Headphone Amp

[jeid]

I'm using a Digi002R and I'd like to have another headphone out so I can hear what people are playing when they're tracking drums/vocals.

I'm not looking to spend a fortune on something that'll not get a lot of use, but Behringer is not the sort of quality I'm looking for.

Anything I should avoid/look at?

 

[Dalinkwent48@aim.com]

ART makes a few cheap ones. Never used it so I don't know how good they are, I just know they exist.

 

[wishtheend]

Check out the Aphex Headpod. Really great sounding amp, with tons of headroom. It's only a 4-channel amp, but it's a great little unit.

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

I think if you are recording metal you don't need an expensive amp.

 

[xmortumx]

Why not the Behringer MINIAMP AMP800?

Ive had mine for about 1 year never had any problem with it... you dont need to get an expensive one!
Theres no "quality" loss with this amp I think that headphones take a greater part in quality!

 

[updog]

Just get a cheap one. Maybe two just in case the other one fails you.

I have one I got for 20 bucks and it still works fine, and doesn't really sound terrible either.

 

[Kazrog]

I've had a Rolls 6 channel 1U rack headphone amp for 10 years and it's never let me down. I highly recommend Rolls products in general, very simple high quality stuff, reasonably priced.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Avoid the HP4. It has gotten noisy over the past few years (owned it for 3).

Presonus cheaped out on thier pots on the budget stuff.

Not only that, thing is super limited.

 

[BLUElightCory]

I've had my Behringer 4 channel headphone amp for like 7 years now and it's still working like a champ. $100. It's definitely the only piece of Behringer gear I would recommend.

 

[Genius Gone Insane]

+1 on the Behringer

 

[aortizjr]

Yeah most of the time for tracking, as long as the headphone amp doesn't totally suck, you are fine.

I have a rackmount HA4600 or something by Behringer, works great! Sold it to another studio, still working. Replaced it with their latest HA4700. Bass and Treble controls, blend controls, or individual mixes, loud, can run 3 cans per channel. It is over $100 but worth it, it has been great.

 

[arv_foh]

if you don't want people to know it's behringer, just cover the name up with gaff tape

 

[colonel kurtz]

+1 more on the behringer

they had one of those in the studio where i went to school...was the only piece that was allowed in there bearing the "B" word

 

[AHChris]

I took Glenns advice and bought the Alto 6 channel headphone amp, and I couldn´t be happier. You can plug in enough headphones for almost everything (18) and it´s loud and clean.

 

[Kazrog]

I've A/B'd the Rolls vs. the Behringer unit and the Rolls completely kills the Behringer. Twice as much headroom, far better signal to noise ratio, etc. This matters - there were a lot of situations where the Behringer simply could not push the headphones loud enough for band members in the tracking room to hear their monitor feeds. I ended up bringing my Rolls unit from home into a session because of this issue, and the Rolls solved the problem right away.

Life is too short to buy Behringer. Friends don't let friends buy Behringer.

 

[heshian46]

Avoid the HP4. It has gotten noisy over the past few years (owned it for 3).

Presonus cheaped out on thier pots on the budget stuff.

Not only that, thing is super limited.

I agree the pots are a bit cheap on these units. But i've had mine for 2 years now and its done exactly what i need it to do.

 

[jipchen]

I have the Samson S-Phone. It's the one Behringer cloned. http://www.thomann.de/gb/samson_sphone.htm

 

[JeffTD]

I've A/B'd the Rolls vs. the Behringer unit and the Rolls completely kills the Behringer. Twice as much headroom, far better signal to noise ratio, etc. This matters - there were a lot of situations where the Behringer simply could not push the headphones loud enough for band members in the tracking room to hear their monitor feeds. I ended up bringing my Rolls unit from home into a session because of this issue, and the Rolls solved the problem right away.

I've never had an issue with my Behringer headphone amp doing this exact same thing - the unit is loud as all hell if a bit noisy, but it cost $40 so I'm not too chuffed.

 

[aortizjr]

I've A/B'd the Rolls vs. the Behringer unit and the Rolls completely kills the Behringer. Twice as much headroom, far better signal to noise ratio, etc. This matters - there were a lot of situations where the Behringer simply could not push the headphones loud enough for band members in the tracking room to hear their monitor feeds. I ended up bringing my Rolls unit from home into a session because of this issue, and the Rolls solved the problem right away.

Life is too short to buy Behringer. Friends don't let friends buy Behringer.

Thanks for the info. I think I found the one you are talking about. The price is pretty good as well:

http://www.fullcompass.com/product/322845.html

In that range I wonder how it stands to the ART, Samson, and SM-ProAudio ones which have a lot more features and better metering. Not sure how many features and metering you need on a headphone amp, but I do use the meters on mine to some extent.

I do like the ability to blend and mute right/left channels The SM-Pro one has flash memory recall which I could see being handy.

 

[Omega_Void]

...there were a lot of situations where the Behringer simply could not push the headphones loud enough for band members in the tracking room to hear their monitor feeds...

...I've never had an issue with my Behringer headphone amp doing this exact same thing - the unit is loud as all hell if a bit noisy...

The moral is... "Don't forget that the SPL produced permilliwatt of amplifier output depends on your headphones sensitivity" or something, I guess.