Pro audio headphone amps - any experience?

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craig223

Pro audio headphone amps - any experience?
« on: 19 May 2010, 03:12 pm »
I was browsing some pro audio recording gear and found numerous headphone amps for great prices.  Do you have experience with any of these?  These probably power the cans used to mix most of the music today.

Are they worth having?

boead

Re: Pro audio headphone amps - any experience?
« Reply #1 on: 19 May 2010, 04:33 pm »
I was browsing some pro audio recording gear and found numerous headphone amps for great prices.  Do you have experience with any of these?  These probably power the cans used to mix most of the music today.

Are they worth having?

And you say that like its a good thing.

Mixing is usually done on monitors not headphones.

bunnyma357

Re: Pro audio headphone amps - any experience?
« Reply #2 on: 19 May 2010, 04:43 pm »
Typically, headphones in pro audio aren't used for mixing. More often then not they are for talent to be able to monitor various mixes while recording without having the sound be picked up by a microphone creating feedback/echo. The headphone amps might be fine, but they generally aren't for critical monitoring, and probably aren't superior to most consumer products.

Jim C

macrojack

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Re: Pro audio headphone amps - any experience?
« Reply #3 on: 19 May 2010, 05:15 pm »
Look at Grace Design.

boead

Re: Pro audio headphone amps - any experience?
« Reply #4 on: 19 May 2010, 08:02 pm »
Grado. I liked the sound of thier headphone amp, and headphones too.

http://gradolabs.com/product_pages/ra1_amp.htm


macrojack

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Re: Pro audio headphone amps - any experience?
« Reply #5 on: 19 May 2010, 08:05 pm »
If you want Grado, I can provide AC group pricing.

Johnny2Bad

Re: Pro audio headphone amps - any experience?
« Reply #6 on: 2 Sep 2010, 01:03 am »
Pro Gear is good gear ... don't get me wrong, but whenever you shop/read/encounter bona fide pro gear (as compared to, say, stuff that real studios don't use but budget conscious music makers do) you have to keep in mind where the ultimate user is coming from. The gear is usually well made ... okay pro users and you would be on the same page there. But, do you need abuse-tolerant gear? They do. They also pay a great deal of attention to impedance matching of electronics, which often involves matching transformers in the signal path. Just an example, but a typical one. On the other hand, accurately sending transients down the signal path might just lead to expensive or deafening consequences, because this is live music, people step on things and cables become unplugged, not a trimmed and overload-limited mix like the final product will eventually be. Would you buy something where ultimate hifi was compromised in favor of these and other factors? They would. Some of it is true hifi but it's not a given. They also have a different approach to reproduction and overall sound quality than hifi enthusiasts. If your needs and the engineer/producer/label/artists needs were the same, there would be no bad sounding albums, would there? They don't shop the bargain bin at Wall-Mart, so they are willing to open their wallets for the right stuff, so it's probably not junk. If that jives with what you want, then fine. If you want the "best sound for my budget" then check out what you hifi peers prefer. If you find the same products preferred by both, then perhaps you have something worth considering.

mobayrasta

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Re: Pro audio headphone amps - any experience?
« Reply #7 on: 2 Sep 2010, 05:23 pm »
There is some really good pro-audio gear out there that does things as good if not better than there hi-fi counterparts. A couple of my favorites http://www.tcelectronic.com/bmc-2.asp The BMC-2 is a great DAC and has a really decent headphone amp built in also. It has 1000 different uses and is a great machine for the cost. Works great for either hi-fi or pro work. Another one of my favorites is the Behringer SRC2496 http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/SRC2496.aspx Has a wonderful sounding DAC that will upsample and a decent headphone amp. Off topic but the DEQ2496 http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/DEQ2496.aspx is also an awesome dac (same dac as in the SRC) and does some really cool things like stereo width and such.

There are definately some good pro audio headphone amps out there. There is also a lot of pro audio headphone amps that are nothing more than 5 to 8 c-moy clones in a row. Before you buy something post the model number of what you are thinking about getting and you could probably find one of us circllites that have used it and can give specific advice.

Oh and a really respected member of head-case said he can't tell the difference between the Behringer DAC that cost under 200 dollars and his Bel Cantro DAC 3 which cost more than 10 times its price. He said he just keeps the Bel Cantro so he can sound cooler to his peers........ LOL

Feel free to PM me if you want to talk about any specific pro audio gear.

Respect

Chris


mobayrasta

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Re: Pro audio headphone amps - any experience?
« Reply #8 on: 2 Sep 2010, 05:32 pm »
Grado. I liked the sound of thier headphone amp, and headphones too.

http://gradolabs.com/product_pages/ra1_amp.htm

Only problem with the GRADO amp is it is overpriced. You can find clones on ebay that use as good or better parts for well under 100 dollars. Now what you won't get is the pretty mahogany box that the amp is mounted in. It really is not much more than a glorified CMOY  .

I have heard this ebay amp http://cgi.ebay.com/PORTABLE-HEADPHONE-AMPLIFIER-RA-1-Special-Edition-/290429147819?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item439eed1aab right next to an authentic Grado RA1 and can't tell the difference. If anything the Chinese amp had a little bit more detail.........

Not trying to be a jerk , if I can help one person save some money and be just as happy I HAVE DONE MY JOB......... :lol: