Still no word on an update

CQ CQ General Discussions
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I think it’s about time CQ owners start leaving honest reviews on the product pages so potential buyers understand what they should actually expect when purchasing this “digital” mixer.

At this point, this isn’t just impatience over waiting a few months for an update.

CQ V1.2, the last substantial feature update, was released on June 4, 2024, The current firmware, V1.2.2, was released in July 2025 and was primarily a maintenance release focused on bug fixes and stability improvements… It is now August 2026.

It has been now more than two years since the last major feature update and more than a year since the last firmware release of any kind, while the CQ Feature Suggestions forum continues to accumulate requests for routing improvements, output options, control improvements, offline functionality, processing features, and plenty of other additions.

To A&H’s credit, they stated in June 2025 that the CQ was “far from abandoned.” However, in that same response they also said there were no imminent plans for a feature release and provided no ETA.

Nearly a year later, I’ve seen posts of people stating they contacted A&H support reported essentially the same situation: no imminent firmware release, no public roadmap or dates, and an internal list of potential improvements that may be addressed when resources allow.

That’s really where my frustration lies.

If the CQ is considered feature complete, just tell us. If active feature development is continuing, give the community some indication of that. Nobody needs A&H to promise specific features or release dates, but after more than two years without a substantial feature update, I don’t think it’s unreasonable for customers to want some indication of what continued development they should expect from the platform.

A digital mixer isn’t just hardware. A significant portion of its functionality, flexibility, and longevity is defined by its firmware and software ecosystem. That is part of what customers are buying when they choose a digital console.

I’m not suggesting anyone leave dishonest or artificially negative reviews. Quite the opposite. Leave accurate reviews based on your ownership experience. Talk about what the CQ does well, because there is plenty that it does well. But also talk about the missing functionality, the update history, and the lack of communication regarding the future of the platform.

Potential buyers deserve to know that as of August 2026, V1.2.2 remains the current firmware, the last substantial feature update was released in June 2024, and there is no publicly communicated roadmap for the next major CQ feature release.

If Allen & Heath isn’t going to provide customers with some clarity about the future of the CQ platform, then I think existing owners should make sure prospective buyers understand what the ownership experience has actually been.

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What exactly would you say??? “I really need to do “X” with my console. I bought a CQ console from A&H and it doesn’t do “X”. I’ve been requesting this feature from A&H for years now, but they refuse to add the functionality I want/need to the console. You shouldn’t buy this console because A&H refuses to add new features that I want.”

The first rule in deciding on what console (or anything for that matter) to purchase is doing your research to understand what features and capabilities the device has BEFORE purchasing it. You should never buy something hoping that it will get updated in the future adding the functionality that you want today.

It sure sounds like either you didn’t do your research before buying the console, or your needs have changed over time and now you want something the CQ series doesn’t provide. That’s not A&H fault. No one says the CQ consoles are the best fit for everyone or that they are the right console in every situation. It very well may be that you need to change to another console - perhaps even a console from another brand if that console fits your needs better than what A&H is offering. But none of this is A&H fault and putting the blame on A&H is just wrong. Man up and take responsibility for your own decisions.

PS - I’m not suggesting that people don’t give honest reviews about their experience either. If the console doesn’t do “X”, there is nothing wrong is saying that. This type of information will actually help other people who are doing their research on what console to buy. Heck, one of my pieces of advice for people researching a console is to go look at forums (like this one) dedicated to the console they are considering and see what people are complaining about. That is probably the quickest way to see what features the console doesn’t have.

But don’t let your frustration lead you to make remarks/reviews that are designed to be “punitive” in nature. It sure sounds like this is what you are suggestion people do. The firmware update schedule (especially the “feature” updates) really doesn’t matter unless you failed the first rule of purchasing a console.

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I think you’re arguing against a point I’m not actually making.

I completely agree that you should buy a console based on what it does at the time of purchase, not based on the assumption that some specific feature will eventually be added. I would give anyone shopping for a mixer exactly the same advice.

