A/B Testing .... Something that may help

[ciamara]

So, I have been going on about A/B testing equipment in various threads. I demo different sets of speakers sometimes. And soon, I want to compare a series of different DACs. I found a passive switcher that might interest some of you. It is passive, so there is no gain stage to reduce the quality of the signal. It uses TRS inputs/outputs (1/4 balanced; TRS = tip, ring, sleeve), so if you don't have a ton of TRS to XLR cables lying around like I do, you might have to get those. It is made by Coleman, and they are a good company -- certainly, they are respected in the pro world for being transparent.

 

http://www.mercenary.com/colaudls3lin.html

 

[DSD_mastering]

Here's what I use. It has 3 analogue in/out and 3 digital in. Each input can be level matched .25dB

With 6 inputs at your fingertips and all Discrete Class-A circuitry, this unit is in a lot of mastering rooms.

It also has mono/phase and other goodies. We have the surround ver.

 

http://www.mercenary.com/crsoav.html

 

 

Regards,

 

[ciamara]

The Avocet is a very nice piece of equipment. Probably overkill for our needs -- we are merely trying to avoid fiddling around with cables to make it easy to switch sources or speaker systems. I used to have an SPL MTC 2381 for my project studio, but ended up selling it along with a lot of other gear. Perhaps I should have held onto it!

 

Would a balanced patch bay work too? At most, we'll compare 3 sets of speakers (i.e. "monitoring systems). It would be nice to be able to switch between 4 source inputs. Any views one way or another on Coleman gear?