I can see arguing either way on this. I think the best AB setup would be two identical DA's locked to the same clock. But unmatched units would be okay as long as the unprocessed monitor was not junk. As to how important it is? Well, how important is it to you? If it is, fine, proceed not worrying about it while you're working on processed tracks. This may be enough less of a distraction to do a better job focused on what you're actually mastering. You'll relax, and when you relax, you hear better, you're more confident about what to do, you make the best decision, relaxed and informed. Then you pull back and check where you're coming from (unprocessed) and reassure yourself that you did the right thing, maybe spot something...ah ha... back in... are you confident that what you hear is a fair representation of the source when you press that "A" button? Its really up to you. I mean, if ya wanna get weird about it (and I do) "WHAT IS?" the source. I would like to press the "B" button and be teleported to any car, hotel room, Wave radio I can imagine. In that case, totally unmatched environments where I can hear if it sounds good in any of them. I'm rambling...
bab
