Headphone Amps: Presonus HP60 - M-Audio AP6(?) - others?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Shazzhy
  • Start date Start date
S

Shazzhy

New member
Hi everyone,

With the band I'm playing with, we started to *try to* record our songs yesterday. As it was the first trial, it was more to define an approach than to have something in the end of the evening.
We quickly came to the conclusion that we would need a headphone amplifier to use as monitors while recording.
I started looking at what exists on the market, seen the Behringer HA8000 but also read quite some reviews about the bad quality of sound (although the ratio price/quality was not that bad as it is very cheap), I then continued to investigate and found out the Presonus HP60 which seems to be a decent choice. More expensive but also more quality.

I then gave a call to me preferred music shop and the guy told me about another one: the M-Audio AP6 which seem to be the same as the Presonus (apparently M-Audio and Presonus products are done in the same factory) but I tried to Google it and cannot find any reference of it. Has everyone ever heard of it?

Just a word about our gear: We are 5 (2 guitars, 1 bass, 1 drum and 1 singer), so we need more than 4 headphones output. We record using a MacBook Pro on Garageband and using an Alesis Multimix 16FW. We do intend to record first the drum track using a Roland TD-4K plugged into the Mac (we'll probably record an acoustic drum later one but our room is not that good at the moment), then we'll record guitars and bass at the same time and then the voice. For monitoring we'll need that headphone amp. Any suggestions, remarks or potential issues on this approach are welcome :)

Now more specifically about the Presonus HP60. Would you recommend it? Any bad experience with it? From what I could read on this forum and others, it looks really good.
Now, I see that there are 2 inputs. Input A and Input B. Apparently, they are mainly used to input the mix and input the click. Which is a perfect solution. With my setup described above, I do not picture yet how I can do it. Basically, I would need to send the mix to Input A (so from the CNTRL OUT of the Multimix) and the click of Garageband to Input B (This part, I have no idea how to do).

Also, I see that each of the 6 inputs also has Stereo Ext.in, allowing a different mix per headphone. On this one also, I do not figure out how to do. Does it mean that each instrument will have to be plugged into the mixing console and then the mix to send to input A and on top of that, each instrument of each musician also sent to Stereo Ext. In so that each musician can mix between his own sound and the mix?

Any recommendation for any other headphone amp will be very appreciated.

Sorry if I’m not clear in my explanations, it is still quite new to me (and I'm still French speaking - btw, I had good laugh with your answers on the other post) and not always easy to explain. But fortunately, I post in the Newbies forum !! :)

Thanks for reading.
 
I read your post & by the way you describe your recording set up you really only need say.... a presonus HP4 as you will only be recording up to 3 instruments at one time. Now if you to do the entire band & each want a different headphone mix then you step up to the hp60.
 
I don't have a Behringer HA8000, but I have a Behringer HA4700, it works fine and there have never been any complaints about the quality (remember this is also dependent on the headphones being used). You get 4 separate amps, each volume, bass and treble controls, and each of the separate amps can run multiple headphones.

Alan.
 
I will tell you my experience with headphone amps:

1. Presonus HP4: Certainly more useable gain and headroom (being able to crank it up before distortion) than my interface (profire 2626). My issue with it was it's literally impossible to setup different headphone mixes with this unit due to it's lack of I/O. I had this one the longest out of all the ones I have owned (I think for 3 years).

2. Behringer 4700. Les useable headroom than the above unit, but you can do headphone mixes with this so. I will say this is the one thing IMO Behringer is fine to use only because it doesn't get involved in your recording chain. I had no problems with mine the half year I had it.

3. My current headphone amp the Rane HC 6. Pretty much the best of both of the above worlds. You can crank it up to painfull (I mean way WAY past what the above units will do) before it distorts. Actually I have not tried to get this one to distort because it's so flipping loud that I'm afraid of blowing a headphone out if I did. This like the behringer has the ability to run headphone mixes on all 6 headphones (if you have the I/O to do it).

4. Whatever the heck Subcat uses. I have no clue what the system is called but they shelled over $4k for it (ah found it it's the furman HDS16 system and they bought 6 of the HRMs as well) But some of the features include a talkback system on the controllers (so you don't have to setup an extra mic for the musician to talk through the mic is right on the headphone controller box). Plus the headphone mix is given to the person wearing the headphones (you can shoot the guitars, drums, etc... all to thier own pot) plus there are two send return type deals on it (which can again be mixed in right on the controller box). For 2k you certainly get some bells and whistles, but nobody in a home studio environment is going to shell that kind of cash for a headphone system.

Overall. IMO doesn't matter what you choose, you definitely get what you pay for. I imagine the 300 dollar presonus is probably just as nice as the Rane I have currently. It's definitely nice to be able to blow the headphones off your drummer if he feels so fit. haha
 
Last edited:
Guys, many many thanks for your good answers :)
I'll go towards the HP60 as intially we might play up to 3 instruments at a time but if we want to have other sessions later on where we all play, I prefer not to be limited by 4 outputs.
On top of that, reading more about it, we can also make use of it during our concerts and use it together with in ear monitors (our singer always complains that she does not hear her enough - typical for a singer :) ).

I found answers to most of my questions but one and hopefully someome can tell me what is the best practice for it.
On the HP60, there are 2 inputs A and B, one to be used for the mix, the other for the click. Usually, how a clic is sent to this channel? I was thinking of using the Grageband metronome and try to route it in it but maybe there are other ways of doing it....


Thanks !
 
Presonus gear is way over engineered...massive bang for the buck. I feel like a presonus fanboy sometimes lol.
 
Thanks :)

One of the guitarists I'm playing with has mentionned the Samson S-Amp. Only 4 ports and limited features compared to the Presonus but the price is very low. What about the quality of Samson products? Anyone used the S-Amp?
 
Well, I have an ha8000 and it's been fine ... (Mated up to audio technica ath-m50's headphones.)

it's loud enough thats for sure , however the caution I will give you would be that you must control the gain staging correctly or you'll hear hiss...
Maybe I have a "tin ear" :((

cheers
RJ
 
I usually take "over engineered" as a negative term. Is that your intent? They seemed engineered about right -- with just the right balance of simplicity and complexity. But before I buy more of their products, I want to be sure you're not cautioning...

thanks

Terra said:
Presonus gear is way over engineered...massive bang for the buck. I feel like a presonus fanboy sometimes lol.
Click to expand...
 
Im taking the cheap way out. Looking up schematics and building my own. I'm majoring in electronics engineering for a reason eh?:D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top