[LAU] PreSonus AudioBox 1818VSL

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Wed, 21 Dec 2016 21:44:01 +0000, Fons Adriaensen wrote:
>On Wed, Dec 21, 2016 at 01:56:41PM -0600, Brent Busby wrote:
>
>> Apart from the Linux compatibility aspects, how do you like the
>> sound of it?  I just got a Presonus Monitor Station v2 to control my
>> monitors, and I'm still troubleshooting to make sure it's the
>> Monitor Station's fault, but I'm noticing some disappointing
>> coloration of the sound. Since this is the first piece of Presonus
>> gear I've ever bought, I'm wondering what others are experiencing
>> with it.  
>
>If 'coloration' refers to some non-ideal frequency response,
>that's easy to verify by measurement. 

IMO even by a measurement the problem to form an opinion what
kind of bias is ok for home recording or a small local radio station
etc. would remain. With some kind of bias, caused by prosumer
equipment, it's still possible to do professional mixing, with a little
bit of imagination, but some other bias might make professional mixing
impossible. The problem usually is, that we have a chain of
non-professional equipment. As long as we are used to this chain of
biasing gear, we might be able to compensate it by experience, but as
soon as we replace parts of the chain too often, it becomes tricky. I
doubt that a measurement is very helpful. I suspect that most, if not
all gear in this price range bias the sound in a borderline way. I
guess by a measurement it at least would be very hard to decide, if the
colouration is still on the "ok side" of the border or on the "useless
side". I've got no doubts that the Presonus Monitor Station v2 as well
as the PreSonus AudioBox 1818VSL have pitfalls. For the AudioBox
the series resistor of the blue phantom power LEDs is to low. If LEDs
are floodlight, then I expect such mistakes for the audio circuits,
too. Perhaps here and there a coupling capacitor is missing or
something similar. Both devices cost around 300 bucks. Without doubts a
measurement does shoe issues, but a measurement doesn't show how much
impact it has got within the chain of equipment.

YMMV!

On Wed, 21 Dec 2016 16:02:49 -0500, Joe Hartley wrote:
>On Wed, 21 Dec 2016 21:58:15 +0100 Ralf Mardorf wrote:
>> At next I'll test...  
>
>That's one of the nicest ASCII diagrams I've seen in a long time!
>I especially liked the headphones:
>
>> │          WC out│────┬>│WC in                │      │ Headphones │
>> └────────────────┘    │ └─────────────────────┘      └──────┬─────┘
>>                       │ ┌────────────┐                      │
>>                       └>│75Ω resistor│                     ╔╧╗    
>>                         └────────────┘                     ▌ ▐

Maybe those are Pacman's headphones :D.

Regards,
Ralf