Heritage Audio Baby RAM Passive Monitor Controller
Get control of your volume without any noise or audio degradation. The Heritage Audio Baby RAM leaves your signal utterly transparent at every gain setting.
$199.00
- No Credit Check6 payments of$33.17/mo
Overall User Ratings (based on 1 ratings)
Submitted September 24, 2026 by a customer from gmail.com
"How Do You Screw Up A Passive Attenuator THIS BAD?"
Verified Customer
zZounds has verified that this reviewer made a purchase from us.
I bought my Baby RAM from zZounds about eighteen months ago. It was just replaced with a TC Monitor Pilot after literally taking the Heritage outside to smash it.I have a busy project studio. I'm not just "making beats" - I am editing music and dialogue. I am mixing other artists. If I'm lucky, I find time to work on my own music. Point being, I don't have time for a basic need-state like a monitor controller to break. The Baby RAM, right from the box, has issues. It emits a loud 'pop' when engaging any push button (sum, mute, dim, switching inputs / outputs). I would use that to wake up my monitors from power saving mode trying to make the best of it. Then the actual potentiometer just started failing. It would quite literally not work, or not pass the correct voltage. Turning it down would turn things up and vice versa. I pulled the housing apart, cleaned the contacts, ensured all solder joints were intact... it worked well for another week and then it all started over. "You had one job," is a phrase that comes to mind. This isn't even an active controller combining voltage with input and an op-amp. It's a passive resistor and a couple of relays. $20 at Mouser, tops. And Heritage managed to screw it up. I'm sure I could have fixed it, sent it in, whatever - but I took it outside and ceremonially smashed it with a bat. TLDR - It's crap. Don't buy one.
Sound
The sound isn't great. The idea that a passive attenuator can't color sound is simply not true. There's a noticeable rolling off at about 12kHz on up.
Features
An enormous Neve-like Marconi knob is hard to miss.
Ease of Use
There's really no myth to the design here - balanced inputs go to a circuit board with a passive resistor that go to balanced outputs. Granted there are a few relays that allow you to toggle inputs and outputs, dim (reduce 18db) or mute, or combine L/R to dual mono to check for phase. This is Radio Shack 150-in-1 Electronics Kit level technology.
Quality
For it's outward appearance of RAF Blue metal and a big chonking knob / switches, the guts underneath are dainty and failure prone.
Value
No. Buy a Mackie Big Knob Passive for 1/3 the price. It also sounds murky and will break way before its time - but it's smaller and much cheaper.
Manufacturer Support
Heritage Audio is in Spain and distribute through RAD Distribution. Their rep never replied to me about this in multiple forums and social media channels. I do own a Heritage Successor and think it's a great compressor, built well, and sound amazing.
The Wow Factor
Don't be fooled by Heritage's Neve-like exterior. This is more temperamental than any old school 80 Series Neve (from which it takes its design cues) - and those consoles need lots of maintenance.
Musical Background:
Engineer, Producer, Composer
Musical Style:
Whatever the client pays me to make.
Did you find this review helpful?
Thanks for your opinion!
Please wait.