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Hey Guys,

I am looking for an inexpensive in ear solution. I have an idea but I am not sure if it would work.
Could I take the wire from my stage monitor and plug it into a headphone amp, and then just plugin my ear buds to that? I am not sure if it would overload the headphone amp.

My church does not have money to spend and they are happy with their setup, I see the obvious benefit and would like to bring my own solution I could just plug in.

Any and all suggestions are welcome, and they you very much in advance.

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TheJackAttack Thu, 02/18/2010 - 07:39

The wire currently feeding a floor wedge? No. That wire is already beyond line level. I mean, if you could guarantee somebody leaves the wedge volume low enough you could make it work somewhat. If a child or crazy thurifer knocks the knob up you are in big trouble though! At any rate, not recommended. Know also that the average ipod ear buds aren't up to the task. Professional IEM are more robust in lots of ways. You might be better off with quality headphones instead-either one ear or two ear.

dvdhawk Thu, 02/18/2010 - 08:39

Can you grab a mirror of the monitor feed from the input on the back of the monitor amp instead of after the amplifier? Most decent amps have XLR or TRS 'thru' capability for chaining amps.

Please be careful experimenting with a new amp combination with earbuds jammed in your ears. I'd hate to have you damage your hearing trying to save a few bucks. It only takes one time to do significant damage.

Good luck.

bouldersound Thu, 02/18/2010 - 12:29

If you want to grab signal from the parallel jack on a passive monitor you could try a direct box with a 30 or 40dB pad. Something with a recessed switch (e.g. DOD 265) would be better than something with an exposed switch so you can't easily disengage the pad. Since your budget is limited you might have someone with the right knowledge build a simple pad, which is nothing more than a voltage divider. A downside is that you get the eq for the speaker. [Edit] To get the mono balanced signal from a direct box into a stereo headphone amp you'll need to build a cable: XLR pin 2 to both tip and ring, probably both pins 1 and 3 to shield.

If the monitor is powered and has a line-level through jack then you could hook up to that, but you still get any eq applied to that mix. A split before the eq would be preferable. If your headphone amp is stereo and doesn't have a mono option you may need to build a cable to put the signal into both ears. Connect tip of a TS at the send end to both tip and ring of a TRS at the headphone amp end.

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dvdhawk Thu, 02/18/2010 - 14:18

jg49, post: 300174 wrote: Galaxy "Hotspot" personal monitors are passive and run off the same line as the passive floor wedges.

Very true. However I asked him prior to that, "Can you grab a mirror of the monitor feed from the input on the back of the monitor amp instead of after the amplifier? "

His answer made me wonder if what he's calling a Hotspot is really a Galaxy Micro Spot powered version. Either that or he doesn't understand that I'm asking in the previous post for a line level input coming into the amp - not a speaker level after the amp
.

SuprSpy79 Thu, 02/18/2010 - 17:49

It is not a galaxy hotspot, it is not powered. The setup is basically AUX OUTPUT - POWER AMP - FLOOR WEDGE - FLOOR WEDGE - HOTSPOT.

I guess the head phone amp is an amp to begin with, so ideally I would want the aux to go directly on there, but I doubt they will start letting me re-wire things, so I Was trying to find a solution by hopping off the monitor chain.

dvdhawk Thu, 02/18/2010 - 18:50

SuprSpy79, post: 300192 wrote: It is not a galaxy hotspot, it is not powered. The setup is basically AUX OUTPUT - POWER AMP - FLOOR WEDGE - FLOOR WEDGE - HOTSPOT.

Thanks for the clarification. What I have been suggesting is putting the headphone amp in the signal chain here:

AUX OUTPUT - HEADPHONE AMP/POWER AMP - FLOOR WEDGE - FLOOR WEDGE - HOTSPOT

It would take 15 seconds to do with the right cable, IF the amp has a thru jack that mirrors the AUX at the input. Again, most decent amps have jacks that mirror the input and feed additional amps (or headphone amps in this case). Bingo you're in the monitor chain at line level, ahead of the hundreds of watts that will smoke your earbuds and possibly your eardrums.

Best of luck.

bouldersound Thu, 02/18/2010 - 22:56

I bet there's an eq in that chain before the amp, probably at the far end of a snake. Most of the suggestions so far (including mine) would give him the hacked up eq meant for the monitors. If he's going to be stuck with that I say go with a 30-40dB pad he can use with any speaker in any venue. He did say he probably can't go digging around someone's amp rack.

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SuprSpy79 Fri, 02/19/2010 - 06:23

I will get the model this weekend, I am 95% sure it is a crown, and it as black and blue lol.

worse case I COULD get a y splitter right and just split it before the amp?

the monitors are not eq'ed they are coming out of the aux outputs of the mackie and I am pretty sure they are set to pre eq, but I will dble check if the switch is on pre or post.

dvdhawk Fri, 02/19/2010 - 07:14

Crown CH and CL series of a few years back were black and blue. If that's the case, the split would be from a barrier strip. Still very doable.

In any case, again - please be careful with the earbuds.

One of the things that concerns me most about this isn't how it could be connected. It's whether I could trust someone else not to carelessly dangle their mic in front of a hot monitor while I have earbuds in. That feedback from the wedge will also be pumped directly into your ears. That's why pro IEM systems have limiters to prevent sudden loud noises from permanently damaging your hearing. Most pros using IEM have no wedges, and if you do see wedges they are often only for back-up if the IEM fails and kept off as long as the artist has their buds in.

SuprSpy79 Fri, 02/19/2010 - 09:54

Yeah I am trying to find a way to eliminate the wedges, so I need to show them the benefits. They are happy with how things are working, but i think it could be so much better. I love the hearback system, but it is a lot of money. I am looking at the jam hub because you can basically do the same thing with it.

dvdhawk Fri, 02/19/2010 - 10:25

Is this a church system?

You have several options in that market. Hear Back being one, Aviom, & myMix are a couple more worth looking into.

We're using Aviom, but we have a fairly big band with 19 individual 16-channel mixers.
Hear Back I think is good for 8 channel control.
myMix is new and intriguing because it can record to a memory card too and they use a generic network hub - which is a real money saver.

SuprSpy79 Fri, 02/19/2010 - 10:51

Yeah it is a church system. I mean a 4 unit system for 1500 is not that expensive, but in the budget of a church that is like a million dollars lol. I will check out the myMix. We really only care for a couple of vocal mics, bass, and a guitar or two so 8 channels is more than enough.

EDIT:
stupid question, where can you buy mymix? there website is pretty empty lol

EDIT 2:
Found it on sweetwater for $499 for one unit, kinda expensive although it is very nice. I am not sure how this would work, if you are supposed to plug it all right into the mymix, how do you get it out to the pa? out of the stereo qtr inch out of the back?

SuprSpy79 Sun, 02/21/2010 - 04:17

so I tried it last night, it worked out ok. I def need to get a line level signal though becuase it was cracking and popping, BUT i think that might be my crappy behringer headphone amp cuz it does that in my studio sometimes too. I also want to get a limiter pedal that I can put in between the montior and the headphone amp. At the very least I like to use the in ear setup even if they do not want to set it up for everyone else.

BobRogers Sun, 02/21/2010 - 11:22

Not to hijack this thread, but suppose you were going to do basically the same thing suggested here but in a more "standard" way. That is, take a collection of aux outputs from your mixer and run them to a headphone amp to wired in ear monitors. I assume the "right" thing to do is put a brick wall limiter on each of the aux inputs. Is that right? Is there a better way to do it? If it is the right thing to do it would mean on the order of eight channels of limiting for what I have in mind. Any suggestions on brands that wouldn't break the bank?