Qu16 compatible monitors

[danieldlds]

Hello all,

I am totally new to this mixing business. I have a Qu16, and need to get a couple of monitors. (For now I am using the headphone jack). Do the monitors have to be active, or passive ?

Many thanks

[David]

The monitors need to powered in someway either by being powered or run from an amp.

[MarkPAman]

Hi Dan

The Qu-16 (and all other the Qu mixers) does not have amplifiers for any speakers/monitors built in, so you will need to buy an amp with your speaker.

This could either be built into the speakers, or a separate unit. As you’re new to this, I’d suggest that powered speakers with the amps built in are the best way to go, as the manufacture will have done all the calculations of amp size & impedance matching for you, as well as doing some of the wiring too.

[old git rant]
The terms “active” & “passive” certainly used to mean something different to “powered” and “unpowered”. Unfortunately many manufacturers now use these terms (wrongly IMO) for speakers with & without built in amps, so it’s widely accepted these days – but “powered” is slightly less ambiguous. [/old git rant]

[JohnK]

To add to the reply — mixers generally don’t supply speaker power unless they are specifically noted as being “powered mixers”, of which there are a few, but not the norm.

Most outputs on the mizer have voltage/signal at “line level” which is appropriate to input into a powered speaker or amplifier input. Headphone jacks are meant for driving low impedance (ohms) devices like headphones, but they may still work for supplying signal to an amp or powered speaker. I suggest you read up on headphone vs line level on the web … there’s a ton of great info out there.

— John

[danieldlds]

Thanks for the info and advice !

Cheers

[Bramasole]

Hi,

I’m also relatively new to mixing ( 2 years ) but don’t make the mistake I did, I bought a QU-24, relatively good mics ( Shure SM58s ) albeit dynamic mics, and cheap powered speakers with one speaker with an amp, powering the other passive speaker

The most critical components in any mixing/recording setup is the interfaces between electronics and sound. i.e. Mics and Speakers. I recently purchased a couple of JBL 308’s. Over three times the price of my originals and with am amp in each speaker. Our sound went from amateur to professional in an instant. I’m now saving up for a top end condenser mic, again 3or 4 times the price of the SM58’s. But I know it will be worth every penny. Good luck.

P.S. I’ll use the condenser mic for recording my guitar since, even top quality acoustic guitar pickups ( i.e. L R Baggs ) and DI Boxes do no credit to your guitar sound.

[cornelius78]

@Bramasole
That only applies up to a point, and then you get diminishing returns. Don’t forget the quality of the source material (if the musician is off key, out of time, has bad mic technique, a poorly tuned instrument etc there’s only so much you can do,) the room acoustics, the importance of having a decent power supply, speaker and mic placement, proper gain structure, having an engineer who knows what he’s doing, and is ideally familiar with the music etc. Just sinking money into more expensive transducers and expecting quality to jump from amateur to professional won’t necessarily work if the above considerations haven’t been addressed.

[Dave]

^^^ 100% what that guy said.

For convenience i would go with powered monitors. The JBL’s referenced above i would still consider entry level, but should do the job fine. Anything else below that price point i wouldn’t expect much from. Yamaha, KRK, Presonus, etc all have options around that price point.

[Author]

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