Power amp to drive headphone?

Tweakers' Asylum

Tweaks for systems, rooms and Do It Yourself (DIY) help. FAQ.

In a quest to look for a good headphone amp, it struck me that I have a tubed integrated- C-J CAV-50 lying on the floor. Why don't I use it for the rare occasions when I want to audition something privately or having headphone as sonic reference in my system tuning?
My Grado SR-60 should have a 36ohm (?) impedance. The preout (driven by one 12AX7) is likely too wimpy in doing the job. But the speaker out can be adapted to drive headphone. The main concern I see is the high load impedance instead of expected 4~8ohm from speakers (its factory default 4ohm out). But, I have two 8ohm/100W dummy loads. In placing it in parallel with the headphone, a lot of power will be wasted in the dummy load, but at least impedance mismatch is not an issue.
Should I do it? Anything I should be aware of before I proceed?
The only headphone jack in my system is on the tape deck. I'm expecting the CAV-50 to be a much better headphone driver than that. And it will only be done so sparsely.
Ehien

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Topic - Power amp to drive headphone? - Ehien 18:32:31 04/24/03 (8)

If, conversely, you're interested in a small, good sounding dedicated HP amp... - mrh (Mark Hardy) 11:57:16 04/25/03 (2)

Re: If, conversely, you're interested in a small, good sounding dedicated HP amp... - Ehien 12:53:40 04/25/03 (1)

nor do I... - mrh (Mark Hardy) 06:58:44 04/28/03 (0)

What I heard last night... - Ehien 10:10:47 04/25/03 (0)

Re: Power amp to drive headphone? - peranders 08:27:07 04/25/03 (1)

Re: Power amp to drive headphone? - Ehien 09:37:04 04/25/03 (0)

Re: Power amp to drive headphone? - peranders 04:59:41 04/25/03 (0)

check Headwize.com - BlackPlasticSound 00:29:16 04/25/03 (0)

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