enframed wrote: Sun May 30, 2021 8:51 pm
Tell me about headphone amps. I need a primer. Do they just pug into your pre-amp? Do I need a splitter for the turntable: 1 for headphone, 1 for phono stage? Do they have a built-in phono stage?
Good headphone amps for under $300 USD?
Help!
Thanks.
Headphone pres would not usually have a phono stage, so for phono you would need to come out of the pre-out or record/tape/line out of your main preamp. If pre-out then your amp's volume knob will affect the input going into the headphone pre. I would go with the record/tape/line out as this means that you will not need to uncouple (split the pre and power sections) your integrated amp if this is how you are doing things (with an integrated amp).
CD players and whatnot can be plugged straight into the back of a headphone pre.
Take a look at the Neve headphone pre's input descriptions here as the taxonomy makes things pretty clear:
https://www.audiochocolate.com.au/all-p ... phone-amp/
There are three types of inputs on the back. Balanced XLR's for coming out of mixers and whatnot. Regular RCAs for anything with RCA outputs (with the exception of normal turntables, for which see above), and a minijack for coming out of your phone.
In short, if you come from your tape-outs on your amp into the inputs of your headphone pre then you should be good. Watch you don't blow your ears out as some of these things have a lot of push..."for even the hardest to drive, high end cans...."
Does this make any sense?
