"headphone amp" or "personal monitor"

[[email protected]]

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

[William Sommerwerck]

How about a used Advent 300?

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2043521.m570.l1313.TR2.TRC0.A0.H0. Xadvent+300&_nkw=advent+300&_sacat=293&_from=R40

Not only do you get an amplifier, but a good tuner and phono preamp.

I have a spare.

[[email protected]]

Hifiman EF-2A gets a strong nod, according to http://www.headphone.com/headphone-amps/amplifiers.php?sort=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! ;)

[[email protected]]

The question - sorry! Does anyone condone setting a headphone amp-iPod combination up that way?

[William Sommerwerck]

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.

[[email protected]]

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.

[Tobiah]

> 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

[Scott Dorsey]

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."

[Mike Rivers[_2_]]

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-amps/amplifiers/spl-phonitor-headphone-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

[None]

"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.

[[email protected]]

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-amps/amplifiers/spl-phonitor-headphone-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

[gregz]

"William Sommerwerck" > wrote:
> How about a used Advent 300?
>
> http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p2043521.m570.l1313.TR2.TRC0.A0.H0. Xadvent+300&_nkw=advent+300&_sacat=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

[geoff]

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

[Mike Rivers[_2_]]

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 here:

http://benchmarkmedia.com/blogs/white-papers/12577209-an-examination-of-headphone-amplifier-performance-specifications

--
For a good time, visit http://mikeriversaudio.wordpress.com