John Sayers' Recording Studio Design Forum Archive

Headphone dilemma,
I’m running all the cable for the 3 rooms at the moment so I need to make a decision about how I’m going to run the headphones.
Opinions would great!

1) Utilize pre-owed gear. 2x 4 way headphone amps set in control room. (free)
- 8 cable runs ($$)
-No user control

2) Utilize pre-owed gear. Head phone amps set in each room. (free)
- 2 cable runs to 1st amp then 2 daisy chained to the next. (4 cables total)
- Small amount of user control (A or B mix plus volume)

3) Buy Furman or similar headphone controller and units ($$$$)
-CAT 5 runs only (cheaper cable runs)
-Total user control
-Possibly taxing on the computer system (multiple outputs during recording??)

I know it’s fairly obvious which one is the more professional (3).
But there are also many top end studios running (1)

Below is a picture (very bad) of what I would imagine (2) to look like. 4 way head phones and a 4 or 8 way DI, on wheels with hooks for headphone to hang and maybe some cup holders.
This would be rolled to the centre of the muso’s. Thoughts?

lil

If you have the money lying around, probably #3 is the best. But I think I'd go with #2. That's the way I normally do headphone mixes anyway, and I seldom get complaints from musicians about control.

However, I'd run all the extra cables as if you were going to do both #1 AND #3, even though you wont connect some of them to anything right now. Because one day my old friend Murphy will come along to your studio, and no matter which way you wired it, you'll find that you should have done it the OTHER way for that specific session. So put in all the cables you can possibly think you'll ever need, then add some spares just in case. ( And even then, Murphy will find a way to thwart your session! )

My 0.02


- Stuart -

Thanks.
I've run a heap more CAT 5 than I originally planned. So that should cover option 3 with spares for guitar pedals.
So my head phone send will be a 2 x female XLR.
I'll have a loom with power that will run to the roll around unit.

This is a cheap yet adequate system

http://www.behringer.de/EN/Products/HA4700.aspx



for headphone distribution cable standard aussie telephone cable works fine.

Gasp! A BEHRINGER!!!???!!!


( just kidding... )


- Stuart -

That's what I have John, but what do you mean by telephone cable?
With adaptors?

The pale yellow cable that runs throughout your house. Standard extension lead cable.
It has 4 insulated leads in one cable so you can have +/- left and +/- right.

I didn't thinkn it would be shield enough

It's speaker feed - very different to low level microphone voltages.

Thats great news for the wallet!.
thanks

john-
would there be a difference in the distance that you could run the phone line compared to standard mic cable for headphones?
and is this how you would wire it?
double up the earth or leave a spare cable incase of breakage?

Just double up the earth or leave a spare cable in case of breakage - your choice.

Phone cable doesn't move around like mic cable. It's designed to handle 50volts comfortably over long distance. That's why your phone rings without any input from your house power.

great!