Personal monitor controller suggestions

[LukeHoward]

Does anyone have any suggestions for personal monitor controllers that are low latency, can stay in the digital domain from Pro Tools, and are not too expensive (which rules out Aviom, etc). I am using HDX with Dante (via a RedNet 5), so that's the ideal delivery protocol as Ethernet is easily patched.

Right now I am looking at the KLANG:quelle – I have a RedNet AM2 but owing to the particular Dante chipset used, the latency is unacceptable to me for monitoring (>1ms). The KLANG:quelle can do 0.214ms at 96k (Dante + D/A latency), which seems comparable to HDX's round-trip latency of 0.7ms assuming that is evenly divided between input and output.

[Stig Eliassen]

I have no experience with their products, but I recently saw a studio using a Behringer Powerplay system. FWIW, they were very happy with it.

[LukeHoward]

Thanks Stig, I'm looking for something that can work at 96k though.

[Stig Eliassen]

Gotcha.

[Drew Mazurek]

Pretty specific set of requirements here, I'd bet you tracked down the two contenders already!!

BTW, thanks for the post, I had no idea these things even existed!

[ntp-jl]

One of our customers is using the KLANG:quelle for headphone monitoring without any latency issues. You can see their set-up in the attached pdf.

They're running at 48 kHz so they're even using the worst sample rate in terms of latency, and still not having any issues. The Dante latency is set to 0.5 msec. due to the number of switches in the network (the control room is on 4th floor and the live rooms are on 1st and 2nd floor so there's also a bit of distance involved).

The signal flow is as follows. Mic goes into the AX32 mic pre/AD in either room, is transmitted across the network using Dante, then into another AX32 in the control room where Dante is converted to PT HDX into Pro Tools. They do headphone mixes in PT and send it back via PT HDX to the AX32 which converts it to Dante and then goes across the network to the KLANG:quelle. They can obviously take signals from both rooms and use them in the headphone mix. They haven't measured the roundtrip latency, but they have not had any complaints from the artists.

We also use a couple of KLANG:quelle for our demo set-ups to demonstrate the headphone mix capability of the AX32 and never had any problems with them. What I personally love about it, is that it supports up to 192 kHz sample rate and you can have 4 individual headphone outputs. It's PoE powered so all you need is one network cable to provide 4 independent headphone outputs.

We also have other customers who plan to use the KLANG:quelle on similar types of projects, so it's definitely worth looking at.

[LukeHoward]

Hi Jan, thank you for the response – looks like the KLANG:quelle is the go for now. (As a side note, the AX32 looks amazing – I could replace all my Avid I/O, the RedNet 5 and my monitor controller with one, saving about 7U in space. If only I'd not bought them in the first place!)

[LukeHoward]

Originally Posted by ntp-jl

One of our customers is using the KLANG:quelle for headphone monitoring without any latency issues. You can see their set-up in the attached pdf.

They're running at 48 kHz so they're even using the worst sample rate in terms of latency, and still not having any issues. The Dante latency is set to 0.5 msec. due to the number of switches in the network (the control room is on 4th floor and the live rooms are on 1st and 2nd floor so there's also a bit of distance involved).

Does the AX32 support the 150us latency when used with an external switch, given it has its own inbuilt switch?

[ntp-jl]

Originally Posted by LukeHoward

Does the AX32 support the 150us latency when used with an external switch, given it has its own inbuilt switch?

That's a very good observation. As the AX32 has a built-in switch (which is necessary if you want to use redundant Dante connections), the minimum latency setting is 250us. I don't think you will notice any difference between 150 and 250us.

[LukeHoward]

Originally Posted by ntp-jl

That's a very good observation. As the AX32 has a built-in switch (which is necessary if you want to use redundant Dante connections), the minimum latency setting is 250us. I don't think you will notice any difference between 150 and 250us.

Thanks for the reply. I agree I probably won't notice the difference (I'm running my KLANG:quelle at 250us now and it seems fine) but the less latency, the better – as a performer it is something I am sensitive to.

What's the peak/average latency in the Dante Controller histogram with a directly connected device? With an Extreme Networks switch I can get 84/64usec respectively between a RedNet 5 and the KLANG:quelle – Brooklyn to Brooklyn II – so if the AX32 switch does not add too much it might be possible to keep under 150us when using a second switch. Alternatively is there a way to bypass the switch in the AX32?