My issue isn’t “CQ doesn’t do X, I’ve demanded X for two years, therefore A&H owes me X.”

My issue is the lack of communication about the continued development of a digital platform.

Those are two very different things.

The CQ isn’t an analog mixer where the functionality that ships in the box is necessarily the functionality it will have for its entire life. A significant part of a modern digital console is its firmware and software ecosystem. Bug fixes, compatibility, workflow improvements, control applications, and yes, sometimes new features, are all part of the ownership experience. I think the manufacturer’s track record of supporting and developing that platform is absolutely relevant information for someone researching a purchase.

That’s why the timeline matters.

The last substantial CQ feature update was V1.2 in June 2024. V1.2.2 arrived in July 2025 and was primarily a maintenance release. It is now August 2026. A&H said in June 2025 that CQ was “far from abandoned,” but also said there was no imminent feature release, and there still isn’t a publicly communicated roadmap more than a year later.

I’m not saying A&H owes me a particular feature. I’m saying that after two years without a substantial feature update, I would like A&H to communicate whether continued feature development of the platform should realistically be expected.

And I disagree that firmware history “doesn’t matter” to a prospective buyer. I think it matters quite a bit when comparing digital consoles.

If I’m comparing two consoles that both meet my needs today, but one manufacturer has a history of actively developing the platform while the other hasn’t released a substantial feature update in over two years and won’t communicate its plans, that’s useful information when deciding where to spend my money.

That’s also why I specifically said people should leave honest reviews, not punitive ones. If someone likes their CQ, they should say so. I like plenty about mine. But I also think it’s completely fair for an owner to say, “The hardware has worked well for me, but meaningful firmware development has been limited and communication about the future of the platform has been poor.”

That’s not punishing A&H. That’s providing exactly the kind of information you’re telling prospective buyers they should research before purchasing.

In fact, I think we actually agree on that last part.

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You are talking out of both sides of your mouth.

You say you aren’t looking for a particular feature, but you are frustrated with the development of the console. If the console works for you/everyone today, why are you upset with the development timeline? Would you be happy if A&H just released a meaningless update every 6 months just to give the impression of activity? I doubt it and you specifically call out the fact that the last “feature update” was two years ago. So clearly there ARE features that you want and are frustrated that you don’t have.

You also say that people should write an honest review, but you’ve been able to write an honest review since the day you purchased the console. Now that you feel that development is too slow you are suddenly calling on everyone to write “honest” reviews? Clearly you are doing this because you hope enough people follow your lead to force a response out of A&H. In other words, you are hoping to create a “mob” to get what you want. You say you aren’t trying to be punitive, but that is exactly what you are hoping for.

We can all read the words you are using, but we can also “read between the lines” and understand your intent too.

The reason A&H doesn’t share future plans about their consoles is the fact that they have nothing to gain and everything to lose by sharing the information. People are always going to complain. If A&H shared a roadmap, people like you would simply complain more - it’s taking too long, why are you adding “X” when I need “Y”, you missed a release date, etc, etc, etc.

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I don’t really understand why reasonable criticism of A&H’s communication is being treated as if it’s an attack on the company.

Wouldn’t better communication from A&H be a good thing for everyone here?

I’m not asking them to promise me a particular feature or release firmware every six months just so the version number changes. I’m asking for some basic communication about the direction and continued development of a product.

And yes, of course there are improvements I would like to see. I’ve never claimed otherwise.

“Gain Assistant” is a good example. It was actually one of the features that helped drive my decision to purchase the CQ. I knew it had a Gain Assistant feature, understood what it was intended to do, and specifically wanted that functionality.

It wasn’t until I actually owned the mixer and used Gain Assistant in real-world situations that I realized I would like more parameters governing how it responds and recovers after making gain adjustments.

How exactly would I have discovered that from a spec sheet before buying it?

That’s not a failure to research the product. That’s experience with the product revealing limitations and opportunities for improvement that weren’t obvious beforehand. There are plenty of things about a mixer that you simply don’t discover until you’ve used it at rehearsals and gigs.

