Rane HC-6 Headphone Console

Six headphone amps in a single rack space, built by a company that clearly expected you to read the manual.

Overview

The HC-6 is a headphone distribution console - a single-rack-space box that drives six sets of headphones. Each has its own level control, and each can take either the shared master program or its own independent stereo feed. Rane's own advertising in Mix called it six stereo headphone amplifiers which can be driven individually through separate inputs, or together through a master stereo input. The suggested list price was $349.

The flexibility is the point. The rear panel has a pair of MASTER INPUTS. These are automatic balanced/unbalanced jacks that take a stereo ¼" TRS plug for balanced operation or a mono ¼" plug for mono, with no switching on the user's part. There are also six direct stereo inputs, one per channel. Put a plug into any of those direct inputs and the master feed is disconnected from that channel and that channel only. The manual is unusually candid about this. It recommends permanently wiring only the MASTER INPUTS to a patch bay and patching the direct inputs as needed, because a permanent connection to a direct input would lock that channel out of the master program.

The front panel repeats the six outputs on parallel ¼" TRS jacks, so a rack-mounted HC-6 can be patched from the front without disturbing the rear wiring. Plugging into the front jacks does not disconnect the rear outputs. A MASTER CONTROL sets the level of everything driven from the master inputs. The individual LEVEL controls set each headphone's volume. When a channel is fed from a direct input, its LEVEL control is the only one that matters, since the master is bypassed for that channel. A STEREO/MONO switch collapses the master inputs to mono, so a single input cable drives both sides of every headphone. The manual says this is useful for live monitoring, where extreme separation can make it harder to judge relative levels.

The signal-present LEDs do more than the usual tally lights. They sit in the signal path after the master inputs and before the individual level controls, so the master control moves them and the channel controls don't. Turn the master up and down and watch which LEDs respond. Those channels are running off the master, and the rest are on their own direct feeds.

Rane published a headphone impedance window of 32 to 600 ohms for the outputs. The manual says lower and higher impedance loads will work but simply won't be very loud. It also gives a hard warning about paralleling: the HC-6 has limited power output, and stacking ten or twelve sets of low-impedance headphones on it is asking too much. Where more than six headphones are needed, the manual advises doubling up on channels with identical make-and-model headphones to avoid level mismatches between listeners. It also advises sticking to 100-ohm-or-higher loads when paralleling to reduce the strain.

Power comes from an outboard supply, the Model RS 1. It is an 18-volt AC center-tapped transformer that feeds a jack on the rear panel. The manual warns, in bold, that this is not a telephone jack and will not tolerate substitutions. Because the supply is outboard, the chassis isn't grounded through the line cord. Rane instructs users to ground the chassis either to another earth-grounded chassis or directly to an AC outlet cover screw via the 6-32 grounding screw on the back. The front panel is heavy-gauge steel and mounts in standard EIA rack spacing. For portable racks subject to shock, Rane recommends stabilizing the rear of the unit.

A 1988 buyer's guide in Sound and Communication (March 1988, p.38) lists the HC-6 at $369.00 with a 350 mW output figure, six channels, phono input and output connectors, eight pounds, and a 1.75" x 19" x 8.5" chassis. That confirms the single-rack-space form factor. Mix had already flagged the direct-input architecture as the HC-6's distinguishing feature. It noted that each of the six headphone amps carries its own separate balanced mono input that bypasses the main stereo inputs, allowing a monitor mixer or other source to deliver a separate program to each headset.

That's the whole pitch, really. Six independent stereo programs, or one shared program with six trim controls, in one rack space, with balanced I/O and enough documentation to keep a studio tech out of trouble. Collectors chasing one today are chasing a working problem-solver, not a collector's object — and the manual's insistence on the correct Rane supply means a unit missing its RS 1 is a project, not a plug-and-play purchase.