First please note that all SL Series III mixers are 32-channel mixers. Only the number of physical inputs/outputs varies.

Then yes you are right, on the SL 16 only 8 channels have onboard line inputs. And there are two stereo aux inputs too. A lot of outboard gear has output impedances low enough to drive mic inputs too, or you can use DI-boxes to adapt line outputs to mic inputs.

And then there's a line of stage boxes coming for the Series III mixers. No sneak previews yet but no doubt it will offer various sizes and combinations of line/mic inputs and outputs to replace or add to the onboard I/O. Patience...

Your Kemper has XLR outputs, so it doesn't need to be connected to line inputs. Otherwise just use adapter cables TRS balanced to XLR. The digital preamps can handle any input.

Interesting guess about the stageboxes. Line inputs on stageboxes (which have to serve general purposes) would be a novum, as far as I know. Usually line inputs (TRS) are expected to be located directly at the mixer to make work in studio easier. In live situations the use of DI boxes is more common. But who knows, PreSonus may surprise us with some new ideas...

Well, the RM mixers got the RML upgrade so my guess is that PreSonus will want to skip that step this time around.

Also, with AVB there's the option of a distributed I/O setup where say a keyboard station or e-drums can have 8 line inputs (two mic/line) and a pair of line/hp outputs. It's only limited by how far PreSonus wants to go

[quote="wahlerstudios"]Your Kemper has XLR outputs, so it doesn't need to be connected to line inputs. Otherwise just use adapter cables TRS balanced to XLR. The digital preamps can handle any input.

I many many modules with XLR outputs. So are you saying that they should be compatible with the XLR Mic inputs?

I please ignorance here. I thought the impedance or whatever was much different for a Mic input - please educate me

Thanks for the replies

Line signal is not line signal, correct. If you want to plug in a guitar (electric or acoustic) or a bass, you need a different "line" input than when you connect a keyboard or a processor. With keyboards you have different possibilities to bring the levels down (input gain, channel volume, line level output). Simply keep in mind that you are not feeding an amplifier, but a mixer. All levels need to fit to the gain in your mixers XLR channels. Gain really starts at 0 dB (no signal going through) and 1 or 3 dB gain may already be enough.

The XLR inputs of your mixer are equally microphone and line inputs (you don't need a special input for a DI box), but you need to set gains and volumes very carefully. The input impedance of a XLR channel is 1 kΩ, the input impedance of a dedicated line input channel is 10 kΩ. The XLR inputs have gain control (0 dB to +60 dB), the line inputs bypass the gain control because the input level is supposed to be adjusted by the external processor (e.g. a microphone preamp).

Hope this helps.

"The Series III mixers top out at 32. There is no cascading to get higher channel counts. We will have options for stageboxes that range from 8x8 to 32x16." (Ray Tantzen, Febr. 3, 2017 in Forums/StudioLive Series III/thread "Stageboxes")

As the time schedule (May/June) needed to see another delay, we are free to dedicate our thoughts to this theme. I don't think that AVB II will allow free routing of channels, at least I haven't read about it in the times before the official disconnection of our beloved forums. This means that if you want to use the line inputs of a SL 16 (channels 9 to 16), the stagebox delivering those channels must have combo jacks (or dedicated line input ports). Channels 1 to 8 and 17 to 32 must be handled by other stageboxes. With the SL 24 and SL 32 this looks different, because the line inputs are channels 13 to 24 respectively 17 to 32. The SL III mixers have a different amount of mic/line channels: It's 8, 12 and 16. I don't really see a way how this variety can be handled by stageboxes that need to serve the whole family.

And it's getting even more difficult if you think about the 16 channels the "personal monitor systems" will be able to handle, which have to be pre-mixed somehow. Another quote from Ray Tantzen: "The personal monitor mixers will each have a 16 channel local mixer. They will be fed 16 channels of audio from the network similar to an AVIOM. For example, you could use two channels to send a stereo drum submix. They will also have line outputs and a headphone output."

There are 32 input channels available on all of the three SL III mixers and/or in the AVB network, so there needs to be a strategy to handle this enormous flexibility and variety. I tend to think combo jacks on stageboxes would not make things easier. What definitely will be easier is creating a "personal mix", if you can use line outputs and a headphone output. But nobody knows when this part of the promised ecosystem will see the light of the day...

You may not be able to route individual inputs and outputs (yet) but it should be possible to map interfaces, also to take advantage of the SL16's and SL24's upper channels. AVB-wise I don't expect the StudioLive's combo inputs to be any different from the mic-only inputs. They're just channel numbers once an interface is mapped onto them. We'll see...

Thanks all - Next Big Question!!!

Will I see an improvement in Sound Quality/effects/routings/usability in going from the 16.02 to the new Series 3 16 channel?

It's a lot more money

schmidtbaby wroteThanks all - Next Big Question!!!

Will I see an improvement in Sound Quality/effects/routings/usability in going from the 16.02 to the new Series 3 16 channel?

It's a lot more money

Absolutely. Starting at the preamps, the new gen of xmax pres are a lot better than the legacy xmax. The fat channel adds to that improvement with emulation options for eq and compression that sound a lot better. There is also added flexibility in routing and fader views that you don't have currently. Then you will get the added benefit of daw control when that part is finished, so on top of the mixer you get a control surfsace.

They are more, but the IMHO the money is well spent if you use it alot.

Last Question - is this rack-mountable ?