Monoprice - don't believe (all) the hype!!!

[blungo2]

I just hooked up an xlr pair to my main monitors. They sure seem nice. They tested fine and aren't noisy (after cutting the housing ground).

I'll probably wind up getting more. If they came in colors i'd definitely buy a bunch.

I'm almost ready to try a pair of the headphones, i think i'll hold of on the monoprice mics for a while at least though...

[silentsky]

I'm almost ready to try a pair of the headphones, i think i'll hold of on the monoprice mics for a while at least though...

I also ordered a pair of the headphones, and they're very nice for the price. Seem sturdy enough and sound great too.

It might also be worth noting that the Monoprice mics seem to be the same or a remarkably similar circuit to the MXL 603 and MXL 770, and there are several easy mods (capacitor swaps, headbasket mods, etc.) that can be done to them to make them sound better.

[Electricide]

I picked up some of the monoprice xlr cables and one set of headphones based on the TapeOp reviews. I've been satisfied with the headphones, and the cables worked just fine the first several times I used them. I don't record often - less than once per month.

The most recent session I noticed that one of the cables was crackling, as mentioned above. I disassembled the jacks, assuming I had a bad connection. Everything looked fine, and since I know little to nothing about electronics, I chalked it up to bad jacks which at some unspecified point in the future I would cut off and replace with something decent.

This thread alerted me to the pin 1 to chassis issue and I took a look at my disassembled jack and, sure enough, there's a little wire soldered between pin 1 and the chassis. I snipped it at both ends with a wire cutter, plugged it into my mixer and, viola, no more crackle.

Thanks TOMB!

I somehow stumbled into helping more people here in the last week than I did the past 4 years on TOMB!

[blungo2]

@ silentsky, i'm guessing you got the "DJ" phones? I think those were the only sealed, non-noise cancelling phones i saw on their site.

@ electricide, thanks!

[digitaldrummer]

I ordered some short IEC power cables yesterday (1, 2, and 3 foot). They were cheaper than anywhere else. I'll report back on quality/usefulness.

Mike

[silentsky]

@ silentsky, i'm guessing you got the "DJ" phones? I think those were the only sealed, non-noise cancelling phones i saw on their site.

@ electricide, thanks!

Yes, that's correct. The phones I ordered are the Monoprice 8323 - "Premium Hi-Fi DJ Style Over-the-Ear Pro Headphones".

[silentsky]

While we're at it, I guess I could also mention that I bought one of their Vocal Isolation Shields (Reflection Filter). Haven't really gotten to try it out yet during a session, but it seems very well made, and quite heavy duty. In fact, it's heavy enough that I didn't trust any of my old stands, so I ordered a taller, heavier mic stand to mount it on (Ultimate Support Tour-T-Tall).

[blungo2]

Thanks, let us know if the refexion things work better than a moving blanket on a mic stand.

[jgimbel]

Wow yeah I just took a look at those and it looks pretty nice! I rarely have the need for it but today I had a band record live, vocals included, with a quiet singer. I imagine this could have cut a bit of the hi hats out nicely. I'd feel a little bad putting a singer inside one of these cages, but some people are like me and will ignore a strange setup if it'll lead to a better sound.

[blungo2]

I just read a thing expalianing why those things cause all kinds of comb filtering, but a blanket doesn't. It made sense when i read it...

[krizrox]

Actually I think I posted a comment once before about Monoprice. I bought a pair of their headphones based on a Tape Op review from a year or two ago. I am still using the phones here in my studio. I personally didn't like the way they sounded. In fact, in my opinion, they were the worst sounding headphones I've ever heard. In spite of that, I went ahead and put them into use in my studio just to see what kind of responses I would get about them. I generally have been using them mostly for drum tracking although they have also been used occasionally for vocal overdubs. They've gotten a fair amount of use. To date, no one has complained about the sound quality. Ok - so maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm just overly picky about headphone sound quality. I don't use them for anything personally. I didn't actually think they would last this long. The overwhelming major complaint though has been the detachable cable. The cable attaches to the headphone with a small 1/8" plug (similar to Fostex phones) but it plugs directly into the bottom of the earpiece. Clients will inevitably yank the plug out of the earpiece when moving around. Happens all the time. It would have been better to use the Fostex design with a right-angle plug that plugs into the side of the earpiece, not the very bottom. For the price - I don't know - I didn't expect a lot for $20 or whatever I paid for them. The fact they've even survived this long is something I guess. I've never bought anything else from them. I'm a little too suspicious of dirt cheap products from anyone. You get what you pay for.

[blungo2]

Hmmm, i'm pretty about headphones, even just for tracking. I like the inexpensice Superlux phones we have, maybe i'll get more of those.

[silentsky]

Hmmm, i'm pretty about headphones, even just for tracking. I like the inexpensice Superlux phones we have, maybe i'll get more of those.

Which Superlux phones do you have? I've owned a few of their mics that I thought were decent.

[blungo2]

I forget, they're the open back ones that someone somewhere recommended. I'll probably try the closed back model for tracking, they were $27.00 i think.

They sound pretty good, similar to, but not as open as my AKG701s, they might be a knock off of the AKG.

[blungo2]

They're 681s, the 668B is supposed to be even nicer, I just saw them for $39.00 so i may have been wrong on the price. Probably worth trying the 668B as well, they're $50.00.