Headphone amp...Presonus? Behringer? Other?

M

Mattman84

New member
I need to get myself a headphone amp and at least 3 sets of phones for a project I'm about to start. I'd like to spend no more than $200. The phones need to contain the sound so that it won't leak back into the mic. I've been looking at this:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Recording/Monitors/Headphones?sku=241541

It comes with the Presonus HP4 and 4 pairs of AKG M 80 headphones for $200. I know the HP4 is supposed to be good, but I haven't found anything on the phones. By themselves they cost $40 apiece. Does this package seem like a good idea?

Also looking at the Behringer Powerplay Pro-8 HA-8000 for $139.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Live/Sound/Signal/Processors?sku=240109

It's got 8 channels, which would be good for future expandability, and it's rackmountable, which is a plus. This would limit my headphone budget to about $20 a pair. They're going to be used for multiple BGVs to sing simultaneously, so as long as they can hear and the sound doesn't leak, it's okay.

Any opinions/other recommendations would be great. Thanks!

-Matt
 
I have the HP4 and think it is a very cool little unit for routing speakers and headphones. I'm not familiar with those headphones, but the site says they are "semi open" which suggests to me that bleed (from the headphones into the mics) might be a problem. Ideally, you want closed-back phones for tracking purposes. On such a tight budget, You might look into the MoreMe headphones, which can be found through Warren at Front End Audio (who also sells the presonus), or purchased directly from Harvey Gerst at Indian Trail Recording Studio.
 
I also have the HP4, and its a really good bang for the buck.
the only issue with it is gain, its not a biggie but, there are other brands with more gain.
But if you have a set of easy driven Headphones it shouldent be a porblem.

The sound is good anyways. :)
 
Scrubs,

Thanks for the MoreMe suggestion. I've done some reading now and they seem like they'll fit the bill perfectly. I'll probably be ordering 3 or 4 pairs of them soon.

As for the amp, the HP4 seems to be a better quality product, but is there anything rackmountable for around the same price/quality that you guys could recommend? Rackmountability is not essential...just something that would be nice to have.

Oh, and currently, the monitor mute function on the HP4 is not something that I would benefit from. I monitor off a Mackie 1402-VLZ Pro board with XLR cables into my monitors. But it could be useful down the road perhaps.
 
I use and HP4 for phones and for level control on my main monitors...great little unit with clean, low noise sound. I'm not sure about the stated gain issue - I use Audio Technica ATH-M40fs phones with it and there is plenty of gain. I guess different Ohm ratings in phones could factor in with gain on the HP4.
 
warble said:
I use and HP4 for phones and for level control on my main monitors...great little unit with clean, low noise sound. I'm not sure about the stated gain issue - I use Audio Technica ATH-M40fs phones with it and there is plenty of gain. I guess different Ohm ratings in phones could factor in with gain on the HP4.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I've never had to turn the gain up more than halfway with my AT cans (60 Ohms, I think), even when tracking drums.
 
scrubs said:
Yeah, I've never had to turn the gain up more than halfway with my AT cans (60 Ohms, I think), even when tracking drums.
Click to expand...

As I said if you have easy driven phones, then its no prob.
But some philipps and sony sets "Cheap ones" will be a bit to low on volume.
I use akg, and koss and they do just fine.

When purchasing the Hp4 I originaly opted for an other amp, made by Sm-audio, wich was suposed to have a few notches of extra gain.

The reason for this was that I play in a loud rock band, and we were doing live recordings on very high volume, so the gain was of utmost importance, it worked fine on the Koss set, a bit more troublesome on the akg`s and way to low on the sony``s.

so the moral is :D by a good set of headphones and you`ll be allright
 
Alright, I'm set on getting 4 sets of MoreMe phones...now it's down to the amp...and I'm pretty sure I'll go with the Behringer HA4700 for its added features over the HP4 (for only $10 more). But if someone wants to change my mind on the Behringer, I'm all ears.

Also...I hear the cables on the MoreMe's are pretty short, and that the extensions are recommended. Just how short are they? If I can get by without paying the extra $30 on four extensions then I will.
 
I'm a big fan on the Oz Audio HM6. It has a main stereo input, plus 4 "inject" inputs which allow perfomers to customize their own mix. It also has an effects loop. Up to 6 pairs of headphones can be connected, and this little amp can CRANK! The 1/4" inputs are balanced/unbalanced, and it's built like a tank. Costs a little more than what you're planning on (MSRP is $239, if I remember correctly) but it's worth every penny.

The cords on the MoreMe's are pretty short, it's true. Extensions are a good idea.
 
