Quad Cortex EQ difference between XLR and Headphone Output

Quad Cortex
21

Hi. I don’t have a QC but am interested in this topic. I get a similar experience (with my church) when using the NDSP plugins - headphones on my interface sound different to actual TRS → XLR output out the back of the interface - I always put this down to EQ difference in headphones vs speakers, but it’s a big enough difference that I don’t play with headphones because the sound feels dramatically different to me.

I wonder if a valid test would be plugging into your PA/speakers via the headphone jack with something like a TRS to XLR cable to do the conversion, and see if you get any notable difference - that feels like it would prove whether an EQ or tonal difference is happening for audio routed that way, or whether you are just experiencing a native EQ diff with your cans. You could compare that to coming from one of the TRS outputs on the QC also if you wanted to use the same cable. Just thought it might be worth a mention

Cheers

2 Likes
22

Hi, I’m having the exact same issue. Only difference is that I play through the aux input of a 2.1 speaker system at home. Sounds amazing. Great thru headphones too. But at church, with XLR out to FOH it sounds terrible. Thin tone, delays sound muted and overdrives cold and harsh. I’ve tried everything live from adjusting the input gain to changing the phase on the mix. Next I’m going to try to plug into the 3 and 4 outputs instead of XLR to see if there’s any difference. Any updates from you guys?

1 Like
23

I’m having the same experience, and after a lot (months) of checking and tests, I am absolutely certain (and resigned) that the sonic EQ quality of the sound signal coming out from the QC headphone’s output is different (more smooth, soft and balanced) than the line outputs 1/2 (XLR) and 3/4 (TRS).

So far, my compromise solution, has been to adjust the mixer EQ curve of the guitar track signal originating from the QC line outputs, so as to replicate (as much as possible) the sonic quality of the signal I hear from the direct QC headphone output (by using IEMs)… and comparing it with the AUX headphone signal coming from the mixer (using the same IEMs).