SOUND ON SOUND

[dickiefunk]

Thanks Hugh. I've been busy trying your suggestions and have also been speaking to both Eve Audio and Focusrite tech support (who have both been extremely helpful :clap: ).

1/ When I bypass the sub and plug the Focusrite Saffire directly into the KH120's I'm getting roughly 50% more output with no increase in hiss. However, when I turn the Saffire's master volume up beyond 50% I get an increase in hiss (like when turning the System Volume up on the EVE TS108 sub beyond 50%).

2/ If I plug into the EVE TS108 before the KH120's and have both the Focusrite master volume set to 50% and System Volume of the EVE set at 50% I get no increase in hiss but the overall volume is 50% lower. However, now if I increase the Focusrite's master volume to 100% I'm not getting an increase in hiss this time and am getting the same output level as when plugging the Focusrite (master volume set at 50%) directly into the KH120's :thumbup:

There doesn't seem to be a fault just the gain staging has changed :?:

[dickiefunk]

I also bought SOS yesterday and read the Focal Shape Twin's review and it does look very good and was a very interesting read. However, I'm not sure it's really going to be much if any of an upgrade over my KH120/Eve TS108 setup?

Really I'd love something like the Unity Audio Super Rock's, Rock mkIIIDSP or Neumann KH310 but those cost more than my current monitoring setup!

[Hugh Robjohns]

When I bypass the sub and plug the Focusrite Saffire directly into the KH120's I'm getting roughly 50% more output with no increase in hiss.

This suggests that the sub is attenuating the signal (obviously) and is the main source of hiss...

However, when I turn the Saffire's master volume up beyond 50% I get an increase in hiss

If you raise the gain of the whole system you will be more aware of the quiescent background hiss -- what's important is the signal-to-noise ratio... and to ascertain that you need to work with a constant acoustic output level. The test you've described is not that helpful and quite misleading I fear.

2/ If I plug into the EVE TS108 before the KH120's and have both the Focusrite master volume set to 50% and System Volume of the EVE set at 50% I get no increase in hiss but the overall volume is 50% lower. However, now if I increase the Focusrite's master volume to 100% I'm not getting an increase in hiss this time and am getting the same output level as when plugging the Focusrite (master volume set at 50%) directly into the KH120's :thumbup:

There doesn't seem to be a fault just the gain staging has changed :?:

As I said earlier, optimising the gain staging is key....

H