Anyone ever hear the Toft Equate 8?

Aren’t there often qc issues with Toft stuff ?

I've heard that but yeah... maybe outdated?

Kinda surprised there's nothing out there about this thing.

If you look at that thing, I gotta wonder if that's not literally a 500 series chassis that they've repurposed for the Equate, by just putting a universal face plate over the whole thing. I would bet money that the "daughter cards" behind the face plate are essentially 500 series modules, just without their own individual face plate.

Which kind of makes me wonder, why not just sell the EQs individually, as standalone 500 series modules? But if they want to sell people eight of them at a time, and/or don't want to individually sell them for $200 to $250 a piece, I guess that's why they're doing this.

Malcom has found someone else to once again by into the hype. Malcom’s designs have always had their weaknesses and those who have bought out his misadventures have learned the hard way that Malcom isn’t the next Rupert Neve.
In the history of Trident the “ Father of British EQ “ was the lead draftsman, not a circuit designer, he was the guy who cleaned up the ideas of others scribbled on what ever and drew nice neat plans so everyone could read them.
These all have the look of cheap made in China Behringer/ Midas wouldn’t touch them, I expect in 3 years Malcom will have moved on & the customers will be left with scratchy pots and other issues. When it Comes to Toft history always repeats.

I always find that the most interesting thing about the whole legend of Trident is how the numbered series consoles were elevated by the hype machine to be better than the other midline British Boards, they all pretty much share the same design, it’s funny because those who know the A range are the ones who will admit a 70 isn’t that different from a Soundcraft or Soundtracs.

Why not just buy a Daking? Made in the USA. Cleanish but colored, pushed, and sits at the same time. Some of the smoothest compressors around too. Great used deals on the FET comps. They make an 1176 just sound stupid.

Often? NO
Frequently? NO
Usually? NO
Somewhat kind of and more than many high end or boutique units? Perhaps.

I have the same Toft dual channel strip for 20 years now, put out smoke once, simple repairs and fine since.

Well all the others had a transformer option 😁

If you take a look at either the sales brochures, manuals, price lists or schematics for just about any of the opamp based Brit consoles from the 70’s through the late 90’s you will see the option of both input & output transformers. Now most are either the tiny Neutrik or Beyerdynamics, nothing fancy but they can be fit at anytime.

Even the later Allen Heath 2K and 3K had the option but on these the output transformers were mounted outboard. Many of these consoles were used in both Broadcast trucks and installations where transformers were pretty standard. This pretty much ended with digital consoles. Local stations found boards like the Yamaha’s with recall to be a god send, presets for all the talent, being able to mute all the mics and playback devices made most station A1’s have wet dreams.

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No disrespect, but a few year’s ago, I saw lots of online comments about the Toft console build quality and poor response to warranty responses. Whether that was indicative of an overall product qc issue, I didn’t know ?

In my estimation, I think both your intimations are close to pure. The Toft wiring seems inspired by some of the old 1176 wiring that would often waft the smell of burning candles through the control air. IYKYK And yes, Malcom Toft and Company sold a lot of units for a while.