New monitor controller: Presonus Monitor Station V2

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miyaru
Posts: 624
Joined: 28 Oct 2019
Location: Zaanstad, The Netherlands

12 Oct 2021

I just bought a new monitor controller as my old became bad in time. I had a cheap ESI passive controller. Now I bought the Presonus Monitor Station V2.

It has two sets of TSR stereo inputs, One S/P Dif coaxial input and aux Unbalanced RCA/ 1/8 inch stereo input. You can connect three sets of monitors and four headphones. The monitor outs have adjusments pots, so you can equal the volume of each set of speaker to each other.

On the headphone side you can choose either the main source or selectable cue source. Volume is adjustable per headphone out.

Of course there are dim, mono, mute and talkback buttons. An back electret mic is in internal for talkback functions. If you press talkback shortly it acts like on/off, if you hold it longer it acts like momentary switch, whereby dim is automaticly engaged. The dim and talkback functions have a potentiometer to adjust the levels of it.

All main connctors are on balanced TSR 1/4 inch jacks.

The unit has a dedicated powersupply and happily enough an on/off switch.

In terms of soundquality: for my homestudio it might be overkill, but I like the way it sounds nutral and natural. I have a small room to work in, and fairly large monitors - Presonus Eris E8 with 8 inch woofers. Not so long ago, I also bought the ISO Acoustics ISO 200 monitor stands, and man what a difference it made compared to the Auralex MoPads Foam pads! Now with the new controller my sound is as best it can get for a budget homestudio.

As I use use a Focusrite Scarlet 18i20 3rd gen audio interface - I have five stereo outputs. The first two pairs are used for stereo 1 (DAW only) and stereo 2 (DAW plus all my connected instruments/mics). So while tracking, I select stereo 2 on the controller to hear directly without latency what I'm recording, and for listening back and mixing I use stereo 1 to only hear the sound of the DAW.

All in all it set me back € 275,= for the Presonus Monitor Station V2, and € 159,= for the ISO Acoustics ISO 200 monitor stands.

Verdict: The presonus is a good choice for budget concious homestudio owners, and the ISO Acoustics ISO 200 stands are much better then foam pads!
Greetings from Miyaru.
Prodaw i7-7700, 16Gb Ram, Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 3rd gen, ESI M4U eX, Reason12, Live Suit 10, Push2, Presonus Eris E8 and Monitor Station V2, Lexicon MPX1,
Korg N1, Yamaha RM1x :thumbup:

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mcatalao
Competition Winner
Posts: 1824
Joined: 17 Jan 2015

13 Oct 2021

Good choice.

I have a central station with the controller, and it is the center of my studio, used every single day.
I end up outsourcing the headphone control to a Behringer headphone amp (the central station only has 2 phone outputs and no balance whereas the Behringer has balance per output, plus with the aux input, I can make a monitoring mix when people come recording...) but the DAC is pristine (actually i bought it because I knew a master engineer that raved about it's dac!).

Monitor Station V2 seems to be a great solution on a budget and if it is as reliable as my central station then... man that's really cheap! The central station was twice that and the controller cost 150 € more (got a b-stock one with a little scratch on the front plate!! I put a little presonus sticker on it and nobody notices it! Even I almost forgot it!!!)

Anyway, congratulations on the buy!

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selig
RE Developer
Posts: 11685
Joined: 15 Jan 2015
Location: The NorthWoods, CT, USA

13 Oct 2021

I’ve had my Central Station in service daily for almost 20 years now. This looks like a more affordable but full featured alternative! Congrats, good review too!
Selig Audio, LLC

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mcatalao
Competition Winner
Posts: 1824
Joined: 17 Jan 2015

13 Oct 2021

selig wrote:
13 Oct 2021
I’ve had my Central Station in service daily for almost 20 years now. This looks like a more affordable but full featured alternative! Congrats, good review too!
Yep, mine's about 12+ years and going strong too!

User avatar
miyaru
Posts: 624
Joined: 28 Oct 2019
Location: Zaanstad, The Netherlands

13 Oct 2021

Thanx guys!!!!
Greetings from Miyaru.
Prodaw i7-7700, 16Gb Ram, Focusrite Scarlett 18i20 3rd gen, ESI M4U eX, Reason12, Live Suit 10, Push2, Presonus Eris E8 and Monitor Station V2, Lexicon MPX1,
Korg N1, Yamaha RM1x :thumbup:

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