While the Oz does look pretty sweet,

a) You're right...I can't pay that much...and

b) I don't have any deskspace left for a standalone unit that big

Thanks for info though. Maybe one day down the road when I'm out of my room and into a real studio environment I'll invest in some nicer stuff and give that a try.
 
Mattman84 said:
Alright, I'm set on getting 4 sets of MoreMe phones...now it's down to the amp...and I'm pretty sure I'll go with the Behringer HA4700 for its added features over the HP4 (for only $10 more). But if someone wants to change my mind on the Behringer, I'm all ears.

Also...I hear the cables on the MoreMe's are pretty short, and that the extensions are recommended. Just how short are they? If I can get by without paying the extra $30 on four extensions then I will.
Click to expand...
They're short. You want the extensions.

I'm in the market for a headphone amp as well. The Behringer 8000 has a pretty poor reputation for signal to noise ratio. The 4700 is more highly regarded (if you can use such a term with Behringer <g>).

I'm leaning toward this one: http://www.rolls.com/new/ra53b.html Street price is $90 to $100 (mail order).
 
David Katauskas said:
Someone posted a link to the Carvin model a few days ago. It looked nice...never used it.
Click to expand...

That might have been me. Here it is for the lazy: http://www.carvin.com/products/single.php?ItemNumber=H400&CID=PROC

I don't have it either, but the specs seem nice. I would have bought it some time in the next few months, but I just bought a Beri 4700 from the forums here.

Oh, and I have one pair of the studio deluxe moreme's, they are great, much better then the AKG K44s I was using. But really for tracking, does it matter much, lol.
 
I'm on a pretty low budget, trying to keep this thing around the $100 mark, so some of these, while they would be awesome, are getting a little pricey for me.

I like the Behringer HA4700 and I think it's the one for me, with a few caveats...

I'm trying to work out a scenario where this will work in my setup. I do all monitoring from a Mackie 1402-VLZ Pro mixer. The main XLR outputs go to TRS lines fed into my monitors. I could use the 1/4" main outputs of the board to go into the amp, but there doesn't appear to be anyway to individually control the different outputs on the board. (correct me if I'm wrong). So, if I wanted to turn up the signal to the headphone amp, I'd also be turning up my monitors. Solutions to this problem would be to turn down my monitor volumes on the monitors themselves (which would get really old really quick...volume knobs on the back of each). Or, if there is a box I could run in between the board and the monitors that acts as an on/off switch that I could press, without degrading the signal. Anyone know of such a product?

The next option would be to run the output of the board through the headphone amp, and back out to the monitors. But there doesn't seem to be any way to control the output of the Behringer. So again, to turn down the monitors I would have to turn down the entire mix. Is there some sort of monitor mute or master out volume control function on the HA4700 that I'm not aware of?

My last idea would be to run out of an AUX send. I could use the AUX send 1 on my board into the headphone amp, and just determine the master mix by turning up the appropiate AUX knobs on the board. My only problem here is that the AUX sends on the board are mono. This isn't a huge deal, but stereo would be nice.

If anyone has any other suggestions on setup or solutions to the problems above, please let me know. Once I've got the setup of all of it laid out I'll go ahead and make my purchase.

Thanks everyone for all your help!

-Matt
 
The AUX send is probably the easiest way for you to do it with what you have. If you had a patchbay, you could easily create a mult of the main out and use that to feed your headphone amp.
 
I've got an OZ HM-4, Rane HC-6 and an older Symetrix unit (SX vintage, don't remember the model number). All work admirably. More gain with the OZ and Rane, but the Symetrix is certainly usable, if a bit basic. Rane gives you the most flexibility and features and is pretty much an industry standard. I think I paid $100 used for the OZ, $150 for the Rane and $50 for the Symetrix -- all off of e-bay. The Symetrix is a half rack unit so you need a shelf if you want to rack it. If you can deal with used gear, its worth checking e-bay for these. The More Me phones work just fine for tracking, but you WILL want extension cables. The cables are really, really short.
 
Mad Audio,

Forgive me, but I'm pretty new to the world of patchbays. I was born into it about 30 minutes ago. I've been reading around on here and elsewhere and I must admit I'm a tad lost. If it's not too much trouble, would you mind explaining to me how the patchbay would work to "create a mult of the main out"? I guess I'm just not understanding the signal flow right now. Thanks!

-Matt
 
Let me elaborate on the last post...

I've figured out how the signal chain would work, but it seems that I would have to repatch my main signal back and forth from the monitors to the amp. Is this correct?
 
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