Like many, I’ve grown increasingly comfortable working on headphones ever since the COVID lockdown – to the point that even when mixing and mastering commercial projects in my studio, I often spend long stretches working exclusively on headphones. Because of this, I’ve become quite critical of both headphones and headphone amplifiers, so I was excited to learn about Elysia’s release of the xpector.
The xpector is part of Elysia’s excellent line of qube series processors, which includes preamps, compressors, equalizers, saturation units, and transient shapers. It’s designed as a tabletop, two-space-wide 500 Series module-sized unit. However, unlike other qube products (due to its abundant audio connections and higher power consumption), the xpector comes in its own chassis and doesn’t fit in a standard 500 Series rack. The xpector isn’t simply a headphone amp; it’s also a monitor controller with dual headphone amps for engineers and talent and is capable of supporting a pair of monitors.
Elysia never shies away from lots of knobs on their gear (the Alpha Compressor sports 22!), so I wasn’t surprised to see ten knobs on the xpector’s front panel. The layout is divided into two columns: one for the Engineer’s controls and one for the Artist’s cue mix. The rear panel connections include a power input fed by a high-current DC wall wart supply, plus stereo TRS jacks for Direct In, Direct Out, DAW In, and DAW Out. There are two stereo 1/4-inch headphone outputs labeled Engineer and Artist, and two XLR outputs designed for monitor connection. The Direct and DAW output jacks allow for loop-through, or daisy-chaining to other devices, such as another xpector, an audio interface, a console, or a separate monitor controller. As with all Elysia products, the xpector’s front panel features easy-to-read white labeling on a dark blue background with buttons that light red when pushed and otherwise glow soft white. Front panel connections include one 1/4-inch headphone jack for the engineer and one for the artist.
The Engineer’s section includes controls for (output) Level, DAW level, Direct level, Trim (a feature I’ll explain shortly), and Mode selection. The Mode knob switches between stereo, mono, sides-only, left-only, and right-only, providing valuable monitoring options right at your fingertips. The Artist’s section includes controls for (master) Level, DAW level, Direct level, Low Shelf boost/cut, and High Shelf boost/cut. The Engineer and Artist sections both feature independent Mute buttons. Two additional buttons, labeled Swap and Speaker, interact with the Engineer section’s Trim control. Pressing the Speaker button redirects the Engineer section’s signal from the headphone output to the rear monitor outputs. The Trim control offsets any volume difference between headphone and speaker outputs, ensuring consistent levels when switching between the two. The Swap button allows the Trim control to adjust either the headphone or speaker output – a welcome feature.
This unit is more sophisticated than a typical headphone amp. It contains two separate amplifiers, and both the front and rear panel headphone jacks are always active, ensuring ample power for both the Engineer and Artist sections. Any input can be stereo or mono. The Direct inputs can be used to mix a microphone signal with the DAW signal, but they also support more complex setups. For example, in a tracking scenario, the DAW input could contain the stereo music mix while the Direct Input could be fed a second DAW output with a click track, guide track, or even audio from a studio TV. This flexibility makes it an excellent tool for professional setups.
The xpector delivers excellent sound quality. I keep the headphone amp level full up and use my monitor controller to adjust the signal sent to the amp. Even at maximum levels, the xpector remains dead silent and easily powers challenging headphones like the Sennheiser HD 650s [Tape Op #43] and HEDDphone Twos [#163]. I’ve even plugged both sets into the same channel (using front and rear outputs) with no loss in audio quality. During vocal tracking sessions, the singer is often in the control room with me, and I show them how to adjust their mix so they don’t have to ask me to make adjustments for them. Since I use the Ginger Audio GroundControl SPHERE monitor control software [#158] with an Elgato Stream Deck as a physical controller, having a tactile headphone volume knob on my desk is a great convenience.
If your interface lacks a powerful headphone amp or you need more advanced monitor control features – such as speaker volume, mono or side monitoring, tone control for the artist, latency-free monitoring, or complex headphone mixes – the xpector should be considered. It’s even compact enough to tote around to important sessions.
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