Monitor Speakers From Phones Socket?

Gareth Williams

Gareth Williams

Member
Hi everybody, does anybody know of, or can recommend, a good pair of studio monitors that can run from the headphones socket output of an Apogee Duet? I’ve seen a few videos on setting up studio monitors but they all tell you to set them up using the speaker output. However, my speaker output is taken up by a recording device.

At the moment I am using a powered PA speaker from the duet phones to the RCA input. This is annoying because the speaker is too big and wastes space on the floor, blocking my draws and generally getting in the way! I would like a pair of proper monitor speakers that can sit on the desk next to my computer. Would this be possible?

I know I’ve asked this before but I idiotically didn’t bookmark the thread! Sorry about that! Thanks again for your help, Gareth.
 
Gareth Williams said:
Hi everybody, does anybody know of, or can recommend, a good pair of studio monitors that can run from the headphones socket output of an Apogee Duet? I’ve seen a few videos on setting up studio monitors but they all tell you to set them up using the speaker output. However, my speaker output is taken up by a recording device.

At the moment I am using a powered PA speaker from the duet phones to the RCA input. This is annoying because the speaker is too big and wastes space on the floor, blocking my draws and generally getting in the way! I would like a pair of proper monitor speakers that can sit on the desk next to my computer. Would this be possible?

I know I’ve asked this before but I idiotically didn’t bookmark the thread! Sorry about that! Thanks again for your help, Gareth.
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Why would you not run the Apogee Left and Right outputs to the speakers? Why aren't you running the Inputs to your computer?
 
The reality is those big speakers are exactly what I tried to do in my second studio as a stop gap - 12" with 1" horn, bags of level and really, really horrible. They're great as a mini PA, but wow - they're compromised. You can still get if you hunt around little switch boxes that people used on hifis to connect multiple tape decks. These allow two outputs at the same time - so one to your analogue recorder and the other to the monitors, which leaves you the option to put headphones on for recording and monitoring at the same time.
Theres one on ebay at the moment.
here

Quite useful when you have a simple interface but more kit than it can handle
 
Farview said:
What is the apogee for? Doesn't the tascam have mic and line inputs?
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The Apogee is for two reasons, recording into the computer which I do on certain occasions, such as if I want to record to a grid, and also when I record to tape I use the effects in Logic. On the guitar I have a delay and on the vocals I have a reverb. This saves having extra pedals or effects units in my analogue rig.

I could record directly into the Tascam but then I would need an extra effects pedal on the guitar and another unit on the vocals, plus I would have to keep swapping my mic and guitar input between the Tascam and the Apogee.
 
rob aylestone said:
The reality is those big speakers are exactly what I tried to do in my second studio as a stop gap - 12" with 1" horn, bags of level and really, really horrible. They're great as a mini PA, but wow - they're compromised. You can still get if you hunt around little switch boxes that people used on hifis to connect multiple tape decks. These allow two outputs at the same time - so one to your analogue recorder and the other to the monitors, which leaves you the option to put headphones on for recording and monitoring at the same time.
Theres one on ebay at the moment.
here

Quite useful when you have a simple interface but more kit than it can handle
Click to expand...
Those little switch boxes sound useful. However, according to Jimmy, you can run the monitors from the phones socket of the Apogee so I don’t see the point. I think I will start by buying one monitor and see if that works from the headphones out of the Apogee. If it works Ok I’ll by the other one! Thanks again!
 
No problem with connecting, just like Jimmy said, but for me, I listen on speakers, then need headphones, and sometimes, both? constantly plugging in the speakers, the swapping to headphones would just annoy me - so having the main outputs sent to the recorder AND the speakers, leaving the headphone socket usable too, would seem a winner?
 
Thanks Rob. I very much like that idea! It might start to become annoying switching between speakers and phones! I'll update this post when I get my first monitor and we'll see how it goes. Thanks again!
 
Now I mean no disrespect to Gareth but this thread shows just how 'dumb' many people have become about very basic electronic devices and the almost compete absence of any electronic DIY skills.

Take the taking of a feed from the headphone output of an AI. Building a distribution box to give two TRS feeds to monitors and preserving a headphone feed really is trivially easy. The monitor feed could even have its own trim control(s) if desired.