That’s also perfectly fair information to include in a product review.

A review doesn’t have to be limited to checking whether the specifications printed on the box are accurate. It’s supposed to describe the ownership experience. If I were reviewing the CQ today, I’d say that Gain Assistant is a genuinely useful feature and one of the reasons I bought the mixer, while also saying that after using it extensively I think its implementation could use additional controls.

I’d also say that I like the CQ overall, but I’m disappointed that the last substantial feature update was in June 2024 and that A&H has provided very little communication about what owners should expect from continued development of the platform.

Those are facts about my experience owning the product. A prospective buyer isn’t necessarily going to learn them from the specifications, which is precisely why reviews from existing owners are valuable.

And yes, I hope customer feedback encourages A&H to communicate more. I’m not sure why that’s being characterized as some sort of nefarious intent or an attempt to create a “mob.” Companies respond to customer feedback. That’s one of the purposes of providing feedback in the first place.

If the result of owners voicing their concerns is that A&H communicates more clearly with its customers, I would consider that a positive outcome for CQ owners, prospective buyers, and A&H itself.

You seem to be interpreting criticism of A&H as criticism of the CQ itself, and I don’t think those are the same thing. I can like the mixer, believe I made the right decision purchasing it, and still think A&H could do a better job communicating with the people who bought it.

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The reason why people (like me) are critical of people like you (demanding communication from A&H) is because you simply don’t look at history. A&H has NEVER shared a roadmap about ANY of their products. There are literally hundreds of post all complaining about the same thing…

I guess it’s your turn to bitch and moan about the lack of communication regarding future firmware updates to the A&H consoles. I have to give you credit though, most people don’t threaten a “mob response” if you don’t get what you want. Still, the end result is going to be the same…

IT’S NOT GOING TO CHANGE.

The quicker you can accept and come to terms with that fact, the more you will be able to enjoy what you already have (or you’ll decide to move on to a product that fits your needs better) instead of constantly waiting for some future release.

PS - when I say they are hundreds of post complaining about the lack of communication, don’t twist that into some admission that what A&H is doing is wrong. Having hundreds of posts complaining about a fundamental decision about how A&H has decided to conduct business (something they are well within their right to do) is far better than the THOUSANDS of post that we would have from people complaining about the developmental roadmap should A&H decide to release it. I 100% understand why A&H doesn’t release information like this.

PSS - There is also an element of competitive advantages going on here. A&H surely doesn’t want to release a roadmap of their plans simply to keep their competitors in the dark. Why would they broadcast a major update or new lineup before it happens which would allow their competitors to plan a response (either hardware or marketing)? Again, they have nothing to gain and everything to lose by releasing this information.

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I think we’re just going to fundamentally disagree on this.

I’m perfectly willing to accept that A&H has historically operated this way and has never published detailed product roadmaps. That doesn’t mean I have to agree that it’s a good approach to customer communication.

“That’s how they’ve always done it” isn’t really an argument for whether or not it’s a good practice. If, as you say, there are hundreds of posts from customers raising the same concern, I actually think that’s useful feedback for A&H leadership to consider rather than evidence that customers should simply stop asking.

And again, I haven’t demanded a roadmap. There is a huge amount of room between publishing a detailed development roadmap with promised features and dates, and providing virtually no indication of what customers should expect from the future of a product.

I also don’t accept the characterization that encouraging people to leave honest reviews is threatening a “mob response.” If people are satisfied with A&H’s approach, they should say so. If people aren’t, they should say that too. A company is free to conduct business however it chooses, and its customers are equally free to criticize those decisions.

Personally, I think refusing to communicate because communication might create expectations is poor leadership. Good communication doesn’t require making promises you can’t keep. It requires setting expectations appropriately.

If A&H’s position is that CQ owners should purchase the product for exactly what it does today and expect nothing further unless something happens to be released, they can say that. I would actually respect the clarity.

