Totally neutral monitoring control ?

[Ivo]

I have new high end convertors (Lavry Blue AD DA) on the way to me
I am now thinking what would be the best for the missing bridge
between DA output and my monitors/headphones (my present Apogee DA has
both inbuilt). The device should be able to control the volume of both
monitors and headphones and the incoming and outcoming sound should be
TOTALLY identical.

I am thinking of Presonus Central Station , which looks nice, handy
and covers many needs. But is it REALLY 100% neutral ?? I don´t want
to lose those few high end sound quality percents I get with Lavry DA
through a path which would spoil them in a way ... But maybe
Presonus is perfectly all right ?

Any other idea ? I know, there is Coleman audio, but to spend 800-900
dollars just for the monitoring level control is a bit too much for me
....

There is still another very cheap option:
http://www.smproaudio.com/mpatch.htm

(but who knows how it really sounds ...)

An advice and especially a personal experience would be highly
apprecciated !

[Scott Dorsey]

Ivo > wrote:
>I have new high end convertors (Lavry Blue AD DA) on the way to me
>I am now thinking what would be the best for the missing bridge
>between DA output and my monitors/headphones (my present Apogee DA has
>both inbuilt). The device should be able to control the volume of both
>monitors and headphones and the incoming and outcoming sound should be
>TOTALLY identical.

I use a passive attenuator. Easy to make or you can buy one premade
from someplace like Coleman Audio.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[JoVee]

Ivo at wrote on 7/19/04 3:51 PM:

> I have new high end convertors (Lavry Blue AD DA) on the way to me
> I am now thinking what would be the best for the missing bridge
> between DA output and my monitors/headphones (my present Apogee DA has
> both inbuilt). The device should be able to control the volume of both
> monitors and headphones and the incoming and outcoming sound should be
> TOTALLY identical.
>
> I am thinking of Presonus Central Station , which looks nice, handy
> and covers many needs. But is it REALLY 100% neutral ?? I don´t want
> to lose those few high end sound quality percents I get with Lavry DA
> through a path which would spoil them in a way ... But maybe
> Presonus is perfectly all right ?
>
> Any other idea ? I know, there is Coleman audio, but to spend 800-900
> dollars just for the monitoring level control is a bit too much for me

OK... If you can HEAR this sort of ultra-hi-end quality difference, then you
already knw what to do.
OTOH if you can't, then you really have to put your head back on straight
and CHOOSE...
which is it...
you want
"high end...TOTALLY identical...REALLY 100% neutral...
don't want to...spoil in any way"?
or
"gotta be less than $XXXX"?
Folks who know what this means spend upwards of 5-6 figures to get this sort
of quality at every point in the chain (said chain starts with the digital
file and ends with the room build and treatment). Is your room and monitor
speaker setup so perfect that you can HEAR this sort of difference?
If you can't hear it, what are you worrying about?
Don't hurt yourself imagining what 'perfect' means when 'pretty dang good'
has made a lot of really GREAT recordings!

--
John I-22
(that's 'I' for Initial...)
Recognising what's NOT worth your time, THAT'S the key.
--

[Mike Rivers]

In article > writes:

> I have new high end convertors (Lavry Blue AD DA) on the way to me
> I am now thinking what would be the best for the missing bridge
> between DA output and my monitors/headphones

A pot in a box.

> I am thinking of Presonus Central Station , which looks nice, handy
> and covers many needs. But is it REALLY 100% neutral ??

I had one here for a short while. It would be a great lab exam for an
engineering class to figure out what's inside the box from the inputs
and outputs. Some of its paths are straight through, some aren't. It's
pretty neat, but there are some quirks which I pointed out to
Presonus. Probalby the biggest one that they hadn't already put into
the works to fix is that the Mono button doesn't work (it mutes the
signal) if the source is unbalanced.


> Any other idea ? I know, there is Coleman audio, but to spend 800-900
> dollars just for the monitoring level control is a bit too much for me

WHy? You already spent big bucks on converters. Why lose the quality
you bought? The Coleman stuff is good.




--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me here: double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

[Scott Dorsey]

JoVee > wrote:
>Ivo at wrote on 7/19/04 3:51 PM:
>
>> Any other idea ? I know, there is Coleman audio, but to spend 800-900
>> dollars just for the monitoring level control is a bit too much for me
>
>OK... If you can HEAR this sort of ultra-hi-end quality difference, then you
>already knw what to do.
>OTOH if you can't, then you really have to put your head back on straight
>and CHOOSE...
>which is it...
>you want
> "high end...TOTALLY identical...REALLY 100% neutral...
> don't want to...spoil in any way"?

What's wrong with the $100 passive Coleman box? It sounds fine, but just
doesn't have any features.

You want better than that, buy some Shallco attenuators and connectors
and make your own for a hundred bucks or so.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[hank alrich]

Ivo wrote:

> I have new high end convertors (Lavry Blue AD DA) on the way to me
> I am now thinking what would be the best for the missing bridge
> between DA output and my monitors/headphones (my present Apogee DA has
> both inbuilt). The device should be able to control the volume of both
> monitors and headphones and the incoming and outcoming sound should be
> TOTALLY identical.

http://www.i3audio.com/default.htm


I've not used it and it isn't cheap, but reports of its performance in
DAW-Mac have be laudatory.

--
ha

[Ivo]

(Mike Rivers) wrote in message news:<znr1090285276k@trad>...
> In article > writes:
>
>
>
> > Any other idea ? I know, there is Coleman audio, but to spend 800-900
> > dollars just for the monitoring level control is a bit too much for me
>
> WHy? You already spent big bucks on converters.

That´s why :-))