Connecting Headphones to a pre-amp

[Ross Fletcher]

This may seem dumb question so don't take offence.
Leaving headphone access out of pre-amps seems to be a trend (although
a few such as Arcam still have headphone sockets) So how does one
connect headphones to such an amp? - in this case RF headphones -
where the manufacturer is too mean to include an outlet (despite the
rapacious prices they ask).


Ross

[Robert Morein]

"Ross Fletcher" > wrote in message
om...
> This may seem dumb question so don't take offence.
> Leaving headphone access out of pre-amps seems to be a trend (although
> a few such as Arcam still have headphone sockets) So how does one
> connect headphones to such an amp? - in this case RF headphones -
> where the manufacturer is too mean to include an outlet (despite the
> rapacious prices they ask).
>
Use two Y-splitters on the output of the preamp, type {one male to two
female.}
These may be obtained at Radio Shack or Parts Express.

Unless the sender unit has FET inputs, be sure to leave the RF sender unit
powered up at all times. If the unit doesn't have FET inputs, when turned
off, it would create severe distortion on the signal fed to the amplifier.

[Arny Krueger]

"Ross Fletcher" > wrote in message
om

> This may seem dumb question so don't take offence.
> Leaving headphone access out of pre-amps seems to be a trend (although
> a few such as Arcam still have headphone sockets) So how does one
> connect headphones to such an amp? - in this case RF headphones -
> where the manufacturer is too mean to include an outlet (despite the
> rapacious prices they ask).

Since headphones frequently have impedances as low as 16 ohms, the use of
some kind of impedance matching device might be indicated.

This test report seems to describe one such impedance-matching device:

http://www.pcavtech.com/pwramp/boostaroo/

Here are some others:

http://www.pp.iij4u.or.jp/~shu-nkmr/HeadAmp2/HeadPhoneAmp2-test-data.html

http://tangentsoft.net/audio/ppa/amp/bench/

http://members.shaw.ca/ifkovic/pdac/for%20sale/sostenuto%201%20ad.htm


However, I suspect that your RF headphones have a far higher input impedance
than regular headphones, and can therefore be connected directly across the
line outputs of the preamp.