I want to get a Phonic little Mixer, any advice / warning?

[garyb]

yep, even a passive box with a potentiometer wouold do the job. heck, you could make that! there are several commercial choices that are for exactly what you were loooking for, a monitor bus with volume control, the Big Knob is one, Presonus makes one, and there are others.

[Nestor]

the problem is not often the background noise or the build-quality that can be taken care of,
but the preamps that are of a lower quality. The sound will sound thinnier. Not awful, but when you have scope, it is difficult to downgrade).

I made an similar search, and concluded that instead of a mixer (in my case, coming from scope, a mixer would be useful only if it is a great quality, so it is high budgets),
a "mackie big knob" or equivalent would be fine. It is not cheap, eventhough the cheapest at a decent quality.
it does not "mix" on a master, but allows to monitor and have aux inputs. it switches between inputs and outputs. It is already a budget though, i am not getting one now.

so it depends on exactly what you want to do with it and if you need a master mix or not (ie, routing)

I liked it, it would be perfect, here are the specifications, but for something like this I will have to save a little more I guess:

[Nestor]

yep, even a passive box with a potentiometer wouold do the job. heck, you could make that! there are several commercial choices that are for exactly what you were loooking for, a monitor bus with volume control, the Big Knob is one, Presonus makes one, and there are others.

Look, this is me surrounded by little inexpensive mixers and from behind myself comes Big Knob!

[spacef]

At the same time, it is 3 times the price of the mixer you linked and you can't mix your pc with other sources. You seemed happy with it at some point in the thread
I haven't tried the big knob, and can't be sure of its sound. With scope and a16 you can manage a good part of the big knob (in case you have an a16). Even though it is still appealling if it manages the left and right channels correctly and not like cheaper volume controllers that show a difference at low volumes. So may be look at tests and forums about the Big knob (it is an old piece of gear and it would be better if it had xlr, so it's worth looking at discussions about it).

but i see in the video how you sent it back to where it came from

[Immanuel]

You could also look into getting a Hi-Fi preamp/amplifier. It will take your phono level from your Pulsar just fine, and it will give you a volume knob and often also a headphone preamp. People on the net, whom I respect a lot, says this is a sonically better and cheaper solution than the Big Knob.

I think of it this way (and might be at fault), that a HiFi preamp or full amplifier is a mainstream standard product which has to compeed with other mainstream standard products. Ok, many brands are in fact all Harman Kardon under the hood, but still. The Big Knob on the other hand is a niche product, and that tends to make the price:performance ratio drop.

[Nestor]

Mmmm, interesting point, a HI FI amp would also allow me to have more power on the monitors. Headphones for me are a MUST, because of the kind of work I do. You have opened yet another door… Cheers

[spacef]

i love my yamaha hifi amp. it's been with me since 1994 i think
whatever the brand, make sure it has an 4/8 ohm switch to adapt to studio speakers (if it was now, i would try to find one with FM Radio integrated .
i use it for headphones and a set of passive speakers. the bass/hi knobs are always nice for testing.

[Nestor]

a Hi-Fi preamp/amplifier is growing into my mind like a good solution, the more I think about it, the more I tend to find good reasons for it.

[garyb]

yep, looks like the best solution to me.

[Nestor]

I will go this path, yes. Thank you for all the advices, I enjoyed this thread a lot, because it was very revealing, interesting information. I’ll let you know about the choice when the moment comes. Cheers

[garyb]

i wouldn't really use a hifi amp. a hifi pre that is somewhat high end would be pretty great, however.

[Nestor]

But how do I recognise the difference between each other, not to mistake buying?

[garyb]

integrated amps have an amp and preamp.

a preamp shouldn't have an amp....

if it has an amp and a preamp out, that would be pretty usable too.

[Nestor]

Ok, I think I understand you, the main difference is not really power, but quality, which is esential. I'll look for it.

[garyb]

sure. you don't need an amp for the speakers, right?

for a live bass, say, you will want a pa style(a studio amp) amp rather than a hifi amp, as there's a huge difference in headroom. watts is not always watts, there are many different factors that determine wattage ratings. a hifi amp will not reproduce live sound well.

[Nestor]

Right, yes, I will only use it to monitor anyway. I have a pair of active Yamaha speakers in my little studio with which I work, so they will stand by themselves facing up a pre instate of a full amp.

[Immanuel]

If you are shopping used amps, and you find a great integrated amplifier with pre out and main in at a good price, then that will work just fine too. It doesn't harm the preamp that there is a power amp in the box too. Anyway, the difference will be extremely small and you need a really good signal chain to hear it. So if you get a good quality product at a good price - don't let it be a factor wether it is a preamp or an integrated with pre out and main in.

[Nestor]

Thank you for your point Immanuel, thank you for all the help in this topic