ART P16 XLR Balanced Patchbay

This 16-point XLR patchbay delivers reliable performance in a straightforward, no-nonsense design. The build quality is solid - housed in a sturdy 1U rack chassis that feels substantial without being overly heavy. The front and rear XLR connections are robust with good grip, showing no signs of loosening even with frequent cable changes.The normalling scheme is well-implemented, with clear labeling that makes signal flow easy to understand. The parallel wiring configuration is particularly useful for studio applications, allowing flexible routing without introducing unwanted noise. The gold-plated connections provide excellent signal integrity, and I've experienced no degradation or interference across multiple patching scenarios.Installation is straightforward, though the depth might require some planning in shallow racks. The unit runs cool and doesn't require any special ventilation considerations. The spacing between XLR connections is adequate for most cable types, including some of the bulkier premium cables.While the price point is higher than TRS alternatives, the professional-grade XLR implementation justifies the cost for those needing balanced connections. The only minor quibble is that the front panel labeling strips are a bit small - you might want to use additional labeling for complex setups. For studios, live sound installations, or broadcast facilities requiring reliable balanced patching, this unit hits all the right marks.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

I bought this patch bay so that I could have easy access to both my outboard preamps and the preamps in my Apollo interface, all of which have inputs on the back (which is normal, but hard to get to in my small studio.) I purchased a short xlr snake to run between the preamps and the patchbay, and now everything is nicely organized. I really only needed 8 inputs, but then I realized that I can use the other channels to connect to my mixing board for rehearsal, etc.You may be asking yourself if you really should just use a TRS bay instead, but if you use preamps / mics with phantom power a lot, I'd use this bay in conjunction with a TRS bay. While a TRS bay will pass phantom power, you have to make sure you never patch/unpatch a mic from a preamp with the PP engaged! You can damage the preamp this way ("hot patching.") I use the ART XLR bay to send mic signal to preamp, since there is no risk of hotpatching with an XLR input. Then I connect the output of my preamp to a Normalled channel of my TRS bay (Sampson S-patch) that feeds back to my line inputs on my interface unless interrupted with a patch cable if I need to send the signal to a processor. It's a bit more complicated but will save your preamps from hot patching when your brain is in a thousand places during a session and you can still use XLR M-F cables.I detect no noise or signal loss from this unit, and the jacks are nice and tight. The construction of the unit feels solid enough to take some abuse if you were to use it in a live sound application, and it's a definite plus that you can flip the rack ears around, which allows you to select male or female jacks on the face. Overall a great patchbay, especially for a home studio or live rig.

Exactly what you expect, connections are firm and confident. Mount it, plug in, and go. Not much to talk about. It says on the front of the unit itself it has direct routing to allow phantom power (48v) to pass through. Have yet to try it and eventually will do an A/B comparison of the Focusrite 18i20/Octopre preamp direct signal from a condeser and dynamic versus the passthrough on this unit and update this review.For what it's worth I already have the ART Headamp 6 and it's a great unit, also very simple and straightforward. I think these guys are the alternative to behringer if you partake in that stigma. Excellent bang for the buck. Will be buying their tube pres and compressor for a separate rack.

I have been involved in the music business for over 20yrs, I was formerly a touring musician and now run both live sound and a recording studio. P16s are the center components for my FOH PA rack. They have cut my setup time substantially by removing my need to reach into the racks to connect snake fans at the venue. I know ART gets a lot of flak as being "budget priced" by cork sniffing boutique enthusiasts but in live sound, the audience and the artists cant tell if your using a $2000 preamp or a $100 dynamic microphone and they don't care. ART is inexpensive enough to keep your cost and equipment concerns down and built like freaking tanks. I have yet to burn out anything ART has made.

I had been looking for a LONG TIME for a patch bay like this that I could install on the rear of my 19" rack enclosure. When I stumbled across this, I ordered it immediately! It was installed on the same day that it arrived, and I have been very pleased! It sure beats messing around inside of the rack while trying to patch a microphone line to my mixer.What really attracted my attention were the 16 XLR inputs/outputs offered. Since I had a 16-channel rack-mounted mixer, this patch bay was a perfect match. Before I ordered this item, I also looked at other similar items, but the features that they offered did not usually match what was offered by this item. When I did come across another item with the same features, the price was much higher! I thought that the price for the ART P16 was good for what was offered, especially when compared to prices of similar patch bays or assemblies that I considered to be mostly inferior or unacceptable.This item appears to be very well-made, and I am completely satisfied with my purchase. I would not hesitate to recommend this patch bay to anyone with a compact mixer installed in a standard rack enclosure.

I bought two. One for going into a mixer and one as a return from another room. When reversed the numbers go from 16 to 1 so I turned it upside down (see photo). Yeah, nit picky but annoying. The box is sturdy metal but the XLR jacks seem kind of cheap. Still, the price is right and ART is a good company.