Palmer Monicon White

The short version of the review is "Buy one".

I wasn't sure if I really needed a monitor controller, after all there are many knobs, both the real and the software ones, at my disposal - on a sound card, there's a computer volume setting, monitor speakers have volume knobs, and then there's the recording software.

But now, after about 4 months later, I'm really glad I bought it.

Nothing beats simplicity of a solid volume button. This way, you can find the sweet volume spot for all the stuff I mentioned in the first paragraph and only care about the overall volume without messing with the critical volume balance of the components in your signal chain.

The unit itself is reassuringly heavy, it's built like a tank, rubber studs ensure it will not travel freely across your desktop. Having said that, it's easy to move it around when YOU want it to make space for something else.

The wheel travel is balanced on the heavy side - just enough to allow you to make small and precise volume adjustments. At the same time, it's pleasantly smooth.

Mute and Mono buttons work as advertised, when they're ON (when they mute or switch the sound to mono), they remain depressed so you have a visual control to confirm that you haven't gone deaf :)

Ich habe den Palmer zwischen mein ULN 8, meinen separaten KH Verstärker und Studio Monitore gehängt um, wie in meinem Fall, eine separate Lautstärkeregelung für meine Monitore zu haben. Die Verbindungen können komplett symmetrisch gestaltet werden, es gibt separate Schalter für Mute und Mono und, ganz wichtig!, der Sound wird in keinster Weise verändert. Zumindest kann ich da nichts Negatives feststellen. Lediglich der Lack ist etwas anfällig gegen Kratzer, was letzten Endes aber eher unwichtig ist.
Alles in allem sehr schickes und preiswertes Tool auf Profi Niveau.