hearback technologies???

Guys,
Are anyone of you using this headphone system?
What are your thoughts/opinions??

I need to upgrade the HP system at the studio and this looked like one cool system.

Same goes for the Presonus Central station???

I hate to buy cheap gear but, this thing has all the features I am looking for and after looking at all the boutique companies making these I was struck by how feature-less they were.

I am hoping to feed a DAC1 into this to my monitors???
Am I crazy? Supposed to be passive??? whatever, huh?

Anybody with experience let me know!

david

[Ruairi]

Are you talking about the unit with the 6 ins/outs for adding talkback to a signal with the 2 way monitor switching? If so I have one and it's ok at best. I come out of a Digi 192 into this to add talkback before going to my headphone amp. FWIW it's noisy and I certainly wouldn't use the monitor path (go digital out to DAC-1 to monitors).

Oh yeah the P.S.U. crapped out the other day for no apparent reason, I must look into that. All in all it's an acceptable box but that's all,

cheers,
Ruairi

[mixdude]

I bought the hub and 4 mixer units.
So far, I have gone thru 4 mixer units and a 5th one is crapping out.
I've had it about 2 months.

The concept is awesome, and to be fair, Matt at Hearback has been very responsive.

They are plenty loud and everyone loves them.

I want to buy some more mixer units, but I'm worried about the reliability.
Steve

[MMazurek]

I have the headphone system and have problems with 2 of the mixers.

Seems like some of the cat5 jacks are a little weird.

Someone moves the unit or cable a tad and they cut out.

You have to fiddle with the cable a little to get them to come back on.

[Ckevperry]

Just got a system to try out. They sound good...the lightpipe feature is VERY cool with PT. The players loved it.....I swear players play more musically when they are in control of their own mix.

No tech problems so far....the price is great for what you get.

Thanks all for the replies!!!

"Are you talking about the unit with the 6 ins/outs for adding talkback to a signal with the 2 way monitor switching? If so I have one and it's ok at best. I come out of a Digi 192 into this to add talkback before going to my headphone amp. FWIW it's noisy and I certainly wouldn't use the monitor path (go digital out to DAC-1 to monitors)."

No. I got the Presonus for this. I did not think there were enough features on the talkback for the price.


"Seems like some of the cat5 jacks are a little weird.
Someone moves the unit or cable a tad and they cut out."

I tried like hell to get my new ones to fuq up like this and could not. I do see how mistreatment could lead to this. I will take precautions. Thanks!


"Matt at Hearback has been very responsive.
They are plenty loud and everyone loves them."

Good to hear. No doubt! They are TOOO LOUD!

"the lightpipe feature is VERY cool with PT. "

With my ADAT out I can run a 128 buffer and NO low-latency mode and the delay is a non-issue. This is nice as I like mixing a little as I track and I need the sends and plugz to be in full effect.

##########################################

As you may already determined, I got both of the pieces mentioned and here is my take on them for all interested.

Hearback monitor system. $750
I was using a Furman system with little black boxes and was able to do a stereo mix OR 2 mono mixes. This system had served me well but, I always hated how noisy it was. AND I always hated asking the talent "is that better?" "Do you need a little more?".
Clearly, I am through with that. I connected this to my ADAT out and proceeded to set up the most wicked monitoring system I have ever experienced. By setting up all my track for multiple outputs. I sent all to 1/2 and then proceeded to set Bass, kick, vox to thier own. Then I set up a stereo of the guitars. This still left one for whom ever is being tracked. This took about 30 seconds. Wow. Then I hooked up the mixer. Right off the bat I was amazed at how much quiter this system is. It sounded great. and the ease in which I had a nice can mix was unbelievable.

Since this system has not really been put through the paces yet with a real session I will wait to comment on its durability. The mixers do appear quite light but, I banged it around listening for cutouts and the such and did not. There is no reason why these units should not last if mounted properly and with the wire secured. I plan on buying dedicated stands for this.

Blue lights baby!!!!

Trying to make 5 people happy with the cans is a thing of the past.
And the price?????Wow. Less than I payed for the crappy Furman system.

Presonus Central station:
Whail it ain't no DAC1, the converters in the CS do improve upon the 001s converters by a million miles. My wife commented on sound when she first heard it, thinking I had tweaked the mix that I had up for set up.
Then you get this great volume knob that tracks way better than the digi. more monitoring inputs...blah,blah, and blah.
You can read about it on the sight.
It feels nice. Has metal jacks. Easy to set up and calibrate.
Feels like I have my console back.


With all this said. These are my 2 favorite points:
1. The hearback has wicked cool blue lights that pulse to the mix. (duh!) and.........
2. I can remove the 001 completely from the front of the rack as the presonus replaced and added to all its features. The 001 has got to be the worst looking piece of gear ever. It is like they gave the flunky that designed the Green series another chance. Ouch!


D

[jho]

We purchased the Hearback system for the church with 6 mixers and made custom 150' cat5 cables to get from the booth to the stage without the lightpipe system. It's been working great without a hitch for 6 months.

I liked it so much I purchased a 4 mixer one for the studio that I've also gigged with live a few times, again, no problems.

