Presonus HP60 Opinions?

evilaudio · Post by **evilaudio** » Tue Jul 20, 2010 11:07 am

I UTSF and came up with nothing directly relating to my quetion...

I recently got one of these to upgrade from my Samson Q5. Anyone else use one and find it has very little headroom and generally sounds weak? In functional theory, it looked great, but the real-world signal is either too low/weak or distorting too much. I feel like I should have just gone for the Furman HDS6/HR6 like I originally planned... Or maybe something's wrong with mine. I work with a lot of LOUD bands, so nice clean LOUD HP amps are needed.

Thank you!!

T-rex · Post by **T-rex** » Tue Jul 20, 2010 3:36 pm

That's funny. I hope that's not the case as I have one on the way now to replace my Samson!

centurymantra · Post by **centurymantra** » Mon Jul 26, 2010 7:11 am

I had one of these, and thought it was a nice device for the money. That being said, I felt the headphone amps did not have the clarity, headroom or general SQ of the lowly Presonus HP4 heaphone amp. In theory, it is likely the "same" headphone amp in there, but i sure didn't think this was the case. The HP4 still reigns supreme as one of the "bang for the buck" top picks in the headphone amp world.

losthighway · Post by **losthighway** » Mon Jul 26, 2010 8:43 am

My HP4 had one channel die on it in about six months out of the box. A year and a half later it started smoking and smelling like burnt plastic. Now when I see a Presonus logo I just smell burnt plastic. -Done with those guys.

getreel · Post by **getreel** » Mon Jul 26, 2010 3:52 pm

I like my Presonus gear. I've used the little cheap tube comp and it's really OK for the money. I also have an MP20 and it sound truly great for the price. I have several friends who own their stuff and I've never heard anything but good from any of them. I would imagine the cheaper stuff like the little headphone amps could be kinda cheaply made but then again, isn't almost everything made cheaply in China now anyway?

losthighway · Post by **losthighway** » Mon Jul 26, 2010 11:03 pm

getreel wrote: I also have an MP20 and it sound truly great for the price.

That's my favorite thing they've made, and they don't make it any more. I may have just had bad luck, or maybe it's a weird negative association from spending too much time at Guitar Center about six years ago.

T-rex · Post by **T-rex** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 3:49 pm

I actually love my digimax! But I just racked my HP60 and it seems good so far. I really like the talkback feature. I have it on my ghost, but I have a momentary pedal I plugged into the Presonus so I can use the talkback hands free, which is really nice.

evilaudio · Post by **evilaudio** » Wed Jul 28, 2010 7:21 am

wait 'til you have to use it with a LOUD band and the drummer needs more volume... sure, it gets LOUDER, but also with an ever increasing fuzzy crappy thin distorted mess. Yes, I am gain staging correctly and using feeds directly from my 9/10 aux sends. The other thing I hate about it is how the volume decreases when you get near the center detent on the mix a/b knob. That is dumb!

Some devices I like that Presonus has made are the ACP88, M80, and MP20.
Their low-budget stuff is just that. Low Budget. I'm not knocking Presonus, they is what they is, I just don't like the HP60 for my MO.

I'm getting a Furman!

casey campbell · Post by **casey campbell** » Wed Jul 28, 2010 10:54 am

i had one as a loaner, i really liked it, and i had plenty of headroom with mine. perhaps you have a faulty unit?

palinilap · Post by **palinilap** » Thu Jul 29, 2010 10:07 pm

evilaudio wrote:wait 'til you have to use it with a LOUD band and the drummer needs more volume... sure, it gets LOUDER, but also with an ever increasing fuzzy crappy thin distorted mess. Yes, I am gain staging correctly and using feeds directly from my 9/10 aux sends. The other thing I hate about it is how the volume decreases when you get near the center detent on the mix a/b knob. That is dumb!

Some devices I like that Presonus has made are the ACP88, M80, and MP20.
Their low-budget stuff is just that. Low Budget. I'm not knocking Presonus, they is what they is, I just don't like the HP60 for my MO.

I'm getting a Furman!

They make a mean jambalaya though! hehe
...inside joke

jgimbel · Post by **jgimbel** » Fri Jul 30, 2010 12:46 am

I love my Firestudio Project, pretty solid preamps and works perfectly..just saying.

evilaudio · Post by **evilaudio** » Fri Jul 30, 2010 5:31 am

They make a mean jambalaya though! hehe
...inside joke[/quote]

Yes, they do my friend! Totally cool str8-up guys, cool company, some cool products. Maybe mine IS screwy... Here's another scenario I encountered: 3 piece band. Drums, guitar/vocals, and bass. I set the HP60 up so that mix A was a mix of just drums. Mix B had guitar/vocals, and bass (everything else but drums). I figured the guys in the band could custom "blend" A with B since the drummer usually needs more drums and vise-versa. I sent "more me" of themselves to their respective "ext in" channels as well. Using it this way, the A/B balance knob in theory is supposed to mix or blend the 2 feeds depending on the position of the pot. Dead center both mixes are heard, but at much lower levels than if it's just A or B alone (hard left or hard right), then the louder you try and make it the worse it gets from there (obviously from slamming the input too hard - which seems to reach max at only half way up). The "more me" inputs seem to not really help much either, especially at older "deaf guy" heavy metal levels. My source for the HP60 is the Aux send pairs from my D8B console. Very conservative "safe" levels from there, all balanced TRS cabling. With no metering, clip LED, or even a "unity gain" marking on the input knobs, it's difficult to know where proper gain staging is on the inputs. I feel the cabling is good because I just replaced the Samson Q5 with this using the same cabling. Just unplugged the Q5, ran the additional stereo feed (for Mix B), and plugged in the HP60. Oh yeah, using Sony MDR cans, too.

Thanx communitea!
-G-Unit(e)

fedexnman · Post by **fedexnman** » Sat Jul 31, 2010 11:59 am

i have a presonus firebox and i get a slight whine in my recordings, and thought it was my cpu or graphics card fan getting in one of my mics , nope its the firebox. outta warranty to late , i hate presonus sorry.

jgimbel · Post by **jgimbel** » Sat Jul 31, 2010 1:22 pm

[quote="fedex"n"man"]i have a presonus firebox and i get a slight whine in my recordings, and thought it was my cpu or graphics card fan getting in one of my mics , nope its the firebox. outta warranty to late , i hate presonus sorry.[/quote]
might be an issue with your specific unit, i don't like to knock an entire unit based on the one i have without making sure that it's an issue with the units in general, not just with mine. I've seen some people complain about a whine with the firebox, a lot of people having it just happen to one channel usually, and sending it in and fixing it. It's a shame when anything shows up in more than one unit but I think there are a lot of pieces of gear that you have to watch out for some issues but if yours has it it can be repaired. It is a shame though when it's not clear until post-warranty what part of the chain is the issue.

There was an issue with my Firestudio Project after a couple years of owning it, the inputs dropped in level. Sent it to Presonus and they did some work on it and despite them replacing some pretty major parts they barely charged me anything for the work. Not to mention dealing with them any time I have has been great. Smaller company than I had expected, and everyone I talked to really knew what they were talking about (and didn't just blow off suggestions of what's wrong with the unit like a lot of other companies do).

billkahler · Post by **billkahler** » Fri Aug 06, 2010 7:15 pm

love my digimax fs...hated the ho60 - no headroom at all.

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Presonus HP60 Opinions?

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