Tools of the Trade: ENG Mixers
by Glen Trew published in Audio Media Magazine

Welcome To the Top

The Cooper CS-104 reeks of quality with its natural finish anodized faceplates, British "racing green" powder coated covers, and Nagra switches, and is considered "King of the Hill" of ENG/EFP mixers made in the US. It is the only ENG mixer made in the US with PFL monitoring, a feature hard to live without once you've used it. It has two unbalanced L/R Cooper CS 104 ENG Mixer "utility" outputs on space-saving TA3 connectors, which are switchable mic or line level, and a separate TA3 tape output which can be switched mono or stereo. A mix-bus input using another TA3 connector allows attaching any other mixer as a sub mixer without losing one of the inputs. The CS-104's impressive noise specs and additional buffered outputs demand a little more from its 8 AA batteries, but a full production day can usually be managed without changing. External power is via a full-size 4-pin XLR with standard pin-outs. Its uncluttered layout is probably the easiest of this class to manage.