confusion about a Behringer headphone amp

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dogbox

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Hi, just confused about the functionality of a Behringer amp800, 4 channel headphone amp. The way the amp appears to work is there is an stereo input A, and a stereo input B, then you get an individual balance and level pot, for both A and B....you pan one left the other right, and set the levels accordingly...what my problem is, it appears when you plug in a headphone you have to chose A or B, NOT A and B...does that make sense?? Is that normal behaviour for headphone amps in general??
Call me crazy, I just assumed that the point of having the 2 inputs was so that you could blend both. For example, I want the mix coming from my daw via a mixer into channel A, I want the output from my Roland Edrum kit in channel B...I want to record the midi out from my kit back to my daw, but I don't want to monitor through the daw, rather I want latency free monitoring through the headphone amp??? Is this doable?? The diagram is printed on the front of the headphone amp, shows if the Botton is pressed in , then you get to hear channelB, if left un-pressed (light off) you get channel A...I confirmed, this is what happens exactly...there dos not appear to be a way to blend both signals...what am missing here. Also want to know why they go to the trouble of having both input channels having their own level and balance pots but they can't operate in unison...Theres some other obvious use case that exists, that I can't figure out. It's probably to do with the recording multiple people simultaneously. Anyone???
 
I'll have a look at the book later (can you post a link? save me time?) but my feeling is "it is not a mixer" !

You could cobble up some external cables to split L&R feeds to do what you want I am sure.

Dave.
 
by the way yes. I can get the mixer feed and the drums working by putting a mono feed of each in channel A or channel B...but, they are then fused together (they are the left and right in a stereo channel)...I can 't mix them/pan or individually adjust each volume.seems crazy...I got a couple couple of mixer here, surely I don't need a mixer (I could easily do it with my Yamaha mg12)...seems crazy....thats what I thought this thing was for...I don't know what its purpose...thats my lack of understanding. I don't understand why a band member in a studio would want to have 2 seperate music sources fed to them and option to switch between them/ but NOT blend them together--either listen to A or B not A+B.. wouldn't they want to hear the full mix, plus there own instrument - - that needs A+B, not either or???
 
I think you're expecting something different of the typical use.

If you have a studio or stage monitor system, the actual mix is done in the desk and then each output goes to a different destination. The leadsinger won't have the need for certain things, yet the drummer will want very different content - normally, you just have the send output going to wedges or in ears, via an amp of some kind. This is what the Behringher headphone amps do - take in the separate mixes and send them to different headphones. That's what this does. It allows you to switch to the A or the B, for extra flexibility, but the A and B mixes are adjusted somewhere else. Simple blending is possible, as an 'extra'. The point, though, is that it's just an amp with some routing. If they want to hear the full mix, send it to them! It's not done in the amp.
 
rob aylestone said:
I think you're expecting something different of the typical use.

If you have a studio or stage monitor system, the actual mix is done in the desk and then each output goes to a different destination. The leadsinger won't have the need for certain things, yet the drummer will want very different content - normally, you just have the send output going to wedges or in ears, via an amp of some kind. This is what the Behringher headphone amps do - take in the separate mixes and send them to different headphones. That's what this does. It allows you to switch to the A or the B, for extra flexibility, but the A and B mixes are adjusted somewhere else. Simple blending is possible, as an 'extra'. The point, though, is that it's just an amp with some routing. If they want to hear the full mix, send it to them! It's not done in the amp.
Click to expand...
OK Rob, thankyou...an amp with routing...no mixer circuit to be seen. whats thrown me is when you see 2 channels side by side, both with a pan and level...your mind thinks mixer instantly. i had that thing laying around since 2008...i used it a couple times years ago for a band. I'm on my own, multitracking instruments...never had a need for it. moving over to edrums, I thought about that thing and dragged it out of a closet. Not what I thought it was, thats for sure I can see theres maybe a need for different mixes for some folk...so that does make sense in that context you outline. cheers
 
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In fairness, the labelling does sort of suggest ordinary mixing doesn't it! Two stereo amps in a box is really what's going on.
 
IMO the only way do do what you want is to make up some break out cables and possibly a passive 'combiner".
The splitters would be TRS sockets feeding TRS plugs. One wire tip to tip and the other ring to ring. One set for each source. That way you could feed any signal to any channel.
On the output you could just link L&R and listen to "everything" . In mono of course but this is only monitoring right?

*The specification mentions "100 Ohms" several times as the minimum load. That is crazy! Headphones CAN be as low as 8 Ohms. That's rare but 32 Ohms is very common. What Z are your cans? To be absolutely safe you could combine L&R through 47 Ohm resistors.

I suspect the writers of the specification were not very technical and what is REALLY meant is that the output resistance is 100 Ohms. That is a bit high these days but perfectly possible.

Can do doodles if wanted. Oh and don't confuse "balance" with "pan" Electrically very different things.

Dave.
 
I've owned a couple similar headphone amps, and mixing inputs is not the usual use-case, no. They've all had a switch so that the listener switches between the two input sources.

This is the first I've seen one with individual pan knobs for each input tho. That's interesting
 
dogbox said:
Hi, just confused about the functionality of a Behringer amp800, 4 channel headphone amp. The way the amp appears to work is there is an stereo input A, and a stereo input B, then you get an individual balance and level pot, for both A and B....you pan one left the other right, and set the levels accordingly...what my problem is, it appears when you plug in a headphone you have to chose A or B, NOT A and B...does that make sense?? Is that normal behaviour for headphone amps in general??
Call me crazy, I just assumed that the point of having the 2 inputs was so that you could blend both. For example, I want the mix coming from my daw via a mixer into channel A, I want the output from my Roland Edrum kit in channel B...I want to record the midi out from my kit back to my daw, but I don't want to monitor through the daw, rather I want latency free monitoring through the headphone amp??? Is this doable?? The diagram is printed on the front of the headphone amp, shows if the Botton is pressed in , then you get to hear channelB, if left un-pressed (light off) you get channel A...I confirmed, this is what happens exactly...there dos not appear to be a way to blend both signals...what am missing here. Also want to know why they go to the trouble of having both input channels having their own level and balance pots but they can't operate in unison...Theres some other obvious use case that exists, that I can't figure out. It's probably to do with the recording multiple people simultaneously. Anyone???
Click to expand...
They were designed to be used as a headphone amp. I use them patched as mono and use a single aux send. But what you wanted to do has to be done with either a mixer or an interface that has a mixer before conversion and so far that info is not provided what interface is used.
 
ecc83 said:
*The specification mentions "100 Ohms" several times as the minimum load. That is crazy! Headphones CAN be as low as 8 Ohms. That's rare but 32 Ohms is very common. What Z are your cans? To be absolutely safe you could combine L&R through 47 Ohm resistors.
Click to expand...
Never had any issue with using 32 ohm AKG and 60 ohm Sony headphones, but I noticed my 250 ohm do have more bass to them, but the DT880 are semi-open back so they are going to have more bass naturally.

100 ohms might come from the output op amp's specification. So it might be able to drive a lower impedance, but output power is diminished due to current limitations. I do notice some little hiss with the <100 ohms tracking headphones, but its not a big deal.
 
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