"toronado455" wrote in message
ups.com

I'm sure anything would work. My concern is about the
sound quality of whatever circuitry I'm introducing into
the signal path between the soundcard and the headphones
- both of which are high quality. I don't want to
introduce any distortion beyond what is there already.


Would using, for example, a really cheap $15 set of
desktop speakers with a headphone jack introduce
distortion to the signal?

Most likely.

Or is the distortion in those
cheap speakers coming from the speakers themselves and
not the amplifier circuit connected to the headphones
jack?

It's probably both.

I'm considering getting one of those powered speaker
systems like Creative Inspire T3000 $50 or more the
expensive Logitech Z-2300 $150. Because they have nice
remote (wired) volume controls with headphone jacks that
you can place right next to your keyboard or where ever
it's handy.

Seems like you're buying a lot of speaker to get a headphone
jack.

Another option would be a small headphone mixer like from
Artcessories or Rolls. Anyone use those? I only need a
single headphone out.

Last time I needed a headphone amp for audio production
purposes, I hit up eBay and scored a 4-output Rane headphone
amp for way under $100, if memory serves. Overkill for your
purposes, but it would do the job for you and the price is
in your range.

The ultimate cheapie headphone amp may be the "Boostaroo",
also sold by
Radio Shack. It is battery operated, has about 6 dB of gain,
no volume
control, and 3 individually buffered outputs. About $25.

On the bench, it measures very well (about CD quality), and
in practice it
sounds great if you can live with the limited feature set. I
have a number
of other headphone amps including a Rane, but to boost the
output of a consumer sound card to drive a pair of MDR 7506
headphones, it has been just what I needed.


Since the computer is line-powered I converted my Boostaroo
to AC power with
a couple of 1/2" dowels that simulate the form factor of AA
cells, brass
wood screws for contacts, and a surplus switchmode power
supply from one the
old Comcast cable modems. The Comcast power supply turns out
to have highly
regulated +5 and +12, with the +5 being exactly what I
needed for the
Boostaroo. 5 volt DC wall warts are pretty easy to find for
low prices.