Small but significant studio improvements

[Piet De Ridder]

The happy result of a failing Mackie monitor controller (increasingly unreliable stereo balance), I made two studio improvements:
(1) I replaced the Mackie with a Drawmer CMC2 and
(2) seeing as the Drawmer has an additional mono-output (either for a sub or an extra mono speaker), I bought a single Avantone Mix Cube for low-level, bass-challenged mono monitoring.

(As usual, Steely Dan’s “Babylon Sisters” — invariably the first track I play whenever I make a change to my studio — manages to sound its amazingly perfectly mixed self even on this ‘intentionally crappy’ Avantone in mono. Strictly balance-wise, I mean, because, obviously, while the bass part is clearly audible and well-defined, there’s very little actual bass.)

So, good purchases, it seems to me, after spending the first two hours with these items. There is definitely a difference — in a good way — going from the Mackie to the Drawmer. And the OlloAudio S4X headphones, already stellar sounding before, now plugged into the Drawmer, seem to sound better still.
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[Mike Marino]

Thanks for sharing, Piet! I almost bought the OlloAudio S4X headphones last year, but my wife ended up getting me the HifiMan Ananda headphones instead. I’ve just been plugging my headphones directly into my Apollo, but now you’ve got me curious about this Drawmer unit.

[Erik]

Thanx Piet.
Babylone sister’s is an old & trusty beacon for me.

[GR Baumann]

All I read about that long established cmc2 was positive.

It is like the Connemara peat smoked Irish single malt , very competitive with much much higher priced single malts, it literally ticks all the boxes for a ridiculous price tag.

Below 300 Euro in Germany makes it a no brainer.

https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/drawmer-cmc2

[Lawrence]

Do you ever have need for multiple headphones for singers or clients, Piet? If so, do you use a headphone amplifier?

[Piet De Ridder]

Larry, no. I don't work with singers or other musicians. And even if I were to have someone over who'd need to use a second pair of headphones, I've got three headphone outputs available at the moment: two on the Apollo x8, and another one on the Drawmer. So, no need for a headphone amp.

I don't really use headphones all that often myself either. During a mix, maybe a couple of times, and always for just a minute or two, to check something or other I'm not sure about, but that's more or less it.

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[Lawrence]

I see. Nice enhancements you have there!

I do have multiple people in so I have a 4 pair headphone amp, and it gets use.

I’ve recently purchased the Slate headphone system. I’ve yet to have enough time spent with them to report back, but they’re interesting.