Members shniggens Posted January 2, 2007 Members Share Posted January 2, 2007 Am I asking for trouble having my headphone amp and powered monitors plugged directly into my MOTU DAW interface outputs? Is it really necessary to spend more $$$ on some kind of monitor management mixer? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMS Author MikeRivers Posted January 2, 2007 CMS Author Share Posted January 2, 2007 Originally posted by shniggens Am I asking for trouble having my headphone amp and powered monitors plugged directly into my MOTU DAW interface outputs? Is it really necessary to spend more $$$ on some kind of monitor management mixer? You need a volume control somewhere. Just about all headphone amplifiers have a volume control for each output conveniently located on the front panel, so that's not a problem. Most powered monitors, however, have an input sensitivity control on the back which can serve as a volume control, but is primarily there to match the speakers to your audio interface so that you get a reasonable listening volume unless something goes wroing. If you have no need for a volume control, then just hook them up, set the control on the back for a workable listening volume, and you'll be good. But most people like to be able to turn it up a little, turn it down a little, and turn it way down when the phone rings but they don't want to stop the music. So a monitor controller is a matter of convenience, not necessity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members shniggens Posted January 2, 2007 Author Members Share Posted January 2, 2007 Originally posted by MikeRivers So a monitor controller is a matter of convenience, not necessity. There was some chatter going on over at the Cubase forum about DAW crashes causing extreme, potentially damaging noise. Has never happened to me, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members where02190 Posted January 2, 2007 Members Share Posted January 2, 2007 Am I asking for trouble having my headphone amp and powered monitors plugged directly into my MOTU DAW interface outputs? No, but some inconvenience. You need a volume control for your monitors. What MOTU hardware do you have? Most of them have dedicated monitor outs with a volume control. If your particular model doesn't have one, check into something like the Samson C-Control or a small mixer. AFA headphones, yes from the outs to the hp amp is the correct method, and you control the mix from however you set up the outs within your DAW, typically from prefader aux sends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members shniggens Posted January 2, 2007 Author Members Share Posted January 2, 2007 This is the post on the other forum that got me thinking - "No one is silly enough to connect their convertor outputs straight to their monitor amps are they, and only controlling volume via software???" And I thought to myself, I AM that silly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members doug osborne Posted January 2, 2007 Members Share Posted January 2, 2007 You've received good answers. Also, the line outputs of an audio interface or D/A reduce bits as they lower the output gain. You may or may not hear this decimation, but to eliminate this and for best signal-to-noise you should have an analog gain control before your power amp inputs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members where02190 Posted January 3, 2007 Members Share Posted January 3, 2007 I checked on the MOTU website, and pretty much all their interfaces have a front panel volume control for main outputs that are analog, as do many ADDA multifunction interfaces, the 002, M-box 2, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Hard Truth Posted January 3, 2007 Members Share Posted January 3, 2007 The Samson C-control is a nice cheap way to have a monitor volume control. Sam Ash is selling them for $62. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members where02190 Posted January 3, 2007 Members Share Posted January 3, 2007 +1 on the C-Control. Since you still haven't told us, what MOTU interface do you have? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members shniggens Posted January 4, 2007 Author Members Share Posted January 4, 2007 Originally posted by where02190 +1 on the C-Control. Since you still haven't told us, what MOTU interface do you have? It's all in the sig, man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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