Headphone Amp/Monitor Thru Signals

T

thestuckup

New member
I am looking at purchasing an Art Mymonitor to put in the area used for recording vocals so the vocalist can adjust between the mix level and their own without having to tell me what they want every time. The way this thing works is you plug in the xlr cable from your mic into it, than another one out - this is the "thru" signal. Also a trs connection from my mixer will go into it to provide them the mix. I am looking at this model specifically because it will run on a battery so I don't have to have an extra cable running over to the wall. My question is this: Is there any reason to expect sound deterioration from the mic to the (main) mixer, as it has to run thru the ART's "thru" channel? Thanks for any help :)
 
Not so much signal degradation, just a higher noise floor. Any time you run a signal through an extra circuit there is going to be some noise added. The amount of noise varies with the circuit. It may not be much at first but the more links you add in the signal chain the more noise you will get.

Does it still pass signal without power? Will signal degrade if its not properly powered? Batteries scare me in recording applications.

That is all,

Mike
 
Hmm... I can't tell. I looked at the Rolls headphone monitor and it looks like IT will pass a signal without power. However the new version of the Rolls will not operate on a battery. I have a question in to a salesperson to see if the art will or not.
 
I would be nervous about any of those cheap headphone amps and especially worried about any that you have to plug the mic into. The Furman stuff is pretty good for headphone amps.
 
I bought a Behringer MA400 to do just exactly what you want to do with the Head Amp. I had the same concerns as you about the MA400 coloring the signal, so I hooked things up a bit differently. I connect my mic cable to the input of my ART MPA Gold preamp, connect the 1/4" output to my recorder input, and connect the XLR output to the MA400 (I'm using both outputs of the MPA Gold simultaneously). This way the mic signal loops back to the MA400 instead of passing through it. Then I connect the mix out out my soundcard to the line input of the MA400, and the singer can control the levels and balance of their vocals with the mix. It's been working out really well. The MA400 won't run on batteries, but it's much cheaper than the Head Amp. I will add that I had to pad the signal from the MPA Gold going back to the MA400, as it was line-level instead of mic-level and was therefore too hot and overloaded the input.
 
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