A praised name in monitor control renders an impressive
active design
The McONE Active is a 10.25" x
6" x 3.25" slanted desktop device that weighs shy of 4 lbs. It
is finished in a white/cream color with black lettering and is capped on each end
by thick wood side panels. If your studio furniture is contemporary and you love to use vintage gear, putting McONE Active in the studio looks
like a cross between classic and fashion. It is like a custom-made art thing for you.
This beautiful-looking and beautiful-sounding box is well featured, well built, and fills the mid-level price range well.
Overview A great balance of simplicity and features It starts with a pair of 3-position rotary switches marked
A / B / C. The top switch is labeled Input and the bottom control is the Cue
Select. You can send one of three input sources—like your DAW output, a
console’s monitor mix, or a portable music player—to a pair of selected studio
monitors, as well as to the Cue output, which in turn can feed a headphone
distributor or a set of tracking room speakers. A similar 3-position Output switch
selects one of three speaker outputs. Four black latching pushbuttons are next, marked: Mono, Dim (–17 dB), Mute, and Sub (a stereo subwoofer out). Volume control is handled by a large black knob which uses a high quality Alps pot. It is super smooth yet nicely resistant and feels fantastic. Headphone volume control for the headphone output (on the rear), a top mounted power button and lastly a red momentary push button for talkback, with a small built-in microphone located just above the button. When talkback is engaged, the unit automatically dims and the talkback signal is routed to the Cue outputs.
All inputs and outputs are located on the back in the form of balanced 1/4" TRS sockets. As per the controls above, there are 3 input pairs, 3 speaker output pairs, and a stereo Cue out. There are also a pair for the stereo Subwoofer output, and a single TRS headphone out. See the sidebar for a short list of relevant specs. Simple to hook up and operation in use Headphones and talkback The headphone output is clear and offers plenty of solid gain. However, the headphone signal is a mirror of the selected input, and you can’t hear the talkback mic in it. That makes it suitable for the engineer in the control room but not for the talent in the tracking room. From a workflow standpoint, The McONE Active is designed so the stereo Cue output feeds a headphone distribution amp or in-ear monitor setup, and the talkback mic does route to the Cue sends. This makes sense and I completely understand why it was designed this way. However, the headphone outs on every other monitor controller I have owned or reviewed usually include the talkback mic in the headphone out mix. I only mention this because it’s not uncommon to track artists in the control room, and it can also be a bit disorienting to not hear one’s own voice in the headphones when giving direction to the talent. Speaking of (or better yet, into) the talkback mic, its gain is settable via a control on the bottom of the unit, and mine came preset at a level that I found both adequate and appropriate. More importantly, you have probably read reviews of monitor controllers and computer interfaces with built-in talkback mics where the reviewer usually uses kind words like “usable”. In other words, most of them are functional, but often tinny-sounding, slightly distorted, and/or distant. The talkback mic on the McONE Active goes well beyond “usable”—it’s the nicest, fullest, clearest, and warmest talkback mic I have ever heard!
The extra switchable
stereo sub output and 3 sets of speaker outputs The extra switchable stereo sub output
is a great addition. When many studios have two sets of nearfields, or near and
midfields, as well as a third set of real-world check speakers, McONE with 3 sets of speaker outputs just
a perfect fit for you. The ability to mute the left and right speakers individually McONE allows you to do mono mix checks
on a single speaker. A phase reverse feature This would be handy for checking phase
issues. Highlights Simple Input Switching Features
Specifications
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