Non-mando: direct box or personal monitor mixer?

[SincereCorgi]

Hi folks, sorry for the non-mando content, but people here are usually pretty savvy and I figure it's worth a shot-

Late at night, when sensible people are sleeping, I practice piano on a nice Nord stage keyboard that has a headphones Out in addition to the regular 1/4" Outs. I want to be able to play along with a metronome (headphones Out) or discman/iPod (headphones Out), with both the keyboard and other sound source coming out of the same pair of headphones (because it's late at night and I want to be able to play along with recordings, natch).

Can anybody recommend a good little direct box or personal monitor or something for this purpose? I tried a little mixer, but it's not built for the power levels of headphone signals (which need to be boosted, apparently?). I could probably work this by plugging the keyboard into my laptop with a USB preamp, but that's kind of a hassle and I was hoping for something smaller and less of a nightly chore.

I hope that wasn't too confusing (I only know enough about audio technology to get myself into trouble). Thanks in advance for any advice,
Trevor

[Tim2723]

Trevor, a small mixer is the right tool, perhaps the problem is in the application. What mixer are you using? If it's one of those simple four channel line mixers with a 9v battery, it probably won't drive headphones directly. You might need something like this:

http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/product/Behringer-EURORACK-UB802-Mixer?sku=631238

Send your piano through channel 1 and the iPod/metronome/CD player through channel 2, with appropriate connectors.


My iPod's output will drive a pair of earbuds, but not a set of headphones. That might be a problem too. The iPod's output has to go into an actual amplifier circuit and be boosted, not just be re-routed to a set of phones. I suspect the same is true for your metronome. These sorts of widgets often just don't have enough output 'oomph' to make it through heavy cables and multiple connectors where signals get degraded.

[Ray(T)]

I bought one of these - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Vox-amPlug-Acoustic-Simulator-headphone/dp/B002PHVAQY/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&s=musical-instruments&qid=1279637083&sr=8-6 - to practice bass and it would probably be OK for what you need. You could plug the gismo into the keyboard and plug the metronome/iPod into the aux socket on the side of the gismo. QED!

[mando.player]

Something like this (http://www.audiomidi.com/Minimon-MON800-P8130.aspx) should do the trick. 3 Inputs, 3 Speaker Output (you didn't state a need for this) and a headphone out. I've got the Samson version of this and it works very well. It's a little neater than a traditional mixer and would probably sit nicely on top of your digital piano

[mandroid]

So you have several things all with headphone outputs in common, but no other way to inter connect them to mix down to one pair of headphones.?

Is this an 8 ohm headphone output in each case..

[SincereCorgi]

Thanks for the very good advice everybody- I already had one of those little Vox headphone amps, and that seems to be doing the trick (nice and small, too). Thanks, Ray! The only downside is that I lose out on the stereo aspect- presumably that little mixer you put up would do that Charlie? Does 'mixable' stereo inputs mean you can have both headphone type signals as well as 'standard' unamplified signals?

[mando.player]

The MON800 has 4 stereo inputs, 2 RCA type and 2 1/4" type. I'd run the iPod into on of the RCA sets (this should be a standard cable) and the digital piano into either the 1/4" or RCA.

My setup for the Samson version of this at home is a Macbook (headphone out), Digitech RP500 (line level out) and a hanging line level cable for attaching various devices. I have one set of amplified speakers (M-Audio SP-8B) that do the majority of the work and a set of Sony headphones (MDR-7506). Everything plays nicely with each other. Since the Samson isn't really high end gear, my assumption is the Beringher version will probably perform in a similar fashion.