And if the answer really is “IT’S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN,” as you put it, then I think that’s pretty relevant information for prospective buyers to know too.

And to clarify, I like my CQ. I don’t regret buying it but I also think A&H could do a much better job communicating with CQ owners. Those positions aren’t mutually exclusive.

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As already mentioned in this thread, this isn’t something A&H (or any manufacture of any product) should have to say. It is implied by default. No one should ever purchase a product based on the hope that something will be implemented in the future - even if that “thing” has been talked about by the manufacturer (which is something A&H isn’t going to communicate).

As A&H has stated, the CQ series is not a “dead” product. But you cannot take that statement and assume they are working on something for immediate release either. We have no idea what A&H is planning and how quickly that may or may not be released. You can demand this type of information all you want, but you are not going to get the answers you want.

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Again, I think we’re just going to disagree on this, and that’s fine.

There are plenty of companies that choose to be open and transparent about ongoing product development. I’ve cited Neural DSP as an example in the past. Just take a look at their news page and the development updates they’ve provided over the years, including when features were delayed or plans changed.

That’s the kind of communication I appreciate as a customer. You clearly don’t believe A&H needs to provide that, while I think they could do a much better job of it.

I think we’ve both made our positions pretty clear at this point.

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I think it’s a fair enough point overall. I don’t expect hardware updates for analogue gear, but it’s the norm for software-based gear to the point where manufacturers rarely release something considered ‘finished’. Furthermore, we’e paying a relative premium for this (Chinese-made) product compared to Behringer, and brand reputation and the fact they’re a UK company (with implications for communication and responsiveness) is partly why I bought A&H over Behringer.

Most of my niggles with the CQ are small things, often ones that it wouldn’t occur to me they wouldn’t do. For example 1. the channel gates are more-or-less useless in the typical CQ band scenario that requires them because they lack key filters; whoever uses gates live without this feature?! 2. The frustrating inability to manually add and assign the existing feedback detection filters. 3. Lack of ability to assign a subwoofer out or high-pass top speakers. 4. No LR4 filters to let me set one up manually. I’d sacrifice output EQ for this option to be enabled if necessary!

I don’t care about unrealistic expectations of snazzy extra effects or complicated routing options that fundamentally outstrip the hardware cqpabilities, I mostly just want quality-of-life improvements that allow me to use existing features to replicate the basic analogue setup I was used to running back in the year 2000. These sort of things feel like exactly what updates could/should address. If they don’t, then no doubt Behringer will release a new device soon and that’s where a lot of us users will end up.

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Whether they communicate it or not, it seems fairly clear to me, that there are no updates coming. IMHO, the cq series release cycle is too long and lacking a transparency, for a digital product, to be competitive.

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I get it. But I think the problem is that A&H made a product aimed at an entry level, with growth ability, but almost works as a small footprint higher level mixer. There are so many cases where the form factor and sound quality is perfect, but a few missing features keeps it from being the perfect solution.

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i think it is partially about expectations. the first pages of the start guide and user guides mention right away about Regular firmware releases. and yet we’re not seeing them.

Knowing there are some bugs which should be addressed with a minor update, it seems strange not to get these fixed.. adding features would be a welcome bonus.

I bought my cq20 very early on, and there were no DCAs or mute groups at that time. i hoped they would be added. luckily they were; but since then nothing new..

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The more I use the mixer, the more I realize that the CQ series is only half baked and missing many critical features. I have recently been attempting to automate via MIDI, and continue to run into brick walls where only pieces parts were actually implemented. Coming to find out that what is actually there is almost un-useable. My expectations where that this product would continue to improve. When I purchased there seems to be yearly updates. Those updates have stopped, with no signs of continued development.

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As many say, digital gear is, by now, expected to receive regular updates, or it feels ‘dead’. The thing is, though, updates cater more to users (who are not going to pay A&H a penny for them) than they do new prospective buyers. So A&H will always put on the scale: how much does an update cost me? How many more mixers does it sell me? Because they care comparatively very little to users of course – the only “leverage” we have is our ability to influence others with our opinion. In that sense, the “honest review” thing makes sense. E.g. “this mixer is ‘upsold’ as upgradable, but very little has happened in the last 2 years” is fair.

