line volume switch for active monitors

[kristian]

Ok, while active monitors are great, beautiful, etc etc, the one thing that pisses me off is having to use software volume control for everyday tasks. My delta soundcard sends out directly to my two 20/20bas monitors. When playing games, listening to cds while doing homework etc. i have to use the delta control panel to come to lower volumes. To tell you the truth as well, i don't like monitoring music at 0dB on the control panel much either. Is there some little fader/pan type volume control like one on a mixer that would let me control a full signal comin out of the computer... it takes up a lot of space for regular day use to put my mixer next to me. something small.

[mixmkr]

I bought a speaker control/selection switch, made by Niles, at a stereo store, many moons ago. It cost me about 150 bucks at the time, and it just has two knobs (vol 1 and vol 2), and an in/out switch for two pairs of speakers. I can hear NO coloration at all running my signal thru it, when I hooked it up. Now that I use a mixer for monitoring, I just still retain the unit for speaker selection. There is other stuff like this on the market that is more costly too. You might try a hi-fi store for something like that. ...or just a good stereo potentiometer....radio shack?? (do you want your entire signal going thru a radio shack component??...probably not..but you get the idea.)

oh...I remember a Furman unit, I think bluebear used..and a couple others...for a control room speaker switch...but it was around $3-400, if I remember the thread. It had volume controls on it as well ( I think). maybe Bruce will see this post and chime in. I'd like to see the unit again, but am too lazy to do the post search dance game.

[kristian]

how much money would it cost mackie to make a thing 2cmx12cm, that had a little fader on it? maybe $50 with a bunch of profit. oh well.. i wonder.. hmm..

[TexRoadkill]

There are plenty of little line level mixers for under $100 that will work fine as a monitor volume control. You will get an extra headphone jack also.