Amps, Headphones and Confusion

samzadgan

I've been down this rabbit hole before...and i will share my experience...dont buy an amp for headphone requirements. You will have to compromise, either headphone sound, or amps sound.

my suggestion...buy the amp you like the sound of with out headphones.

then buy something like a Zoom G3 which has a headphone out, and sounds much better than most amp headphone output.

ecc83

"I've been down this rabbit hole before...and i will share my experience...dont buy an amp for headphone requirements. You will have to compromise, either headphone sound, or amps sound."

Not true, as ever, "it depends"! The HT-5 has a headphone output that is completely separate from the amplifier's main signal path, i.e. guitar goes through ICs, valves, voicing, TMB and ISF, onto PI then output valve. Headphone feed is picked off and EM'ed then goes to a completely separate HP driver circuit.

No compromise to either section.

A rather neat gating circuit lkills the PA when cans are plugged in.

crunchman

ecc83 said:

"I've been down this rabbit hole before...and i will share my experience...dont buy an amp for headphone requirements. You will have to compromise, either headphone sound, or amps sound."

Not true, as ever, "it depends"! The HT-5 has a headphone output that is completely separate from the amplifier's main signal path, i.e. guitar goes through ICs, valves, voicing, TMB and ISF, onto PI then output valve. Headphone feed is picked off and EM'ed then goes to a completely separate HP driver circuit.

No compromise to either section.

A rather neat gating circuit lkills the PA when cans are plugged in.

I had an HT5 although I sold it quite a while ago.  The emulated out was ok but you can get just as good (if not better) with the free version of amplitube and just plug the headphones into your computer.

Then you have the flexibility to get an amp you like the sound of the best, rather than worry about whether it has an emulated out.  For me the VHT Special 6 head I have now is a much better sounding amp than the HT5 head I had before.  Your taste may be different but I'd buy purely on how good the amp sounds.

The VHT is significanly cheaper than the Blackstar as well so you could always put the difference towards a dummy load with an emulated out - which you would then have the option of using with other amps in the future.

Jonathanthomas83

Its not cheap but you could buy the amp of your dreams, load it down with a reactive load and use the Torpedo stuff for headphones.

Torpedo Live/CAB etc etc.

That's what I'm doing

Cabicular

The first one I ever heard of was Tom Scholtz Rock-man
I remember it being a massive deal at the time
That must have been mid-late 80s

Cabicular

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockman_(amplifier)

There you go 1982
I'm sooo old

Cabicular

Sorry the link does not work with the underscore

EricTheWeary

Our singer said More Than a Feeling was the reason for punk. Yet how many punks designed a head phone amp?

My amp shaped rabbit hole is looking for a particular feature which will somehow make it all singing and dancing but never is. Buy the amp you like and think about something separate for headphones if need be. Having to have headphones plugged into an amp can be quite limiting as you become entangled in wires. Using a pc/ tablet as the source of your sound for headphones is pretty good as you have all sorts of jam along or recording options as well and can be fairly cheap.

Cabicular

My advice would be that unless you need to be pin quiet open backs are better sounding than closed backs
But they are particularly obnoxious if the wife is watching the telly etc

ecc83

crunchman said:

ecc83 said:

"I've been down this rabbit hole before...and i will share my experience...dont buy an amp for headphone requirements. You will have to compromise, either headphone sound, or amps sound."

Not true, as ever, "it depends"! The HT-5 has a headphone output that is completely separate from the amplifier's main signal path, i.e. guitar goes through ICs, valves, voicing, TMB and ISF, onto PI then output valve. Headphone feed is picked off and EM'ed then goes to a completely separate HP driver circuit.

No compromise to either section.

A rather neat gating circuit lkills the PA when cans are plugged in.

I had an HT5 although I sold it quite a while ago.  The emulated out was ok but you can get just as good (if not better) with the free version of amplitube and just plug the headphones into your computer.

Then you have the flexibility to get an amp you like the sound of the best, rather than worry about whether it has an emulated out.  For me the VHT Special 6 head I have now is a much better sounding amp than the HT5 head I had before.  Your taste may be different but I'd buy purely on how good the amp sounds.

The VHT is significanly cheaper than the Blackstar as well so you could always put the difference towards a dummy load with an emulated out - which you would then have the option of using with other amps in the future.

Yes of course, the variations are legion. I merely wished to point out that the provision of a headphone output does not HAVE to compromise the performance of the rest of the amplifier in any way.

Dave.

Evildurka

@Cabicular is certainly right about the open back cans. Audio-Technica ATH M50's are great closed back cans though as are Sennheiser HD-25's. If you go down the Sennheiser route get the full fat model not the sp model. Also check you are getting 70 ohm not 600 ohm if buying online.