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One product features is well built products, another is customer service and communication. I own this product and I would like to have an idea of the planned feature roadmap.

I understand if the road map is guarded as top secret for competitive reasons, however I feel that a company value includes whether or not they are secretive about their updates and so a customer could choose between products with secretive updtates and those without. Personally, I would probably choose the product where they openly communicate.

It’s difficult enough trying to get a company to respond about their product. One can make their case as people have here, argue their perspective. Then hope that the developers respond.

Then instead of getting a response from the developers the temple guardian responds, chastising the visitor, teaching etiquette. Temple guardians are teachers and educators, freely offering their services, so we need them too. Thanks for guarding the sanctity of the instution and holding up the morals and standards of the community. It’s all culture. I’ve learned a lot from temple guardians. It’s fair play and both can learn from sparing with each other, there being 90 minutes cycles where peaks and valleys occur, where people respond impulsively, but from a customer point of view I find that frustrating.

Especially in the age of Ai and automated chatbots, we don’t even know if we are responding to real people or if the people responding didn’t paste an AI response. The verbosity alone gives us popcorn brain. The hertz operating speed at which our senses function is much slower than the Gigahertz processing speed of computers. The 18T is 96 Kilo Hertz.

People mostly tend to rehash and rethink what they wrote or said anyways, so thinking that the opponent is going to appreciate “my being right” is absurd. No, it’s mostly an process where people tend to repeat and formulate their own ideas, to wear thier colors on their sleeve as the publicly think things through. Never fear, temple guardians volunteer to help people through that process.

So I looked past that exchange and focused on writing my own damn response, lol. I had noticed verbose reply after verbose reply, which I didn’t read and sure, that’s good mental exercise, but it’s exhausting to try to wade through bantor in order to see if a rep responded to the initial question. I’m sure you guys had sharp criticism. I’m not raining on your parade. The developer folks sift through all this, so yeah, it makes sense.

As for myself, I’m just curious if the road map is going to be shared.

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I’ve been following the discussion here, and I can understand both sides.

For those of us who would like to see an update: I think the CQ could definitely benefit from one. One of the nice things about owning digital equipment is that every now and then you get a firmware update that adds a few improvements or makes the product even more enjoyable to work with. That’s part of what makes owning digital gear from Allen & Heath interesting.

At the same time, I also understand the argument that a device can only do what it was designed to do. We all knew what the CQ could do when we bought it.

But after such a long period without a substantial update, I do think it would be really nice to see something new. Personally, I’m starting to feel that the lack of updates is slowly taking away some of my enthusiasm for the CQ.

I’m not asking for anything crazy. One of the things I’d personally love to see is a little more flexibility with the FX. I’m sure everyone here has their own wish list, though. :blush:

Even a relatively small update with a few useful or fun improvements would be very welcome. And who knows giving the CQ some renewed attention could even help increase interest and sales again.

So, Allen & Heath, come on… give us an update and I think a lot of us will be very happy! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

It’s not really a complaint. I just think there are quite a few CQ owners who feel the same way. Fix a few things, add a few nice improvements, and we’re good to go!

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That’s not entirely true: If A&H does not actively support my CQ18T (both bug fixes and new features) then I will probably never buy a digital A&H console ever again, and I will advise my friends against buying one as well.

That is how it works and why active support matters.

Transparency is a big bonus.

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Exactly what I meant by:

You can add the fact that if you’re unhappy with your unit you might sell it, and that’s another sale they lose.

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They also need to consider losing potential sales in the future. The CQ as it is, despite the bugs that desperately need fixing, is currently the best choice for me. But in the future, when I’m looking for a new mixer, knowing what I know now about how A&H abandons (or seems to abandon) digital products that should have a fairly predictable update cycle, I will be more likely to look elsewhere.

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