Legendary vintage audio mixer Rodec SM300

The SM mixers came on the market back in 1982 as the sucessors of the CU-series with whom RODEC had entered the DJ-world in the 70’s. The SM300 was the larger of the SoundMachines; the smaller SM200 having fewer inputs. Equalising on every single input channel still wasn't in use. Only with the release of the MX-18 in 1986 the separate 3-band equalising possibilities cames available.

Back in 1954 engineer ROger DEClerck was one of the pioneers in the audio industry initially designing and producing audio products for himself and a handful early customers. The name RODEC was born, with initially a limited range of valve amplifiers, mono, and a number of specific “one-off ” products, built on special order only.

The first RODEC mixers appear around 1970, when the decision was made to offer a number of high quality preamplifiers which offered a most creative feature whereby one source could be faded out, while another source could be faded in. The audio mixer - as the workhorse of the DJ - was born!

That range was known as ‘Control Unit’, with models like CU881, CU882 and CU888; each consequent model offering higher and more specifications than the previous one. The RODEC logo first appeared as a sticker to promote the RODEC Sound Machines around 1975. The first mixer with the RODEC logo was the Mixfan in 1977.

With this reputation of producing sturdy equipment, RODEC rapidly became the standard in many fixed and mobile music systems in the entertainment industry, being one of the very first to introduce a number of features which invariably set the standard throughout the entire industry. To name just a few, as far back as 1970 where RODEC introduced talk-over, gain per channel and equalisation, resulting in the final evolution to MX-18 with triple tone control per input channel. This feature has since been copied all over the world up to the nearly identical frequencies as used by RODEC.

The RODEC SoundMachines SM200 & SM300 dominated the pro-audio sales in the early 80’s. The MX-series were the successors, with their MX18, released in 1986, becoming the ‘reference’ in the DJ segment, upto now still the blueprint of a contemporary professional mixer. Some special editions, the Red Limited Edition and the Limited 50th Anniversary Edition, celebrated the 10th and 20th anniversary of the reference MX18(0) workhorse. The Rodec MX180, successor of the MX18 was introduced in 1990 with a crossfader and the XLR Master output option as the most important new features.

After almost 20 (!) different MX-models between 1984 and 2008 Rodec released the MX ‘Original’ and later on the MX ‘Progressive Series’ as their last DJ mixers.

Disclaimer
The product has endured basic start-up tests; it powers up, buttons work. There was no endurance or performance testing with media.
This item is sold ‘As is’; the seller is selling, and the buyer is buying the item in whatever condition it presently exists, and the buyer is accepting the item "with all faults", whether or not immediately apparent. Please see pictures for traces of use / storage. No return / no warranty / no quarantee