Which headphone amp?

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 3:46 am

Those are the amps I can choose from in my local store:

PreSonus HP4 for 130$
Behringer PowerPlay PRO-XL HA4700 for 140$
Behringer PowerPlay PRO-8 HA8000 for 180$

It will only be use for monitoring while tracking (rock and metal mostly). Will anyone notice a difference whil tracking?

The PRO-8 HA8000 looks very attractive because of the ability to have two input sources, the four "extra" channels are also a nice bonus Smile

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 5:11 am

Well... I have a Behringer Powerplay HA 4400 (discontinued member of Powerplay family) and Im glad with him.

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 6:24 am

I needed a headphone amp, so I did some research recently. I didn't need (nor want to pay for) anything high-end, but I wanted to get reasonable quality without spending a lot. Of the units you mention, the HA8000 has the worst reputation for audio quality and for S/N ratio. It's reported to be very noisy. The 4700 has a much better reputation, as does the Presonus, but they are both limited in features. There are countless others on the market - if they're not in your local stores, they're certainly available via mail. Behringer has a new inexpensive one coming out, but I don't have much hope for its quality either:

http://www.behringer.com/AMP800/index.cfm?lang=ENG

Here's the one I wound up buying:

http://www.rolls.com/new/ra53b.html

It was under $100, offered five channels with ten outputs, and has good power and excellent audio. Many sites offered it in the $90 to $100 price range, but only Full Compass seemed to have it in stock when I was shopping, so I bought it from them.

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 9:46 am

My pick would be the Presonus HP-4 We have three of them and find them to be the best. Another really good one is the Peavey HB-1 http://www.peavey.com/products/browse.cfm/action/detail/cat/120/item/89029/number/18017850/HB%28TM%29%2D1withPowerSupply.cfm

Stay away from the Behinger CRAP~!!!!

They sound like (insert normal swear word)

You could also build your own but it would take some time and maybe you don't want to take this approach but here is a good website with lots of info http://www.headwize.com/ and here http://www.headwize.com/projects/index.htm and here
http://www.blackwidowaudio.com/Projects/bwa_projects1.htm

Hope this helps!

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 11:01 am

I had the Behringer 4700 - finally got tired of listening to all the noise. I sent it away via eBAY. I replaced it with this:
http://www.fullcompass.com/Products/pages/SKU--78447/index.html
Not as many features, but it sounds fine to me and is still affordable. I get a little hum if I feed it with the stereo headphone input, but it's quiet with the balanced inputs - can't blame that on the amp.

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 1:19 pm

I build my own studio headphone systems by utilizing just about any 40 W per channel stereo amplifier I have laying around wired to a multiple 1/4" breakout box. Then I make separate " headphone boxes" out of little Radio Shaft project boxes with Radio Shaft switches and Radio Shaft 1/4" jacks. That along with a few resistors will give you a great 2 Channel or split mono two Channel system where each performer has their own volume box with separate level control. It makes so much more sense than these ridiculous 4 output rackmount blah blah boxes that are stupid and inconvenient to use when you have musicians all over the studio. A distributed headphone system is the only smart way to go for your musicians in the studio.

I have posted this before and you may be able to find the thread?? If you can't, I am happy to go into more detail as how to build a distributed headphone system.

Headphoney
Ms. Remy Ann David

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 1:34 pm

RemyRAD wrote:

... these ridiculous 4 output rackmount blah blah boxes are stupid and inconvenient to use when you have musicians all over the studio ...

unless your studio is the size of mine. It's hard to get more than an arm's length away from anything at my place. Embarassed

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 1:49 pm

Well Mr. lead zemlin , most of the studios I've worked in are at least 20 x 20 and larger and then you still have a control room further away. One doesn't need anything more than a Crown 75 and a bunch of wires and boxes to come up with something much better. I was actually even considering a 8 track mixer oriented headphone system where each musician would have a small mixer so they could balance a set of subs fed from the control room. That would have been an ideal system that I never got around to. Of course with numerous mixers, the cost shoots up exponentially.

Heady
Ms. Remy Ann David

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 2:07 pm

I can certainly see that in a "big-boy" (or girl) studio, a rackmount headphone amp would be a pain. In a more compact setting - it works out OK.

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 2:56 pm

You are quite wrong in your assumptions as the amplifier can reside in the studio or in the control room with just a breakout box in the studio that is a distribution point for the multiple headphone feeds required for an entire band. The rest of those so-called headphone amplifiers ARE designed to be mounted within a rack and so what does the entire band do? Huddle around the rack? Put 20 foot headphone cables on with no volume controls and have to keep jumping up to go to the controls to the unit in the rack, to adjust their individual volume? That is just so freaking impractical. This is what I built for my studios and others, over the years including the famous Media Sound in NYC when I worked there as a technician/engineer A 2. This design even makes sense for a small studio. The headphone boxes themselves are super simple and are from off-the-shelf Radio Shaft parts. Everybody has an old Lower powered stereo amplifier lying around that doesn't quite have enough power to really be utilized with any decent speakers and makes the absolute perfect choice for distributed headphone system.

Pretty and practical
Ms. Remy Ann David

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 2:57 pm

I bought an OZ off of e-Bay last year. These guys sold out to Mackie a while back. The box is great, sound quality is top-notch, very flexible routing/mixing, plenty of outs and balls. You might see if you can find a used one, too....

Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2006 5:39 pm

RemyRAD

Thats how we did it 30 years ago!!! Duct tape those little boxes to the mic stand, and the performer just reaches for the volume!!!

Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2006 12:25 am

Thank you

Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 9:06 am

I was planning on the samson s phones, they can power a bunch of head phones and it has the ability to sub mix, for individual volume control I'm going to pick up some of those cheap extension cables with the volume attenuator. Thats my plan anyway.

Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2006 11:53 am

hey remy nice solution...
Id much rather DIY also...all my cables are that way, why not?
If u dont mind I'd like to hear the details on ur build or maybe u can email...thanks.

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