Maker hart Loop Mixer 8 3.5mm/6.3mm JACK/Bluetooth/Phono EQ Pre-amplify/microphone Compatibility/audio mixer for UK

Maker Hart is a brand that is new to me, I’ve never heard of them before receiving this mixer to review.This is their 8 channel mixer, the Loop8…I will explain why its called that a little later.It is an 8 channel compact audio mixer, I’m not 100% sure what market it is aimed at, possibly karaoke, possibly podcasting, possibly for general home use, not sure.The first 4 inputs are mono 3.5mm jack, inputs 5/6 and 7/8 are stereo inputs with 6.3mm jack sockets (4 in total)Main output is a pair of 6.3mm jack sockets, there are no aux outputs.The reason it was called Loop 8 is because of the unique looping function it has, using what looks like a display pot connection it has the ability to loop out of this mixer to another Loop8 mixer, and onto another etc etc, this basically shares the inputs to all connected mixers…..for example lets consider band practice, each player has their own loop 8 mixer..….The vocalist plugs into channel 1 of his Loop 8 mixer, the bass player plugs his bass into channel 2, guitars go into channels 3 and 4 and the keyboards go into channels 5 and 6…..now each member of the band can make their own mix using their own mixer, its like having a monitor engineer at every gig, no more asking the engineer for more bass, turn it up yourself til you have the perfect mix….its a great idea, however the manufacturers have yet to release the cable to do this so it is kind of redundant until thenThe input channels can take assorted inputs….all inputs have a mute button and volume slider.Channel 1 is for microphone as it has an adjustable echo control and switchable 48 volt or 1.5 volt phantom power for mics that require power. The echo is quite poor quality, is has no clarity and sounds quite muffled.Channel 2 can be switched to receive a bluetooth signal, pairing is quote simple to do and lets you play music through the mixer, I found it to be quite noisy if the phone is very close to the mixer. There is a EQ control for low or high toneChannel 3 has a phono stage for connecting to a turntable, or it can be switched to standard line input, it has an EQ control for low or high toneChannel 4 has a gain and eq controlChannels 5/6 and 7/8 have a gain and balance control, no eq.The master section just has master level and headphone volumeThe case is metal and feels pretty sturdy, on the bottom of the mixer is a 1/4 inch screw thread for fixing to a camera tripod or mic stand, bringing the controls to the fingertips of players.

Use this for simple audio editing, and for my needs it’s fine. You don’t get to hear what’s being played back on the computer through the speakers i still need a solution to that one. If you leave channel 2 switched to Bluetooth and turned up, whilst using a Mike on channel 1, there is significant cross channel contamination.

For twelve years I was DJ, so I have a love of all things like this, even if it’s for nostalgic reasons. However, I really do have a need for a simple mixer like this for controlling audio in my man cave. I have a TV, a PC, a security camera and lots of Bluetooth devices. I wanted all of them to connect to my soundbar and this mixer does the job with channels spare.The description and even the user manual are not clear about which channels are mono and which are stereo. From running a few tests, it appears that all but channel 1 are in fact stereo. When you see things like CH5/6 and CH7/8 one would assume that only those channels would be stereo. What they have done is made those channels mono and stereo. If you only plug a jack into the right channel then it will switch to mono, plug a jack into the left channel as well and it switched to stereo.Channels 1 to 4 use 3.5mm jacks. Channel 1 is a mono jack and the rest are stereo. So, channel 1 is assigned as a microphone input and can supply 1.5V and 48V phantom power for mics that need them or can be switched off. There is also a knob for adding echo.Channel 2 is a stereo channel that can also double up as a Bluetooth input. A switch sets which mode you want. The Bluetooth is easy to pair with all the devices I have available. This channel has a tone control as well.Channel 3 is a stereo input that can be switched into phono mode if you wish to add a turntable to the mix. This channel also has a tone control.Channel 4 is a stereo input and is a general-purpose line input. This has a tone control and also a gain control for preset purposes.Channel 5 through 8 are as described above. These have a balance control and a gain control.All the channels have a mute button that lights up when muted. There is a 3.5mm headphone jack with its own level control. Unfortunately, this only duplicates the mixer's output and there is no way to listen to just one channel input.There’s a MicroUSB socket on the side of the mixer that can be connected to a computer where it’s digitised and available for recording. Finally, there are two loop sockets for daisy-chaining units together for those that need it. Overall, it has many great features for small mixing needs. Hope that helps.