poor man's monitor level attenuator

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buildafriend

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Joined
Jun 30, 2009
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I really need a monitor attenuator. I blew my yamaha NS-4 tweeters and I have been left dry in my hunt for new tweeters. I am not sure what I could use as replacement tweeters and I don't know if there anything even sufficient as replacements. To remedy my financial and mixing/tracking situation I bought a pair of Auratone C5's. I can not afford to have another loss like this.

The Kush attenuator looks beautiful but $500 is not an option. Is there anything that you know of that I should be looking at?

Thanks in advance for any advice. 
 
To do everything that that 4M does you will spend more $$ and time making an awesome DIY version of it.  Output level matching, headphones output, cue with talkback, etc. all require different circuits that need to be breadboarded and tweaked.  That is not really "poor man".

Poor man would be a $5 100K dual log taper pot from Radio Shack wired as a fader into two mic cables connecting your DAW to the Auratones.  Put it in an Altoids tin to make it fancy.  Cue with a talkback mic can simply be a submix in your DAW.  Add a ART headphone amp for a coffee cup full of begged change.  I have used that pot in many dupe rack monitor systems.  You might go through a few looking for a good L-R match.

For $450 that 4M can get you working and earning.  If your goal is not to earn but to learn how to build something like a 4M, look at the Mackie Big Knob manual.  Take the block diagram, study it, and start eliminating the things you don't need.  It is based on simple op amp circuits that could be DIY'ed with any discreet or IC topology.
 
 

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