Nothing Compares

I have been using a typical headphone power system in my home recording studio. I use it for recording and jamming with typically no more than 4 people. For some reason, we could never get a mix that everyone agreed on, and as the jams went on, all the musicians would keep turning their volume up. That made a very ugly sound and made the experience not fun. Although the HearBack is expensive, I thought I would try it.... and I will tell you it's like a new studio. Everyone gets control over their own mix, and everyone is happy. The sound is clear and true. I would have bought this a long time ago if I had known about it.

Crystal Clear Sound

I was doing research into different monitor systems and I kept coming back to the HearBack because of the features. I finally purchased the system and I am amazed!! The sound is crystal clear and the ability to be able to link channels is something that I could not live without now. I have owned and used other monitor systems and for the price, the HearBack is well worth it!!! I highly recommend it.

a very pleasant surprise

When this was first suggested as a solution for independent headphone mixes the thought of running Cat 5 cables in my studio that already has plenty of XLR and TRS jacks spread aplenty prompted a quick "NOPE!"

I use the RME FF800 interface with the Mixer Matrix and decided I just needed a headphone amp and purchased the Presonus HP6 in conjunction with an old Oz Audio Qmix- This worked but I seemed to spend a lot of time re-adjusting sessions (I do a lot of live recording with small groups) and as the session wore onm, inevitably someone would turn up and then everyone else would want more "me" and at some point the signals would become rather hissy.

I stopped using the Q-mix, relying entirely on the RME Matrix Mixer, but I still spent way too much time adjusting each persons level and the Presonus (IMHO) was slightly under powered.

I finally (mainly in frustration) decided that the Hear Back would simply let each person be in charge of their own damn headphone mix!

Several hours to run the Cat 5 cables (if you make your own cables be prepared to have your patience tested), the mixers mounted using Atlas podium mounts and short extensions and some aux busses set-up to route mix or click to ch1/2, drums to ch 3, bass to ch 4, guitars 1 and to to ch 5 and 6 (respectively), keyboards to ch 7, and vocals to ch 8 (although your needs may differ)... each mixerr can power 2 headphones, and there is an aux in on each mixer (though i haven't used)

amazing clarity, plenty of volume, despite one comment on a forum that the 1.5 msec latency was distraction (his hears must be much better than mine or the folks that have used it), a major improvement.

my nits (which are few)-
I wish ch 1 and ch 2 could be unlinked as a stereo channel (a combined level control for both)
I wish the signal could be totally 'mono' if desired
I wish analog and digital inputs could be used together

Great Monitoring System

Jeff Barnett here at Sweetwater told me this was a great system and he was right. Digital quality headphone mixes throughout the studio and it all took about an hour to hook up including pulling 12 strands of wire thru the existing conduit lines. (4 spares while we were at it)



Before, in our studio, the mixes all sounded "mono-mushy" when they got thru the snakes, mixers,cables, headphone amps, junction boxes etc. Now the we patch into the original recording signal, then the signal goes into the Hear Back (24bit)converter and straight to the remote mixer and into your ears via your favorite headphones. Anyone in the studio that doesn't like the mix they are getting have only themselves to blame. And I plan to hang a sign telling them just that.


Thanks Sweetwater!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!