24Feb Adding headphone monitoring to the Dirt Cheap $28 monitor project
So if you gave the Dirt Cheap Monitor project a try awhile back, this might be just what you needed. Freyguyproductions wrote in asking “What would you suggest for stronger audio sources?” The first thing that came to mind was a hearing aid amplifier. So I started rummaging around the net and found something even better. The FiiO E5 headphone amplifier.
You only need 2 things: The FiiO E5 headphone amplifier and Female RCA Y to 3.5mm male cable. Use the same canon AVC-DC400ST cable that came with your camera (usb to composite rca). Yellow goes to your monitor and red and white to your Y adapter cable and plug the 3.5mm side into your FiiO E5 headphone amplifier.
For a grand total of $22 (almost the cost of the monitor), you have an Audio source directly from the output of your camera so that you can hear everything that is being recorded. After I tried all of this I thought surely someone had already thought of it. So I did some internet surfing and found this guy: Christian Sundsdal who hooked it up to his Rode VideoMic, but for some reason didn’t hook it up to the output of his camera.
I’ll post a video covering the topic a bit better this weekend, but for now, It’s tested and works great!
February 24th, 2011 at 6:12 pm
[…] Update: Did you want to add headphones and volume control to your Dirt cheap monitor project? Here is the solution. […]
February 25th, 2011 at 5:20 pm
[…] As promised here is the how to video guide, along with a quick demo. Yes My headphones are lime green, I know. […]
March 6th, 2011 at 7:55 am
Hi DeeJay,
After watching your video and reading your post, and watching the video on Vimeo made Christian Sundsdal, my understanding is that if I want to monitor my audio without using an external video monitor, Christian’s setup is the one I want to pursue.
Is that right?
Thanks for your time,
Antwan
March 6th, 2011 at 8:37 am
Yes. It took me a while to understand why he put it together the way he did. If you don’t have a monitor Christian’s setup or a juicedlink ds214 is the way to go. My setup only works if you use a monitor.
June 11th, 2011 at 5:58 am
You can use magic lantern to get headphone monitoring without an external LCD. See
http://www.learningdslrvideo.com/monitor-t2i-headphones
June 11th, 2011 at 6:22 am
yep.
November 10th, 2011 at 4:44 am
I’ve connected all the cables but I’m not getting any audio. Can you please tell me where things might have gone wrong?
November 20th, 2011 at 8:37 pm
What camera are you using?
February 7th, 2012 at 10:34 am
I tried this with my t3i, the problem is that when you plugin the USB cable, the on board screen shuts off.
Also, the audio does not pass thru during recording, only during playback.
February 9th, 2012 at 7:50 pm
Magic lantern should fix that problem.
December 12th, 2012 at 10:08 am
does magic lantern fix both the on-board screen issue and the audio issue? i’m a video teacher using a t4i, and i want to be able to monitor the shot while my students use the on-board screen. would magic lantern allow this?
June 1st, 2012 at 11:26 am
Does the Fiio E5 headphone amp work with a Canon 60D. I tried everything and it seems the 60D does not allow the audio out while video is in operation. It will allow it to record audio and then playback just fine.
I am considering adding a Beachtek or equal for more “audio in” capability but still am not sure if I will get audio out for “confidence” recording audio. What do you think?
Thanks
Jay
August 5th, 2012 at 9:57 am
Any chance of having both this and the monitor connected to the 550d at the same time, e.g. one in the mini usb socket and the other in the hdmi socket?
November 27th, 2012 at 2:18 pm
How can i hear the sound, while i’m recording the video?
February 2nd, 2013 at 8:27 pm
I take it that the canon AVC-DC400ST dosen’t work with the 5D Mark ii. Any chance there is one for the camera. I can seem to find on to work with the Fii E5.
June 6th, 2014 at 8:15 am
Hey, the FiiO e5 is no longer available on amazon, but there is an e6. Would the e6 work as well?
PS. Just discovered your site. So incredibly helpful. Just texted my friend saying I found the goldmine.
June 6th, 2014 at 12:41 pm
Andy, you might want to check out the E11, it’s a little more expensive but it also provides more gain.