breakout box for the PC?

dynagroove

dynagroove

crackmonkey
ok, things are finally coming together getting my little pc studio up and running. new MB, memory, cpu and sound card. i'm running the new e-mu 1212m and still have not heard a sound from it... anyway, i have a pair of behringer truths that i will be using with the card, but i would also like the ability to monitor using headphones. the card only has 1/4" balanced, s/pdif and adat outs. what's a good solution to maintain the sound quality out of the card and be able to run both the powered monitors and headphones? since this is line level only, obviously i'll need something with a headphone amp. i suppose one of these old dj mixers i have laying around would do the trick, but i'd like to keep things balanced from the card out to the monitors. any ideas are appreciated. - jeff h
 
Just so you know, even with an external mixer, you will still be using the card and its converters. So the sound stays inside the computer regarldess.

The alternative would be to use a digital mixer and use digital so the a/d d/a conversion is done in the mixer and not within the computer.

If you want to use headphones at the same time as well as studio monitors, then you may need a mixer. Pretty much anything will do if you are using it for monitoring only. If you are recording, you may want to spend a little bit more on the mixer.

To go any further, feedback and a budget would help.
 
ok, things are finally coming together getting my little pc studio up and running. new MB, memory, cpu and sound card. i'm running the new e-mu 1212m and still have not heard a sound from it... anyway, i have a pair of behringer truths that i will be using with the card, but i would also like the ability to monitor using headphones. the card only has 1/4" balanced, s/pdif and adat outs. what's a good solution to maintain the sound quality out of the card and be able to run both the powered monitors and headphones? since this is line level only, obviously i'll need something with a headphone amp. i suppose one of these old dj mixers i have laying around would do the trick, but i'd like to keep things balanced from the card out to the monitors. any ideas are appreciated. - jeff h
Click to expand...


You could get away with just a DJ mixer for monitoring, it depends on how involved you plan on getting whether or not a digital mixer is worth
investing in.
 
Many headphone amps have a thru port for stacking which you could run to the monitors.
 
thanks for the input all (especially Infradead - nudge nudge). makes sense that i don't really need anything that high quality to deal with the signal since it is staying in the computer or on CD anyway. i could certainly use something like my pioneer djm300, although a smaller box would save space on my already cluttered desk. a digital mixer sounds like something in the future for me, but not necessary right now. let's see what i can come up with on little to no money ;) - jeff h
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top