Similarly, the Apogee line outs could easily be split and again a controlled feed sent to active monitors. All you need is some jacks, some wire, a soldering iron, pots and a tin. Point of order...headphone amplifiers are often not as good as 'line outs'. You are in any case adding an extra gain stage to a monitoring path

I do sometimes despair of today's yoof!

Dave (aka grumpy old fart)
 
It might be worth getting an interface that has enough i/o to do what you are trying to do.

Even just getting a small mixer could give you more options for routing and making your life easier.

It's almost always to get the appropriate tools for the task, rather than force things to do something they weren't designed for.
 
Farview said:
It might be worth getting an interface that has enough i/o to do what you are trying to do.

Even just getting a small mixer could give you more options for routing and making your life easier.

It's almost always to get the appropriate tools for the task, rather than force things to do something they weren't designed for.
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Well said Jay! A mixer can indeed be a very versatile tool to the home recording jockey. I am often castigated for suggesting their use in people's audio setup, it's as if a mixer, unique among all audio devices, is a horrible box of signal destruction! Not so, in fact from line in to Main Out the signal probably passes through fewer than three op amp stages and they have only modest gain leaving lots "in the loop" to reduce distortion. Even running through a mic stage probably adds only one or two stages.
One week I shall be taken to task for mentioning the 'M' word and the next the same bloke will be banging on about adding "mojo" with a transformer...'Sall DISTORTION!

Dave.
 
ecc83 said:
Well said Jay! A mixer can indeed be a very versatile tool to the home recording jockey. I am often castigated for suggesting their use in people's audio setup, it's as if a mixer, unique among all audio devices, is a horrible box of signal destruction! Not so, in fact from line in to Main Out the signal probably passes through fewer than three op amp stages and they have only modest gain leaving lots "in the loop" to reduce distortion. Even running through a mic stage probably adds only one or two stages.
One week I shall be taken to task for mentioning the 'M' word and the next the same bloke will be banging on about adding "mojo" with a transformer...'Sall DISTORTION!

Dave.
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As I said in my second post, I could send from a mixer phones/control room output, but it would be exactly the same situation as the Apogee headphones socket. Basically not the Apogee outputs which is what it tells you to use in all the videos on setting up studio monitors. If Apogee did a Duet with two outputs that would be great, but I don’t know if they do and I was rather hoping it wouldn’t matter if the signal came from the main outputs or the headphones socket.

I know I’ll probably sound like a lazy whinging git but, I’m not soldering anything. I’m a guitarist and singer not a mad scientist!
 
"I know I’ll probably sound like a lazy whinging git but, I’m not soldering anything. I’m a guitarist and singer not a mad scientist!"

What like Brian May? He has sold few records. Heh! When I was in a band in the 60' and 70s you HAD to make a lot of kit because, A, you couldn't afford to buy it or B, it didn't exist! Mind you, back then nobody would dream of grocery shopping without taking a bag. Now we drown in plastic. Different world.

Dave
 
Gareth, you don't need to be a mad scientist to solder. It's one of the easiest things you can do. Get someone to show you once and you'll have the skill in about 15 minutes. I learned how to do it as a kid of 12, as Dave said you had to build things. We built our own speaker cabinets (they were truly awful but who had money?), put in a couple of 8 inch speakers in each box and wire up a plug. My brother and I also built slot cars. Eventually we were winding motors and building frames.

I will say that I doubt you will hear a big difference between the output of the headphones vs the line outs. I run a pair of JBL 305s on one computer, coming from the 1/8" mini jack on the back. Just make sure you adjust the output so you don't overdrive anything.
 
My reservations about headphone outs Rich was because many of them on budget AIs, laptops and definitely phones are pretty crude class D amplifiers. I would expect the headphone amps on an Apogee to be a cut above mind.

People you see get pretty precious about the 'monitoring chain' hence the popularity of passive monitor controllers when in fact a couple of op amps in the circuit will have no audible effects. Passive controllers can in fact degrade the signal in several ways. Loss of extreme HF (beyond say 10kHz) noise pick up and sometimes loading of the driving stage causing distortion. Beware the BK Passive!

Dave.
 
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