The IEM (in ear monitors) Bible thread - a guide to help every musician

[Woodinblack]

Mine were labeled a few years ago, and since then we have had no issues. Apart from a couple of times when the bass drum has ended up in the bass socket.

[dave_bass5]

1 hour ago, Woodinblack said:

Mine were labeled a few years ago, and since then we have had no issues. Apart from a couple of times when the bass drum has ended up in the bass socket.

Yeah, things have got better, but these days some are more inclined to throw the cable over and expect our drummer to do it. He likes doing all that stuff and it takes the pressure of me. 

Edited 15 hours ago by dave_bass5

[Al Krow]

6 hours ago, SimonK said:

 

Ha - yes - I thought this was a given that you can't just plug headphones into something without a headphone preamp. I can't understand why anyone would try to plug headphones into an aux out!

 

I guess because it just works? Flawlessly. For the 70+ gigs that we've used the A&H CQ18T desk since getting it. At each gig we've had one or two band members using a wired IEM straight into the aux outs (with no separate external headphone amp), and with the desk output levels being set for them no higher than for the wireless IEMs.

 

Just to make sure I'm not losing the plot, I've just tried the desk with my home over-ear headphones and no external headphone amp. Could very clearly hear recorded output at similar volumes for both the headphone-out and aux-out with similar output levels on both.

 

Go figure 😅

Edited 12 hours ago by Al Krow

[SimonK]

1 hour ago, Al Krow said:

 

I guess because it just works? Flawlessly. For the 70+ gigs that we've used the A&H CQ18T desk since getting it. At each gig we've had one or two band members using a wired IEM straight into the aux outs (with no separate external headphone amp), and with the desk output levels being set for them no higher than for the wireless IEMs.

 

Just to make sure I'm not losing the plot, I've just tried the desk with my home over-ear headphones and no external headphone amp. Could very clearly hear recorded output at similar volumes for both the headphone-out and aux-out with similar output levels on both.

 

Go figure 😅

 

Must be something about that particular desk if headphones work directly because aux outs produce line level which is the standard for routing between different bits of gear (e.g. in a rack) whereas headphone level is a lot higher. There are a few caveats (-10dBV vs +4 dBu variants) but the wikipedia article explains it well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_level

 

EDIT - in thinking about this I bet the manufacturers are targetting these small desks towards home studio users and thus build something like this in as a feature so people don't have to buy additional headphone amps. Thus said it makes me a bit scared as high headphone levels running into expensive rack gear has the potential to break things! I probably wouldn't buy this specific mixer if it was indeed doing this.

 

EDIT2 - just downloaded and read the manual because I couldn't quite believe designers would do this, and the aux level is +4 dBu as expected, although the desk does seem to have two separate headphone outs that can monitor the aux mixes so I suspect these are what the IEMs connect to.

Edited 12 hours ago by SimonK

[Al Krow]

21 minutes ago, SimonK said:

 

Must be something about that particular desk if headphones work directly because aux outs produce line level which is the standard for routing between different bits of gear (e.g. in a rack) whereas headphone level is a lot higher. There are a few caveats (-10dBV vs +4 dBu variants) but the wikipedia article explains it well: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Line_level

 

EDIT - in thinking about this I bet the manufacturers are targetting these small desks towards home studio users and thus build something like this in as a feature so people don't have to buy additional headphone amps. Thus said it makes me a bit scared as high headphone levels running into expensive rack gear has the potential to break things! I probably wouldn't buy this specific mixer if it was indeed doing this.

 

EDIT2 - just downloaded and read the manual because I couldn't quite believe designers would do this, and the aux level is +4 dBu as expected, although the desk does seem to have some "alt outs" that are assignable so perhaps these can give higher levels.

 

Nice one for taking the trouble to read the manual on the A&H desk.

 

Only additional comments from me are that:

 

- this desk is very much geared to live gigging bands (they wouldn't have bothered with super nice touches like real time feedback elimination assistance otherwise, I suspect?)

 

- and that A&H are a very reputable manufacturer, who aren't particularly associated with cutting corners.

[TimR]

Page 69.

 

Alt Out (CQ-20B)

The Alt Out provides an alternative balanced TRS output connection. Source – Select any other Output or route the Listen out.

 If Listen is set, when no Listen button is pressed, the Alt Out will be sourced from Main LR.

 Listen is sent to the Alt Out at full volume for use with IEM systems that have input level control. For adjustable level, the headphone output should be used. 

[dave_bass5]

And this  is why i said ‘most desks’ in my first post about this. Ive had maybe 20+ desks over time and not one would allow headphones to be plugged in to a send jack and get a decent level. 

[Woodinblack]

1 hour ago, dave_bass5 said:

And this  is why i said ‘most desks’ in my first post about this. Ive had maybe 20+ desks over time and not one would allow headphones to be plugged in to a send jack and get a decent level. 

 

Agreed - but it would have never occured to me to actually plug a headphone in there. In fact if someone had tried that with one of my mixers they would have had a good kicking!

[Woodinblack]

6 hours ago, Wombat said:

I’ve labled everything but one of the guitarists ‘needs his glasses’ so still dosent plug in the right holes 😂

 

Different colour label to the rest!

[Wombat]

Good idea but his mic is in 1, so the left most input. The first input. The one the furthest from the Red fader. The same f&#@in one it is EVERY time.

And he still doesn’t get it 😂.

[dave_bass5]

5 minutes ago, Woodinblack said:

 

Agreed - but it would have never occured to me to actually plug a headphone in there. In fact if someone had tried that with one of my mixers they would have had a good kicking!

I have, or worked with others that have tried. It's never been ideal.