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One reason I use DT-770's is for their sound isolation. However this sometimes works against me when I need to be hearing my own voice in addition to whatever is normally coming in through the headphones.

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I would like to feed back my microphone input into my headphones with as little latency as possible.

Existing setup:

Audio Source (Laptop or other) -> Headphones

Microphone

Desired outcome

Audio Source (Laptop or other) + Microphone -> Headphones

What is the bare minimum hardware I would need to introduce monitoring into a setup consisting of headphones and an audio source?

Would a single mixer do the job? Or would I need something to amplify the microphone before it goes into the mixer?

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  • I appreciate the attention already on this question! To respond to the close vote linking to this meta post, I'd like to make the case that this question is still on-topic; namely that I'm not asking about home theater or consumer/prosumer, I'd perfectly fine doing the same thing a studio would given the need for monitoring
    – Cory Klein
    Apr 17, 2020 at 16:58

1 Answer 1

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The standard hack is to move one of the cans off your ear. Applications like Rogue Amoeba Loopback can route your mic input to the headphones. Loopback's latency is 20 ms, I don't know if this is low enough.

Check the settings for your internal mic: disable "Use ambient noise reduction" to reduce latency.

IDK if Audio Hijack can do what you want?

If it's still too much latency, you could switch to an audio interface that has direct monitoring. Direct monitoring means that the audio from the mic is routed to the headphones without going through the computer first. Connect a microphone and your headphones to the interface.

That link didn't catch all interfaces with direct monitoring. This one for instance. So it's worth checking the specs on more audio interfaces.

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  • Oooh, I'll try Loopback!
    – Cory Klein
    Apr 17, 2020 at 16:20
  • Hmm yeah, the latency is definitely more than I was expecting. 😬 However low Loopback's real latency may be, it's coming off as a real echo effect and triggers DAF for me.
    – Cory Klein
    Apr 17, 2020 at 16:30
  • Wow yeah Audio Hijack definitely gets the latency down into acceptable territory. I'll have to see how it works after using it for a bit and possibly purchase an audio interface like you linked to if I want to improve latency even further. Thanks so much @Hobbes!
    – Cory Klein
    Apr 17, 2020 at 16:56
  • Loopback would be twice the price of a hardware interface, Audio Hijack about the same as an entry-level system. Neither could cope if the mic was USB. The question is honestly too vague to be answered without follow-up questions.. not least "are you on a Mac?" & "What mic are we talking about?"
    – Tetsujin
    Apr 17, 2020 at 18:45
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    Steinberg make interfaces that allow you to mix the input signal with the output signal for monitoring purposes. That would suit you well.
    – Mark
    Apr 18, 2020 at 1:15

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