Found a good reason to choose Kona over Matrox (hope you are listening matrox!)
by Jason Brown
on
Oct 21, 2009 at 5:12:33 pm
As I was posting in another topic...I picked Matrox over Kona because of the Max technology...I've been VERY pleased with Matrox, encoding is amazingly fast...tech support has been helpful...BUT
My reason to choose Kona over Matrox (this is in a pro setup) - With Matrox, to monitor audio from your MacPro tower...you have to take the mini stereo plug, convert to unbalanced 1/4". In my setup with a ton of wiring...trying to isolate the cable as much as possible...I have buzz in my unbalanced audio.
The KONA allows you to choose that hardware from your system preferences and output your computer's audio through the balanced outputs of the KONA, removing any hum or buzzing.
This is what I've found. Comments? Thoughts?
I've looked into a D/A converter...but they are very costly when you can get the functionality from a I/O card.
Re: Found a good reason to choose Kona over Matrox (hope you are listening matrox!) by Shane Ross on Oct 21, 2009 at 5:28:21 pm
You are taking the audio out from the MacPro and going IN to the Matrox? Or am I reading this wrong?
I take the Mac output and route that to my mixer...that is my MAC output. Then I take the MXO2 audio and ALSO route that to my mixer, that is my FCP audio output. Balanced audio from the MXO2.
Re: Found a good reason to choose Kona over Matrox (hope you are listening matrox!) by Jason Brown on Oct 21, 2009 at 5:40:29 pm
No...
Balanced audio from the MacPro. Internet, music, desktop audio.
I'm taking that to a mixer as well...but it's not balanced and there is a buzz in my audio (it's minor, but there)
This post is not referring to Final Cut at all...just put it in here because I did a lot of research on whether to get Matrox or Kona...and I found a good reason to choose Kona over Matrox. - Balanced audio from MacPro.
Re: Found a good reason to choose Kona over Matrox (hope you are listening matrox!) by Shane Ross on Oct 21, 2009 at 5:47:21 pm
[Jason Brown]"This post is not referring to Final Cut at all...just put it in here because I did a lot of research on whether to get Matrox or Kona...and I found a good reason to choose Kona over Matrox. - Balanced audio from MacPro.
Make sense?"
No...not at all. If this doesn't deal with Final Cut AT ALL, then how on EARTH does the MXO or Kona come in to play? They don't affect the mini port coming out of the Mac at all. Whether or not the MAC PRO delivers balanced audio...how does the CAPTURE CARD affect that?
Re: Found a good reason to choose Kona over Matrox (hope you are listening matrox!) by Jason Brown on Oct 21, 2009 at 5:53:22 pm
[Shane Ross]"Whether or not the MAC PRO delivers balanced audio...how does the CAPTURE CARD affect that? "
Kona is an option in your system pref's from the mac menu as an audio output option - headphones - line out - digital out - Kona is there as well. (from the research I've done) Apparently Black Magic supports output of the audio from the MacPro as well.
Re: Found a good reason to choose Kona over Matrox (hope you are listening matrox!) by Shane Ross on Oct 21, 2009 at 5:57:17 pm
Ah...yes.
But that is HARDLY a reason to choose one over the other...system audio output. That seems like such a minor thing. You'd really spend $1000 more for that option? Or $1400 more for the IO HD if you are on a laptop?
Re: Found a good reason to choose Kona over Matrox (hope you are listening matrox!) by walter biscardi on Oct 21, 2009 at 6:48:46 pm
The Kona shows up in the preferences because it's an internal piece of hardware and the drivers then show up in the System Prefs.
We run all AJA Kona products here in our shop too, but audio monitoring and the ability to switch in the System Prefs is hardly a make or break reason to choose one product over the other.
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Re: Found a good reason to choose Kona over Matrox (hope you are listening matrox!) by Jason Brown on Oct 21, 2009 at 7:01:12 pm
Well...based on my setup and concerns (buzzing in my audio that I hear ALL day long) I would like the option. The Matrox DOES have an internal card that mounts inside...so that point is moot, I would guess that they could include that capability.
Re: Found a good reason to choose Kona over Matrox (hope you are listening matrox!) by Ben Holmes on Oct 21, 2009 at 11:46:33 pm
Again, I'm on the 'not a deal-breaker' side of the fence here, but I do occasionally miss this option when I use the MXO2 with a tower, for example when I want to audition music from a CD or iTunes through speakers (and in a fly-away setup, I usually don't have a mixer, so just rely on the video card output) - I do get this with my Blackmagic Multibridge Pro, which works on the same basis as the MXO2, via a PCI tether - so it would be nice if the Matrox box did this.
However, I would note it's kind of hard to use a Kona LHi with a laptop (where I most often use my MXO2), so the comparison is not very fair...
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Re: Found a good reason to choose Kona over Matrox (hope you are listening matrox!) by David Roth Weiss on Oct 22, 2009 at 6:13:23 am
[Steve Oakley]"actually I'd view it as a benefit - you don't have to worry about some goofy system sound trashing a tape being recorded. "
Apple allows you to toggle system sounds on and off, so there's no benefit to taking a user preference away. It's an oversight by Matrox that they don't give the user the decision just as BM and AJA do. I think Jason is absolutely right.
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Re: Found a good reason to choose Kona over Matrox (hope you are listening matrox!) by Jason Brown on Oct 22, 2009 at 12:31:01 pm
Just going to keep the post going! :)
I never used the words "deal breaker"
I just said that I found a *good reason* in my setup and my desired output to choose one over the other. The Max technology is a good choice to choose Matrox IMHO...but not everyone may use that feature if h264 isn't your destination format.
I basically posted this because I spent a couple weeks researching the two I/O devices and it was down to Matrox vs Kona...I chose Matrox because of the ability to move from Desktop to Laptop...and it was relatively small.
Now that I found this additional feature, I wanted to make everyone (who was researching - like me) aware of another option that Kona offers that Matrox doesn't.
I really didn't think it would be this big of a discussion... :)
Re: Found a good reason to choose Kona over Matrox (hope you are listening matrox!) by Dennis Leppell on Oct 22, 2009 at 2:50:39 pm
Instead of the pissing match of Kona vs. Matrox (both good products by all accounts), let's focus on the root of the problem....buzzing output from the Mac output into the mix board (which is how I also have it setup, with no buzz).
I see 3 possible problems, here's my order of probability.
1) Bad cable and/or cable ends. Swap out and test.
2) Bad/dirty input/outputs. Clean and test.
3) Dirty pot on the mix board. Clean and test.
Re: Found a good reason to choose Kona over Matrox (hope you are listening matrox!) by Jason Brown on Oct 22, 2009 at 2:59:22 pm
You missed 4:
4) Unbalanced audio running to a mixer through a cable running over/under other power/video/audio cables. Running unbalanced audio lines in a pro setup (rack mounted equipment with bundled wiring) is inherently going to have susceptibility to external noise That's what balanced audio is for. I've found people who have none, some, and alot of noise in this same connection.
All the equipment is new. New MacPro - New mixer - New cables...not to say that new equipment can't have issues, but it's not the connections.
