Questions & Answers

Hearing sound through monitors when main turned all the way down. No mute button on Quantum 2.

+1 vote
1,104 views
asked May 21, 2020 in Thunderbolt - Quantum by Xavier Ortiz (480 points)
When I turn down the main on Quantum 2 I can still hear sound coming out the monitors, which is a problem since I record right next to it. All the reading I have done has referred to a mute button on other units, but this unit has no mute button on interface or in Universal Control. This seems to be a recent problem for me, and I'm pretty sure that it wasn't happening before. I got unit in Oct and have recorded a handful of songs and either it wasn't a problem or I didn't notice. I have read on the Sweetwater site several people complaining about this issue, I really hope there is a solution.

3 Answers

0 votes
answered May 26, 2020 by davehamilton1 (150 points)
I'm also having this problem on a (brand new) Quantum 2626, as well. Turning the Main or Headphone outputs all the way down results in lots of sound still coming out of the devices. Seems very bizarre to me. I've submitted s support ticket.
0 votes
answered May 27, 2020 by anthonycervantez (400 points)
Ive been waiting for an answer from Presonus for a total of 10 Days now. Honestly, its to the point that other online forums like Gearslutz are seeing and talking about this stuff. I don't understand how they can have such shoddy support, even with a company as notorious as Microsoft will make you pay to get a repair done, they get it done and confirmed within 4 days.

Presonus get your stuff together, don't make your support tickets wait without no explanation. If you're having your staff code new firmware or drivers, then tell your customers. Simple as that. Your products are worthless to me if your service can't even do something as simple as a text reply.
0 votes
answered May 29, 2020 by Xavier Ortiz (480 points)
edited May 29, 2020 by Xavier Ortiz

Thanks for your responses. I did get a response from Presonus after submitting a ticket. It took about 3 business days. Here is the response:

Thank you for contacting PreSonus.
Please understand that the Main Volume Dial is not designed to turn "off" when you adjust all the way to the left.
It has a range of -80 db to 0db or (unity)
You have to dial things in to a comfortable listening level.

Please refer to this article for doing this.
https://www.presonus.com/learn/technical-articles/Getting-Started-With-Gain-Staging

Butch Richard
Dealer/Rep RA Support
Technical Support Lead

While I was waiting for this pithy response I went through every response in this section in case I missed something and I came across this:

https://answers.presonus.com/23648/main-output-volume

Which discusses calibrating your studio monitors. I am new to having actual professional studio monitors so I hadn't done this before. I did try to adjust the volume on them before but it seemed liked I still had to turn them way down to eliminate all sound when Quantum was turned all the way down to -80dB. Also the studio monitors at that level worked just fine with my previous Firestudio Mobile.

It's worth it to download the Studio One software that comes free with your Quantum and use it to generate the pink noise. Instead of looking around for a pink noise VST for your DAW. I also downloaded Decibel X on iPhone for SPL meter which you can set weighting to C and response to slow.

Big question is what to set the main of the Quantum at, as according to Butch's response above, unity is turned all the way up? So I played around with it and if I tried to get 78-80 dB SPL out of my monitors with the Quantum turned all the way up then I would still get sound leaking when I turned it all the way down. I ended up settling for 73 dB SPL with Quantum turned all the way up to 0 dBfs and my monitors set to 5 out of 10. Now comfortable listening is at about 2:00 on Quantum and loud listen is between 3-4:00.

Beware when setting you levels! Remember to turn down your Quantum when you are ready to test your sound, or you will blast your ears and **** in your pants.

So the question is, what if I need these monitors in a bigger space and need to turn them up. Will I have sound leaking? Also, why don't they just have a mute button, even if it is just in the UC software???

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