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#1
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"headphone amp" or "personal monitor"
Hi All-
Can anyone recommend a low-power high-quality amp, with tone controls, for single-user headphone listening. Looking over dozens of products I see nothing very appealing. Thanks for any thoughts. Dean |
#2
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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"headphone amp" or "personal monitor"
How about a used Advent 300?
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trks...=293&_from=R40 Not only do you get an amplifier, but a good tuner and phono preamp. I have a spare. |
#3
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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"headphone amp" or "personal monitor"
Hifiman EF-2A gets a strong nod, according to http://www.headphone.com/headphone-a...rating&dir=ASC .
An aside question I have regarding headphone amps. I was testing one out in a store, and tried something new out: I set the headphone amp volume to max, and controlled the volume from the device itself - my iPhone. The iPhone volume ended up around 1/2way up for comfortable listening, and the sound was spacious and open, with no hint of strain or distortion. P.S.: I *did* remember to turn the amp volume back down after my audition! |
#4
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"headphone amp" or "personal monitor"
The question - sorry! Does anyone condone setting a headphone amp-iPod combination up that way?
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#5
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"headphone amp" or "personal monitor"
wrote in message ...
The question -- sorry! Does anyone condone setting a headphone amp-iPod combination up that way? There's nothing wrong with it, other than the possibility of "blasting" your ears. As to whether a particular combination of player and amplifier "sounds better" set up this way... "it depends". If the player and amp are properly designed, there should be no change in sound quality or character. |
#6
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"headphone amp" or "personal monitor"
My reasoning is that I'm staying at or below the specified input sensitivity(V) of the amp.
And no, no chance of "blasting ears" - reasonable iPod/phone volumes can be found 1/3 to halfway turned up with the headphone amp knob fully "out of the way" resistance-wise. |
#7
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"headphone amp" or "personal monitor"
I set the headphone amp volume to max, and controlled the volume from
the device itself - my iPhone. You run the risk of bring up the iPhone's noise to an audible level. I would listen to the iPhone with the volume down but the amp cranked up to see if you can hear any noise. If you can, bring the amp volume down until you can no longer hear the noise, then see if you can get a comfortable listening volume by raising the iPhone sound level. Tobiah |
#8
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"headphone amp" or "personal monitor"
In article ,
wrote: The question - sorry! Does anyone condone setting a headphone amp-iPod combination up that way? No, because you're still using the awful A/D converter in the iPod and going through the existing headphone amp in there (which is a very high distortion class D amp). You cannot expect linear electronics running on a single 5V rail to be high performance. Adding a headphone amp to the output doesn't solve any of the real problems, it just adds more stuff when what you need to be doing for better sound is taking stuff away. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." |
#9
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"headphone amp" or "personal monitor"
On 3/12/2014 8:24 AM, wrote:
Can anyone recommend a low-power high-quality amp, with tone controls, for single-user headphone listening. Looking over dozens of products I see nothing very appealing. Why ruin a perfectly good amplifier and headphones with tone controls? Just get an SPL Phonitor and be done with it. http://www.headphone.com/headphone-a...dphone-amp.php Or if you don't like that, go to your local thrift store and buy a used stereo receiver with a headphone jack. It'll be good enough and shouldn't cost more than $25. -- For a good time, visit http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com |
#10
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"headphone amp" or "personal monitor"
"William Sommerwerck" wrote in message
... As to whether a particular combination of player and amplifier "sounds better" set up this way... "it depends". If the player and amp are properly designed, there should be no change in sound quality or character. Even properly designed equipment produces noise. Proper gain staging can optimize S/N ratio, and the optimal settings can vary widely depending on the specifics of the equipment. I'm not too concerned about distortion or excessive SPL when optimizing gain staging for headphones, because I can easily detect and avoid these problems while listening. |
#11
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"headphone amp" or "personal monitor"
Mike Rivers wrote:
On 3/12/2014 8:24 AM, wrote: Can anyone recommend a low-power high-quality amp, with tone controls, for single-user headphone listening. Looking over dozens of products I see nothing very appealing. Why ruin a perfectly good amplifier and headphones with tone controls? Just get an SPL Phonitor and be done with it. http://www.headphone.com/headphone-a...dphone-amp.php Or if you don't like that, go to your local thrift store and buy a used stereo receiver with a headphone jack. It'll be good enough and shouldn't cost more than $25. Thanks for your reply, Mike. Your 2nd suggestion of "good enough" is not at all what I had in mind but the SPL is quite appealing. The marketing blurbs I see are "pure" ridiculous and make it very hard to form any opinion at all. Mostly a big waste of hours and really sad. /Dean |
#12
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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"headphone amp" or "personal monitor"
"William Sommerwerck" wrote:
How about a used Advent 300? http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trks...=293&_from=R40 Not only do you get an amplifier, but a good tuner and phono preamp. I have a spare. I actually found one of those in the garbage. Nicely set on top of a garbage can. Driving by, I thought whoa. Trouble with old stuff, problems. I fixed up, and sold on eBay, which was one of two things, including a Heath mono tube amp. Unfortunately this was a start of a buy, fix, sale spree, which was out of control. Greg |
#13
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"headphone amp" or "personal monitor"
On 13/03/2014 11:07 a.m., Scott Dorsey wrote:
In article , wrote: The question - sorry! Does anyone condone setting a headphone amp-iPod combination up that way? No, because you're still using the awful A/D converter in the iPod and going through the existing headphone amp in there (which is a very high distortion class D amp). You cannot expect linear electronics running on a single 5V rail to be high performance. Adding a headphone amp to the output doesn't solve any of the real problems, it just adds more stuff when what you need to be doing for better sound is taking stuff away. --scott And there's something in there (psu buck-boosting ?) that puts a 15KHz noise on the input. Other than that Signal Scope Pro is great to have ! geoff |
#14
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"headphone amp" or "personal monitor"
I got a blurb from Benchmark this morning that pointed to an interesting
study they conducted comparing the headphone amplifier in one of their D/A converters with a couple of unspecified brands costing around $1,000. They compared specs as offered by the manufacturer (including their own) and found them to be comparable, but those measurements were made using a dummy load rather than headphones. When they measured with real headphones as a load, they found substantial differences between the measured THD. Theirs was best, of course. Otherwise they wouldn't have sent the press release. Read the paper he http://benchmarkmedia.com/blogs/whit...specifications -- For a good time, visit http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com |
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