I had a PM80 through my hands, although solid the sound was a bit duff. Not sure on the PM90 but they are the sort of mixers that you can find in cash converters and junk shops.
There is a also a flagship Numark that went through our hands, built like a tank and a favourite for the early Rave scene, nothing like the other Numark cheap gear.
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A grand+ on Ebay for a decent one more like! I’ve had a saved search for one for well over a decade in the hope of finding a bargain.
I’m not a massive audiophile, but the PM90 meant a certain level of build quality for a work environment. The legend was that they’d used faders out of tanks, and they almost never crackled - you could basically spill a pint into it without any issues!
One of the main advantages was the modular build so if you really did have a problem with a channel you could just pop it out and send it off for repair leaving the rest of the mixer in situ.
As a result you’d find them in little local clubs right up to places like Camden Palace & the Hippodrome.
I used to love the Rane MP24. Only issue was the position of the power switch, right next to the headphone jack. I remember switching it off at inappropriate moments on more than one occasion!
I did see Formula FSM in the window of shop in Nottingham, cash converters type place £250ish, not sure how the FSM sound
There is a Rane MP44 on ebay as a project, sonically they are only ok but the parts support is not there and probably has not been there for a decade or more.
We use a Rane MP24 for kitchen parties and it has a huge sound to it, the difference is astounding compared to any consumer or pie and ear mixer. I’m suprised a high end slider mixer is in demand now, one might turn up.
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Mine has no power switch, I have just fixed the telephone style RJ12 connector which used to fall out. The earlier lighter gray MP24 are the ones I have dealt with and would rate very highly. I have one in pieces that is festering outside. The bill of materials for the faders and four Alps blue pots on the eq would be huge today, the rest is much more than the sum of it’s parts.
I have a Bozak myself that was a push to afford a long time ago, self made Phono cards, never really needed any work, about 1987 build. Has the 40mm Black Alps pots so it’s my final death bed mixer.
My associate has a Bozak with booth card, on my list to fix in the next few weeks.
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I did try several of them (Berlin-based). The sound is pretty amazing; however, for some reason, I don’t mix well with them.
I like to be able to listen to two channels in the cue in my headphones to fine-tune the beat-matching, which is not possible here. Also, the VU meters are very nice but make it hard to compare volumes from cue to main.
It’s a piece of beauty, though!
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A friend just bought an MP24 NOS here in Brazil for a great price, he’s loving it.
VU meters are absolutely hopeless for level matching or checking left or right balance. A led meter at 1dB increments is what you need, post and pre if possible.
These cosmetic over function choices always makes me wonder about the design.
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That’s why I am so happy with my Ecler! 
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£175 from the USA, seems a no brainer. Pairs lovely for a pair of NOS Stanton 680el or Pickering XV15 cartridges, at least it makes a good benchmark for sound quality with the mentioned gear.
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I did this with a couple of projekt phono preamps which I picked up cheap 2nd hand. I was using a dn77 supersounds mixer at the time. Marginally better results for me and worth doing because the preamps were cheap. You may question whether it’s worth just upgrading the mixer, but not a bad option if you have the components to hand
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Have slowly been getting used to my new mastersounds two valve mark 2 and am absolutely loving it. Wasnt comfortable without using the crossfader at first but forced myself to get the hang of just using the knobs and the subtlety of sound is amazing. Very glad I got one before they all sold out.
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A place I play at has the four valve and I love it–subtle is a good way to put it. 
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Have managed to hire one for my 40th birthday this weekend, never used one before but wanted to go all out - any tips?
Am still learning how to use it but it’s so subtle that you need to be pretty quick with the volume when dropping stuff in if you are not using the cross fader. I keep using it too gradually but I’ve been forcing myself to not use the cross fader so I can properly get used to it. There is also a delay with the volume when turning it on (i thought I had wired it wrong initially). It’s a pleasure to use but there are a lot of knob’s I don’t really fiddle with mainly because I have no idea what they actually do 
. Need to read the manual again!
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The delay has to do with the valves warming up. Always a good idea to turn the mixer on about 10-20 mins before you’re going to use it, if possible. Valves have this sort of thing…
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Current development of my friends kitchen party system. I don’t have experience with these later DBX units but the seventies era ones are very transparent in the loop if not in use and absolutely essential for vinyl playback. I’ll be honest that even a Kitchen system needs a sub woofer and some JBL slots or bullets to sound correct. This sounds very good, probably going to upset those in the business of selling ‘upgrades’ and ‘audiophile’ gear but I can’t lie on this. The user here has been trained in ‘listening’ to audio for a living, we both can pick out good sound.
Edit: sliders and crossfader for the win, rotary is so past it now…
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A friend here in Brazil just got one of those Ranes in NOS condition for a song. He loves it. The DBX unit is the standard for the subharmonic synth, they basically gave it some more tweaking capabilities in the later units but it’s the shit. That’s a great system, I’d only add an isolator or EQ for playing about.
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I’m looking foward to having a play with it, although I was thinking more house music this time. The next party is in September apparently.
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This is a working dual use kitchen…
DBX unit is on a slide in mount for those days you aren’t in the mix. It is in the effects unit of the Rane before the boombox. I suggested a pair of Roland space echo units in addition on the second switched effects loop on the Mixer. I’ve had a lot of these DBX units through my hands, they were about a $800 in the late seventies with a remote, the remote unit is pretty cool too.
It will make amazing sounding records sound even better. You won’t be wanting to hear the average duff sounding house tune after hearing this combo.
Used by Myself, Simon, the Sun Palace Sound System, Billy Woods in Glasgow, Cosmic slop and the historic systems in New York ran by skilled resident DJ’s in the late seventies and early eighties. GSA was still into these much later at club Love in NY and went further with SME tonearms up to the IV series (those arms won’t work on a non floated deck, the bass tonality at Sun Palace with my floated console was probably the best I have ever heard with minimal set up time) the above works.
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