Question

We’re wanting to upgrade our system at our church to a newer digital snake. We already have the older Studiolive 32.4.2AI, but will that be able to connect to the Studiolive Series 3 Rack Mount? Or, are we needing to upgrade the whole system at once?

Answer 1

AI mixers and Series III mixers are not compatible, as they belong to two different "stages" of AVB networking. A RM / RML32AI could be a digital stagebox for you. You need to get the AVB option card for your console. As you probably can buy the stagebox and the card used/second hand, this might be a good option for you. The stagebox can also be used as independent rack mixer. Do NOT buy a RM / RML16AI, because that would limit your inputs to 16 and outputs to 8 (plus Main L/R and Mono). AVB first generation does not allow using two stage boxes.

Answer 2

You might want to communicate with users of SL 32.4.2 and RM/RML rack mixers. There are two closed facebook groups of interest. Every now and then users are also selling their equipment there. But don't pay too much. The equipment is always less worth than the sellers think…

Presonus StudioLive Mixer Users
https://www.facebook.com/groups/236075319847351

PreSonus RM mixer Owners And Enthusiasts
https://www.facebook.com/groups/469453379887309