Monitor Speakers From Phones Socket?

[rob aylestone]

Even if you cannot solder - we all have enough old premade cables to do practically all things cable. In my teens, twisting wires together and taping was everyday stuff when you needed to combine or split. Nowadays it's even easier because of magic things called wago connectors. Dirt cheap little plastic gizmos that you simply poke wires into and press a lever - joint made. The ones with three holes would allow you to take an output and split it to two destinations. Splitting like this does have some impedance and level consequences, but the fact is that virtually all decent kit doesn't object and it works really well. Headphone outputs are designed now for lowish impedance headphones, not just the old 8 Ohm ones and will drive hi impedance inputs without problems. You could take the cable that goes to the recorder, find another, chop them both in half, bare them back and use a wago to join them. takes a few minutes and no soldering required. I do agree though that in this world, the two skills I'd hate to lose are soldering, and tuning by ear. Both are so useful I can't imagine not being able to do them.

 

[Steenamaroo]

I could send from the control room/phones out of a mixer. I have been very tempted by these Yamaha HS7s because they have a “control room” 0, -2, -4 switch. Would that be for getting a signal from the control room out of a mixer? https://www.gear4music.com/Recording-and-Computers/Yamaha-HS7-Active-Studio-Monitor/QT3

It says Room Control, not Control Room.
That three way switch is for setting varying degrees of bass roll off, which is useful if your monitors are in a small room particularly if they're against a wall or,
worse yet, in corners.

In setups like that bass is often accentuated by the shape of the room so monitor manufacturers build in these low cut options for you to compensate.
Sounds like what you need is a very basic mixer that has separate main, and control room, outputs.

Run your duet outputs into the mixer - A stereo channel or two mono channels hard panned left and right,
then make sure those channels are routed to both main and control out, then use those to feed your monitors and recording device.

Use headphone outputs for headphones.

If this is likely to be a long term interest for you you might want to reconsider learning some basic soldering/electronics skills.
I'm not talking about hand building complicated devices but simply knowing how to make up a custom cable or repair a broken solder joint or replace a filter capacitor
can save an awful lot of time and money.

 

[Gareth Williams]

I knew somebody would bring up Brian May. He made his own guitar! Ok, thanks for the info about “Room Control” The monitors will be in a small room and against a wall and one of them will be in a corner!

I’ve had a proper look at my mixer and the control room outputs are two 1/4 inch jacks. I will use these not the headphones socket on the Apogee. I will update this thread when the monitors arrive to let you know how it goes! Thanks again!

 

[Steenamaroo]

Oh you already have a mixer?
Even better! Hopefully that gets you up and running.

 

[Gareth Williams]

Yeah, the Apogee outputs go into the mixer, the mixer main outs go to the 4track. I can't wait for my monitors to arrive now!

 

[ecc83]

Yeah, the Apogee outputs go into the mixer, the mixer main outs go to the 4track. I can't wait for my monitors to arrive now!

May we know the make and model of the mixer please? That way I might be able to find a block signal diagram for it for you, a great help in understanding the signal flow.

I mentioned Mr May because he was my first thought and perhaps the best known 'technical' musician but I think a good number of the "Old Rockers" were pretty cute electrically...They HAD to be! Seem to recall Joe Browm was a Sparks?

Back in 'my' day there was seven different mains outlets in the country. Had to make up adapter cables for'em all. No friggin Amazon!

"Grocking will be when waiting is filled"

Dave.

 

[Gareth Williams]

Thanks Dave. The mixer in question is the Behringer Xenyx 802. The dusty specimen can be seen in this photo!

 

[ecc83]

Thanks Dave. The mixer in question is the Behringer Xenyx 802. The dusty specimen can be seen in this photo!

Hah!Ha! I shall hear nothing against the 802! I have one in my back bedroom and it has been relaying garden sounds from a pair of mics without fail since 2012 to a recorder in my living room. Never been turned off!

Yes, I an sure I can find you a diagram for that wee beastie. There you go, if the pots and switches crackle a bit invest in a can of WD-40 Contact cleaner. LOT cheaper than De-oxit!

Dave.

 

[jimmys69]

Thanks Dave. The mixer in question is the Behringer Xenyx 802. The dusty specimen can be seen in this photo!

Ha! I think everyone owns one of those. I use one to run PA system in my control room when live tracking. Another one in my drum room for stick slingers own mix.

They do the job well for little $$.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

I'll add Tom Scholz to that list of technical minded guitarists.

 

[Gareth Williams]

Hi again! Another thing I need to know before I go on a spending spree is what cables do I need? Do you just use normal instrument cables like a guitar lead? The speakers have a choice of XLR or jack inputs. I’ve watched two videos on setting them up and both people bought XLR to quarter inch jack TRS leads. But, why XLR? Why not jack to jack? and why TRS? and most bizarrely of all they appeared to be stereo at the jack end! WTF! What’s the point in that when there’s one for each speaker?

 

[Steenamaroo]

You can use TRS to XLR or TRS to TRS.
You can use TS to TS, like instrument cables, but I wouldn't.

The outputs on the mixer are most likely balanced, as are the inputs on the monitors.
Balancing makes use of two conductors and ground to cancel unwanted noise that's picked up along the way,
such as noise from nearby power supplies or lighting.

It sends your audio down one conductor and an inverted copy down the other conductor.
Because any picked up noise will affect both signals equally, that noise is cancelled out when the two signals are matched up again.

You're right - In unbalanced systems TRS can be used for stereo.

 

[ecc83]

The outputs of the Xenyx are indeed balanced but of a form called "impedance" balanced. This is a lower cost version of the two amplifiers system but still confers the noise bucking qualities of 'balance' (so long as it feeds a balanced input) What you don't get is the doubling of the signal voltage that a straight plus 'inverted' amplifier gives you. The 802 still delivers a maximum output of +22dBu (~ 10V rms) if memory serves and that is more than adequate for any following device save the very highest echelons of 'pro' converters. There are in fact very few interfaces that deliver more than +18dBu.

So yes, XLR or TRS don't matter and unbalanced rarely matters for short, <10mtr runs. The only possible drawback is a chance of a ground (aka earth/ hum) loop but we can cross that bridge should the need arise.

Dave.

 

[Gareth Williams]

Ok, thanks guys. I’ll get quarter inch TRS jacks at both ends. I’m guessing I wouldn’t notice the difference if I used normal instrument jacks but I might as well get the ones that are supposed to be better. I’ll update this thread when it’s all set up, or if something goes wrong first! Thanks again.

 

[Gareth Williams]

This worked very well! I’ve only got one so far. I’ll get the other one after my next pay day. I set it to -4db on the room control just because I’m in a small room. It sounds pretty good. I also like the light on it. That looks cool!

On a slight negative note, it doesn’t fit on my desk! They are much bigger than I had in mind. Instead they will go on a nearby set a draws. I’ll upload a picture when I get the other one.

 

[Gareth Williams]

I’ve got the other one and I can report it all works brilliantly! I'm delighted with the result. Like I said, they were much bigger than I imagined so I had to put them on a nearby set of drawers and right next to each other which isn’t ideal but they sound great. I’ve also had to pile my mate’s drum kit up precariously next to them with a box of envelopes! As long as that dodgy stack doesn’t topple over it’s all good! Thanks again for your help.