Samson Technologies C-Que 8

Its cheap and it works great, but it seems to color the signal somewhat. When running the cans through the 003 rack and then switching over to the Samson its like something’s missing. It doesn't seem to have the same depth as the 003. I know we are talking about $1200 equipment to $100 equipment, but I use the 003 for headphone monitoring and use the Samson for people are tracking in the studio. Its a great tool for tracking and being able to run 8 headphones off of this thing is great. It's 4 channel, but you got 4 outs on front and 4 on back. There is only one pair of ins so only one mix can be sent to all the cans mono or stereo.

They have eight outputs each. If you buy the optional rack mount unit you can fit two of them side by side in one rack space, and they can be daisy-chained indefinitely. That gave me 32 stereo outs in just 2 rack spaces! Doesn't sound AMAZING, but for the price, and what I imagine most people need, it's great.




Overall, It can drive any older studio phones (like the AKG 240s) and Wal-Mart Fodder (50 ohm Koss things). Its easy enough for any client to use in a recording booth too. No frills. But good sound. Here is something else that is important too: It can accept the hot levels that the Digidesign 192 IO can spit out. Many headphone amps cannot accept such a hot signal and they distort from the get go (only way around it is to solder 10db pads). So if you're looking for a little addition to your HD setup, this will give you clean volume for days. Once again you wont get 1000 dollar quality if you are only spending 100. But this will get your pretty close to that top quality for a very low price!

I use it for a week, the elements of comparison I have my headphones amps Presonus Firebox cards and M-Audio ProFire 610.
My Firebox has blown, and the headphone amplifier is the ProFire quality but of insufficient power. So I was looking for a headphone amp at half-rack (space issue), with a gain powerful AND .... SWITCH! Yes, I do not understand that does not put a switch on this type of device, I think Art or the Presonus HP4 notament.
Turning to the performance of this little box:
-The sound quality is pretty average.
-The switch to change the equa really is a gimmick.
-The gain is there, we can saturate any headphones but you hear a rapid distortion very unpleasant when you mount the volume pot.
-Finally, because I keep the worst for last, the balance is distorted! If you put the pan in the middle, you end up with a sound shifted to the left ... Obliged to send a mono signal and turn the pan right to clear and focus the sound. Me, I had set my pan to 3 hours. And no, it's not my right ear is fucked, I do not have that problem with my headphone amp ProFire.

Conclusion: If I had to redo the choice, I think I would take this one anyway. I do not have 200 euros to put in a headphone amp and the only one that matched the features I expected. In addition, I do not use it to mix but to have a powerful headphone back when I catch, so the average sound quality, it passes.