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Headphones run from where

67.139.23.66
Posted on November 3, 2009 at 14:56:41
tony@tonydennison.com
 Hello,

I just moved in to a house with vaulted ceilings, terrible for speakers. I am planning on using headphones, but should I plug in to my phono pre amp? Or continue to the pre amp and run the phones from there? or take it to the end and run the phones from the power amps?
If from the pwer amps, how would I do that?

I am using a thorens table, quick silver stepup, bellari phono pre, quicksilver preamp, and mini monos quicksilver.

As always thanks

T

RE: Headphones run from where, posted on November 5, 2009 at 10:35:18
tony@tonydennison.com
 THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR ADVICE...till next time T

RE: Headphones run from where, posted on November 4, 2009 at 23:02:19
esande
Audiophile

Posts: 169
Location: Washington, DC
Joined: December 27, 2008
 If you're all analog a good headamp after the phono stage would be indicated. Which one is best depends on the cans. Concur with others that head-fi.org is a great resource. I do a lot of headphone listening but almost none of it is analog source at this point, so I'm not your best advisor. Your gear is good so I'm guessing you're not shooting for second best.

I'd say try out a bunch of 'phones and see what you like. There is at least as much variability with this stuff as there is with any other combination of amps and transducers, there are good and bad matches always dependent on preferences.

Comfort is a big factor with cans. They are speakers you wear, what sounds good may not be what feels good after an hour or two. Lots of variables, in other words.

I came to my setup after playing around with a lot of variables. I don't say that what I'm using is right for you, in fact it probably isn't.

So I can't absolutely tell you what's best. If anything, all I can suggest is what to think about. Good luck. It's guaranteed to be an interesting trip.
Go to head-fi.org and you'll learn tons, posted on November 4, 2009 at 21:32:47
AudioDwebe
Audiophile

Posts: 381
Location: Pacific Northwest
Joined: November 12, 2001
 Definitely get a headamp.

Tony - When's "The Closer" coming back on? - nt, posted on November 4, 2009 at 14:44:23
60SXRD
 nt

RE: Headphones run from where, posted on November 4, 2009 at 04:33:59
SgreenP@MSN.com
Audiophile

Posts: 576
Joined: April 23, 2007
 Headphones can be glorious...so much more information than speakers...however...it is not a natural sound which I prefer. Never the less...go to Headphone.com They know everything there is to know about headphones, and will guide you accordingly.

It's fine to run them from the Power Amp, but..., posted on November 3, 2009 at 22:54:56
Bill Thomas
Industry Professional

Posts: 1330
Location: Southern USA
Joined: January 3, 2004
 The accepted way to do this is to put a couple of appropriate load resistors across the Speaker Outputs. Then install a couple of 100 Ohm resistors in series with the "Hot" or "+" terminals of the amp, to the respective Headphone wires. The "-" terminals usually must be connected together.

Note: Some amplifiers don't take kindly to having their negative terminals connected together. Read your owners manual first.

Hope this helps.

Bill

RE: Headphones run from where, posted on November 3, 2009 at 16:12:47
Steve Eddy
Manufacturer

Posts: 9588
Location: Northern California
Joined: April 5, 2000
I'd do one of two things.

Either get a headphone amp and run out of the phono stage, or get a headphone buffer and run it out of the preamp.

se
Yes, posted on November 4, 2009 at 03:07:00
Frihed89
Audiophile

Posts: 8435
Location: Copenhagen
Joined: March 21, 2005
 If you have decided to make headphones your primary listening device, then the headphone route is the best to go. I had great success with a MapleTree Audio Design tube headphone amp as a starter amp. and the person to whom I sold it says it easily outperforms his quite heavily modified Little Dot3. The high end of tube amps can take you into the $2-3K range. Woo Audio has tube headphone amps in a wide variety of price ranges. Eddie Current makes some different models of the Zana Deux tube amp, at the high end. Donald North Audio (DNA Audio) makes a really nice high end amp, The Sonnet, which was selling for around $1100, as I last recall.

You can also get headphone amps for much less, in some cases much much less.

Headphones.....the sky is the limit.

The main internet source of information is www.headfi.org.

Good luck.
"What did the Romans ever do for us?"

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