a color, which is really handy for identifying all the drumset channels or all the vocals or whatever. New Qu doesn’t color the strip.
Swapping cover might take a while (about 3-4 hours work). We have done it several times. You have several PCBs screwed to the cover and you can change them to the old cover, just take of the knobs and replace them again. Most time will be unscrew and rescue the many jack sockets, but with a electrical help will be faster (accu driver - just careful when screw the small PCB screws back - I suggest manually to not brake them). Just take pictures, where to connect the cables again.
But sure, new sticker will be faster
We had a QU-24 and after 1,5 years already the 2 faders started having issues - even covered mixer with dust cover. First we did not know it was the fader, as when changing the bank, 1 or 2 faders kept down. after a while we had 4 faders with issues. A&H supplier mentioned, faders only have 6 months warranty. So we repaired them by ourselves (but as given already in next link, more faders will follow and better to exchange the while fader bank). Selfrepair - Not easy but possible - but we did it already 2 times, as more and more faders started having issues. Here a post from A&H, where it states faders after April 2023 have better quality ( Free Warranty Extension for Avantis and dLive C Class - #6 by redwoody ) . So we just had bad luck. I think even SQ and other series have different quality than QU. We now have a SQ 7 and faders even sounds different when moving.
Just a comment to avoid fast fader wear and tear: at least for us, when doing soundcheck via tablet near the stage, we change the bank of the console to a bank, which we is NOT used during soundcheck to avoid unnecessary fader movement (just possible, if no one is sitting in front of this mixer )
Thank you for taking the time to make such an informative post. Changing covers to save stickering was a dumb idea. I’m going to transfer them and suffer them not sticking in the corner that starts the peel … lol
Ours QU-32 was purchased in 2022 so the low quality faders. We selected it for the human factors of direct access to 32 faders without switching banks. Very interesting strategy about iPad use. I am one of 3 directors that run events on the mixer. They use an iPad from stage. I don’t for exactly the wear and tearreason you stated.
I am interested in doing a DIY repair on the 2022 QU after I get the 2025 installed. Is there a guide, technician manual or some other resource? When you order replacement faders, do you get the better quality ones now? Do the faders come in banks or individually? TIA
You can buy individual faders. It’s a double-sided circuitboard with plated-though holes, so swapping them is nontrivial. You need to heat both sides of the circuitboard or the traces tear. Been there, done that, fucked up the circuitboard and patched with a hair-thin wire run through the hole.
I’m 2 out of 3 for repairing traces. Looks like I’ll be sending it back to A&H.