1.) From what I've read the preamps themselves are the same, however the power supplies in the DL151\251 have better filtering compared with those in the M32\DL16\32, which can affect the sound, especially at higher gains, or if the venue's power isn't the cleanest (which can be somewhat mitigated by a decent UPS\power conditioner.)  Then there's the ADC: 96k vs 48k.  Bottom line is that although the actual preamps themselves might be the same, you could still expect the overall sound coming out of the boxes to be different due to other factors, which you can't really separate from the actual preamps. 2.) It depends how hot you run it.  At lower levels there shouldn't be a difference, but the DL series outputs have an extra 10dB of headroom before distortion compared to the X-Series outputs.  If you're using the DL series preamps to get good sound in, it's not as though the X-series outputs will change that sound at the output to make it sound like you were originally using X-series preamps.  It's not like the DL preamps go up to 20kHz but the X-series outputs only go up to 15kHz, so using X-series outputs will cut off all your top end.  It's just that the X-series outputs have a little less headroom and therefore you have less dynamic range for your mix.  This may or may not be a factor in your mixing. 3.) See above. To get 24x8 on stage you'd be looking at 2x DL16s ($2k,) or 1x DL32 ($1400,) or a DL251 ($4k.)  Given the price difference, I'd go with one of the first 2 options (probably the first to allow for more flexible stage placement.)  Although the DL251 might sound a bit cleaner at higher gain levels, I don't think that alone is worth the extra $2k.  The other features it has which contribute to the increased price are nice: redundant PSU, (but I'd be running it off a UPS anyway,) redundant AES50, (the X\M32 consoles can't work with that anyway,) 96kHz sample rate (the X\M32 series can't work with that anyway,) but if you can't make use of those features, it doesn't seem like a sensible purchase.  The $2k+ saving you make by getting 2x DL16s or a DL32 instead of the DL251 could be spent on other things to increase sound quality, eg better mics, more or better IEMs for better IEM mixes allowing talent to play better (or a whole separate monitor console) etc.  In terms of overall sound quality vs price I think you'd get more of a return from those sort of things rather than a very slightly better stagebox. The only reason I'd consider the DL251 in this circumstance is if I knew that I had other Midas Pro consoles (Pro1, Pro2 etc) to interface it with. Read more

If you zip and upload your scene file we can look at how you've got the console configured and check if anything sticks out.  The ch assignement to LR has already already been mentioned, what about DCAs\mute groups?  They'd affect whether a channel made it to the LR bus. Read more