Audio monitoring solutions can be found in the Redbox range of audio interfaces from Sonifex. As well as two analogue headphone amplifiers - the RB-HD1 single remoteable headphone amplifier and the RB-HD6 6 way headphone distribution amplifier, a new digital headphone amplifier has been released.
The RB-DHD6 Digital 6 Way Headphone Distribution Amplifier is a 1U rack-mount which receives a digital input signal, as either AES/EBU or S/PDIF and converts it to 6 individually buffered, ¼” (6.35mm) jack-plug, headphone outputs, each with their own volume control.
With the increasing prevalence of digital mixing desks in the studio, a means of headphone monitoring digitally is needed to realize the high audio quality inherent in the digital mixer. The RB-DHD6 was designed to connect directly to digital mixing desks, digital routers and matrices, using the AES/EBU or S/PDIF output to provide the highest quality audio directly to the headphones.
The input connectors consist of a single balanced XLR-3 for the AES/EBU input and a single unbalanced phono connector for the S/PDIF input. A button located on the rear panel is used to select either the AES/EBU, or S/PDIF, input and de-emphasis on the output can be controlled via dipswitch. If de-emphasis is On the RB-DHD6 will decode 50/15µs emphasis when indicated by certain channel status bits in the incoming digital audio data. When operating, the front panel power LED flashes red and amber whenever the unit is not synchronised to the incoming digital signal.
