Monitor Station

[Martin Naef]

Today I got a sweet surprise coming home from work (no, I don't mean 
Pascal smiling at me - he does that every evening): The Presonus Monitor 
Station that I ordered on Saturday afternoon from Thomann arrived 
already. That was quick, especially considering the packet came from 
Germany...

So I've already recabled my monitoring system, with the inputs taken by 
a) the MOTU 1224 main out, b) CD Player and c) el-cheapo soundblaster. 
The dying 01V monitoring section is now out of the loop, the mixer's 
output is rerouted digitally to the MOTU. I now have all three main 
sources at my fingertips, and I can already tell it's *very* convenient.

How does it sound? Well, I haven't done any A/B testing, and given that 
the 01V has a wonky right channel, it's not fair anyway. But to me, it 
sounds very clean. If there's any coloration going on, I certainly can't 
hear it. Far more importantly, I can now use the converters on the MOTU 
which are clearly superior to the ones in the digital mixer.

I haven't used all of its features yet. The integrated talk back 
microphone will find good use for Skype. And whether I ever use all four 
headphone amps I have some doubts, but it's nice to know they're here. 
Talking about headphone amps: They're *loud*, but they sound very nice 
as well.

Conclusion: It's not a cheap piece of kit. But as this is a central part 
of the monitor chain and solves so many small issues, it's well worth 
it. Thumbs up.

Martin