Headphone pre-amp

[Mr T]

I have a home recording studio & was recently told that I should invest in a headphone pre-amp, so that I could get better sound quality through my headphones & have more headphone outputs. Does anyone know if this would be a good investment & if so how does it give better quality?

[Richard Monroe]

A headphone distribution amp won't give any better quality than the signsl it's fed from your recorder. It does make it possible to send the signal to more thsn one person, and depending on your rig, it will allow you to send a custom headphone mix to the person tracking while you hear what you're tracking.-Richie

[Richard Monroe]

A headphone distribution amp won't give any better quality than the signal it's fed from your recorder. It does make it possible to send the signal to more than one person, and depending on your rig, it will allow you to send a custom headphone mix to the person tracking while you hear what you're tracking.-Richie

[EddieRay]

How else would you and other musicians monitor yourselves while tracking? That's why I picked up a little Sampson S-Amp and a pair of MoreMe headphone units a while back. I also need to use extension cables and thought it best to have an amp on hand. It has 4 headphone outputs, each with its own volume control, and a master volume.

[distortedrumble]

a behringer HA4700 4 inputs with bass, treble, balance and a meter in the front and more jacks in the back and it can also connect to other headphone amps to create a larger quantity of outputs. 99.99 www.americanmusical.com i own one and love it.

[Mr T]

Thanks for the advice! I managed to get a Berhingher powerplay pro-8 HA8000 for a good price.

[evhwanabe]

Originally Posted by Mr T

Thanks for the advice! I managed to get a Berhingher powerplay pro-8 HA8000 for a good price.

Thats what I have and it seems to work pretty good..... you can only get two different mixes out of it though. But for what I use it for it works perfect. I typicaly run about 5 pair of headphones off of it no problem.

[robin watson]

In the past, I've come across articles and sites (Headwize being one in particular) that advocate the use of high quality headphone amps for headphone listening. Some people even go as far as to build single ended tube circuits, specifically for the purpose of driving their headphones, construction details of which can be had in some cases.

Anyone in this school of thinking? Since we spend long hours listening through headphones as part of our work, it may be an issue for some of us. Personally, I can't imagine a high quality headphone amp making all that much difference in canned sound. And since we make our ultimate mixing decisions using our main monitors anyway, I imagine the majority would just say "Naaah."

[Richard Monroe]

For tracking, I mostly say "nah", but remember that your headphones are your link to the world. Who knows what you might hear? Lose the watch. A friend of mine was waiting for some studio time and the woman before her was running over trying to hit one cut, so they were hangin'. She hits the part cold, the engineer comes out and says, "That's a keeper. So when are you due?" She says, "What do you mean? He replies,"When are you having your baby?" She says, "I'm not pregnant!" He says, "I'm sorry you have to learn about it this way, but either you've got two hearts, and one of them is going at 180, or I'd say you are expecting." Fetal heart tones at 3 feet! Yeah, I asked- a pair of Neumann KM184's. And yeah, the dumb bunny was in the second trimester and didn't know she was knocked up!
My point is that your cans often are your only tool to hear ambient noise. I'm afraid I don't have a lot of money to spend on a high end headphone amp, but it would make sense if you actually listen to a lot of music through headphones. Hearing clearly helps a lot in tracking, mentally, too. I guess for most project people, myself included, that which does not go to tape is not where the big money goes.-Richie