One thing about the mixers, they have to be plugged in before you power on the hub. If you unplug them etc then they can act funny. Power down hub, plug in, power up, no problems.

Finally, the 'hearbuds' they are pushing really stink. We are all using Shure E2's and like them much better. You can spend even more but for $65 bucks it's hard to beat E2's.

Well, guys.

did the first session with a band with the hearback monitoring system.

The band LOVED it!!!
So did I!!!!

This would make the first session where I did not hear, "Can I get more me".

I guess they will save that for the mix date. :)

D

[MMazurek]

Also, since my last post...

Emailed Hear Technologies about my connection problems.
They emailed back last weekend (a day later),
called me monday morning,
and arranged new units to be at my studio within 3-4 days.
(I then shipped the faulty units back in their box)

All is well now.

Nice service.

Good to hear.

D

[pigpen]

I am curious about the HP and TB sytem they offer to go with my Shaodw Hills Summing Mixer when it gets here to upgrade my Control 24 monitor section...
Any users care to comment on these?
Thanks
daniel

[Doublehelix]

I am also a huge fan of the Hear Back System, and have been using it for about a year in my studio (one hub and five mixers). Amazing sound quality, easy to use, etc.

Funny thing...LAST NIGHT (no lie!!!), I started having all these problems with the sound cutting out, and the green bus light turning red. Grrrr....

I emailed them yesterday...we'll see what their support is like here.

To be fair, this is the first problem I have had with them, and I always say that they are one of the best purchases I have made for my studio.

[True North]

I will second that vote of approval for the Hearback system. I have a hub and 5 mixers for about 4 months and it is truly a pleasure to use. It is one of least sexiest peices of gear that you will ever buy but it is by far and away one of my favourites!!

I am looking at getting the talkback system soon and all my problems will be over (OK maybe that is a bit of an exageration). No more having to adjust everyones mix, no more having to tell the guitar player to shutup so I can be heard, ahhhhh, serenity now!! .

The only problem is that once you get used to controlling your own monitor mix, it becomes harder and herder to do gigs without them.

[sounddevisor]

Another thumbs-up for the Hearback system. I've been using it for several months now with no problems. Makes life much easier for both me and the artists. So far the mixers seem totally reliable, haven't had any problems with flaky connections.

As an added bonus, the line outs on the mixers have been getting a lot of use for re-amping or feeding aux sends to effects pedals.

-sounddevisor

[rcm]

I just ordered a system this week, so I will chime in when I give it a work out. The design and concept and price point is very cool.

[pigpen]

I just got both the HB and the TB. Hooked up the HB, but the TB is a confusing beast to intgrate....we'll wait a bit on that.
Anyhoot.
I am having a slight latency issue with the headphones...Ideas?
I did it real simple for the night and simply disconnected my old headphone amps and plugged them into the Control 24s AUX outs that fed the old hp amp. Sounds straight forward enough...I dunno.
FWIW, they sound amazing, just gotta work out the kinks.
Thanks
daniel

Can you connect it digitally to remove the extra conversion A/D/A in your path.

This might help with the latency.

I use the ADAT in on mine and have no issues.

D

[pigpen]

Just bought a cable to give it a shot....hopefully that will do it. I actually heard this immediately from a buddy of mine as well.
Thanks
daniel

[True North]

Originally Posted by pigpen

I just got both the HB and the TB. Hooked up the HB, but the TB is a confusing beast to intgrate....we'll wait a bit on that. daniel

I would love to hear some opinions on the talkback, I am looking to make that one of my next investments. As I mentioned above, I am absolutely thrilled with my Hearback system, it really is an outstanding concept and works great.

I play with a guitar player that noodles in between songs, I can't wait to shut him up with the TB system, assuming it work of course.

[mister1970]

My studio is currently wired with CAT5 for the Furman (4mono/1 stereo) system - anybody know if the Hearback system will work with the same wiring? I'd love to be able to upgrade to more flexibility (more channels, panning) without having to rip out the wiring I've already done.

Any experience with this kind of upgrade? Any other systems to recommend?

[sounddevisor]

Mister1970 -

The Hearback system works over Cat5. I think the Furman system you have uses two cables, correct? The Hearback uses a single cable BUT that's a single cable for each mixer, and there's no way to daisy-chain mixers. So if you want (for example) three mixers, you'll need three cable runs from the hub. I'm not sure if it's possible to use an ethernet hub to split the signal, but I may have to experiment with that soon myself.

Each mixer will feed two pairs of headphones (and they get plenty loud!), so if you have, say, 2 ethernet cables currently feeding your tracking room, that should let you hook up two mixers, for four headphone feeds as long as two players can share a mix.

[warhead]

Originally Posted by mister1970

My studio is currently wired with CAT5 for the Furman (4mono/1 stereo) system - anybody know if the Hearback system will work with the same wiring? I'd love to be able to upgrade to more flexibility (more channels, panning) without having to rip out the wiring I've already done.

Any experience with this kind of upgrade? Any other systems to recommend?

If your CAT5 is pin to pin wired (1 to 1, 2 to 2, etc) then you are fine. This is how the Hear stuff is wired up.

War