monitor system: hear technologies "hearback" VS Furman hds-6

[lowswing]

I'm looking for a cue monitor system for my new studio and these 2 products seem to fit my needs and are also in the price class i can afford.
any input is appreciated on the hear technologies-" hear back" or Furman's hds-6/hr-6 system.
how they compare sonically? which is easier to use and install in the studio (i will need it for studio work ONLY)?
the hearback seems to have more option but it seems to be more complicate to hook-up (i cann't use the digital in) and looks less professional built, am i wrong?
thanks

[8thnote]

I use the Furman unit and have had very good results. Hookup was out control room to barrier strips and I used cat5 cable and spades to hook it up at this point. This is very simple. At the wall mounts, I used cat5 wall mounted dual wall plates and the cat5 crimp style plugs and I have 4 outlet locations around my room. The only issue I have had is noisy pots but other than that have used it for over 5 years and it has worked flawlessly.

[Doublehelix]

I have the Hearback System, and it is amazing! I am not sure why you think it looks less professional.

The hookup is quite easy, Cat5 cabling from the hub to each individual mixer. You do not daisy chain, each mixer gets it's own cable.

You can also send it a digitial signal (8 channels of ADAT) or analog, and can daisy chain the hub units for unlimited (relatively speaking, of course!) expansion.

Quality is great, and the amps are plenty loud, even for out-of-control drummers!

I originally had the Furman system hub, but sold it before I actually got it installed. I am sure it works just fine as well, but the Hear Back system seems to be more flexible and powerful (more channels, etc.).

I have mine set up as:

Channels 1 & 2) Main mix and talkback
Channel 3) Guitars
4) Vox
5) Bass
6) Drums
7) Keys/Misc
8) Click Track


Now that I have had mine for a couple of years, I couldn't imagine living without it.

And as an aside, the folks at Hear Technologies are GREAT! Awesome customer service. I had a weird noise coming out of my hub when first powering up after it was about a year old. Nothing too major, but it bugged me. Everything was fine after about 10 seconds, but still...

I contacted Hear Technologies... Lifetime warranty, and they sent me another hub without asking for the old one back until I got the new one!!! That way I was never out of commission! GREAT SERVICE!!! They even paid for shipping... BOTH WAYS!!!

Hear Back rocks!!! One of the best purchases I have ever made for the studio that does not (directly) effect the sound.

You gotta get one!!!

[lowswing]

thanks for the replies.
my only concern with the Hearback is that it doesn't allow you to daisy-chain the mixers thats means in my set-up: 1) that the hub have to be in the live room and be fed with analog ins from the stagebox (which means a lot of cables around ) or 2) the hub is in the control room and i build a 8 female cat5 stage box in both control and live rooms to reach the mixers, which sounds a bit like a problem to me.
how did you solve the connection problem?

[denial]

Originally Posted by lowswing

thanks for the replies.
my only concern with the Hearback is that it doesn't allow you to daisy-chain the mixers thats means in my set-up: 1) that the hub have to be in the live room and be fed with analog ins from the stagebox (which means a lot of cables around ) or 2) the hub is in the control room and i build a 8 female cat5 stage box in both control and live rooms to reach the mixers, which sounds a bit like a problem to me.
how did you solve the connection problem?

Have you considered putting the hub in the control room and use a Cat5e patchbay. In other words you would connect the eight Cat5e Hub outputs to the Cat5e patchbay and also run all your Cat5e cables from all the studios back to the same Cat5e patchbay and then just use short Cat5e patch cables to move signals around to the mixers.

This is what we have done and it works great and is flexible.

It's also a good idea to download the manual and look at some of the other configurations.

[lowswing]

Originally Posted by denial

Have you considered putting the hub in the control room and use a Cat5e patchbay. In other words you would connect the eight Cat5e Hub outputs to the Cat5e patchbay and also run all your Cat5e cables from all the studios back to the same Cat5e patchbay and then just use short Cat5e patch cables to move signals around to the mixers.

This is what we have done and it works great and is flexible.

It's also a good idea to download the manual and look at some of the other configurations.

where can i find cat5e patchbay? do you have a link?
thanks