pellgarlic
New member
i am looking for a not-too-expensive, few-featured headphone amp, and hope that i can get some advice/recountance of experiences with headphone amps to help me make my decision.
basically, just now i have the rca outputs from my computer's sound card connected to the rca inputs of my denon hi-fi amp, which feeds my sony hi-fi speakers (which will be replaced at some point by proper monitors, but not yet). the problem is that the headphone socket on the denon amp doesn't work, so i'm unable to play back the guitar i just recorded, while recording vocals. (unless i just play it through the speakers - too loud and it picks up on the vocal recording, too quiet and i can't tell if i'm singing in tune and time).
so i need a simple, but fairly decent quality headphone amp to fill the gap. i'd like it to be pretty good sounding, cos i intend to check my mixes on it occassionally, but primarily it will just be for "reference" - i.e. so i can hear my recorded guitar while i'm recording my vocals. it just needs to have one headphone output, not the four or eight that a lot seem to have. also, i'm not sure whether it's best to split the signal from the sound-card output, feeding the headphone amp and the denon separately, or instead, to try to find a headphone amp with some kind of "direct source" so it can be connected in series. don't know if that's even possible in fact, especially in the budget i'll be working with, which is about £50 max (about $100 or so) although i'd rather spend less.
i've considered these so far:
Behringer MINIMON MON800 (http://www.behringer.com/MON800/index.cfm?lang=ENG)
Behringer MICROMON MA400 (http://www.behringer.com/MA400/index.cfm?lang=ENG)
Presonus HP4 (http://www.presonus.com/hp4.html)
Samson S-Monitor (http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=1696)
Samson S-Amp (http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=1698&brandID=2)
as i said, i'm not concerned with having multiple headphone outputs (although most of the available equipment seems to have it anyway - only a couple i found don't). i'm also not too bothered about getting any "extra features" - i just want a good solid piece of kit, that i can plug my headphones into (with a volume control of course) and will integrate into my existing setup with relative ease, and will allow me to switch between listening through the speakers or the headphones without having to do a major re-wiring job every time i do so.
anyone got any strong opinions either way on any of the afore-mentioned equipment? (or suggestions of alternatives...)
basically, just now i have the rca outputs from my computer's sound card connected to the rca inputs of my denon hi-fi amp, which feeds my sony hi-fi speakers (which will be replaced at some point by proper monitors, but not yet). the problem is that the headphone socket on the denon amp doesn't work, so i'm unable to play back the guitar i just recorded, while recording vocals. (unless i just play it through the speakers - too loud and it picks up on the vocal recording, too quiet and i can't tell if i'm singing in tune and time).
so i need a simple, but fairly decent quality headphone amp to fill the gap. i'd like it to be pretty good sounding, cos i intend to check my mixes on it occassionally, but primarily it will just be for "reference" - i.e. so i can hear my recorded guitar while i'm recording my vocals. it just needs to have one headphone output, not the four or eight that a lot seem to have. also, i'm not sure whether it's best to split the signal from the sound-card output, feeding the headphone amp and the denon separately, or instead, to try to find a headphone amp with some kind of "direct source" so it can be connected in series. don't know if that's even possible in fact, especially in the budget i'll be working with, which is about £50 max (about $100 or so) although i'd rather spend less.
i've considered these so far:
Behringer MINIMON MON800 (http://www.behringer.com/MON800/index.cfm?lang=ENG)
Behringer MICROMON MA400 (http://www.behringer.com/MA400/index.cfm?lang=ENG)
Presonus HP4 (http://www.presonus.com/hp4.html)
Samson S-Monitor (http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=1696)
Samson S-Amp (http://www.samsontech.com/products/productpage.cfm?prodID=1698&brandID=2)
as i said, i'm not concerned with having multiple headphone outputs (although most of the available equipment seems to have it anyway - only a couple i found don't). i'm also not too bothered about getting any "extra features" - i just want a good solid piece of kit, that i can plug my headphones into (with a volume control of course) and will integrate into my existing setup with relative ease, and will allow me to switch between listening through the speakers or the headphones without having to do a major re-wiring job every time i do so.
anyone got any strong opinions either way on any of the afore-mentioned equipment? (or suggestions of alternatives...)
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