[tipatina]

I have a BP26 which works well in my system as a preamp. I tried a pair of Sennheiser HD 650. I was surprised that the volume had to be turned pretty high for acceptable listening level-the sound was nowhere near as good as when being used in preamp mode in my system.  I then plugged into the headphone amp of my Marantz SACD and things were much better.
All of this leads be to question whether there is a malfunction with the headphone amp in the bP26. If this is normal behavior thats fine, I have other options. Anyone with experience using the headphone amp in the BP26? 

[rob80b]

I have a BP26 which works well in my system as a preamp. I tried a pair of Sennheiser HD 650. I was surprised that the volume had to be turned pretty high for acceptable listening level-the sound was nowhere near as good as when being used in preamp mode in my system.  I then plugged into the headphone amp of my Marantz SACD and things were much better.
All of this leads be to question whether there is a malfunction with the headphone amp in the bP26. If this is normal behavior thats fine, I have other options. Anyone with experience using the headphone amp in the BP26? 

The headphone out is powered off the preamp so not much gain, especially with something like the 300 Ohm Hd650s, had the same issue with my BP25, so yes this is normal with the Bryston.
Biggest issue is forgetting to lower the volume prior to disconnecting the headphones if the amp is on. 

[tipatina]

Thanks, very helpful. Only knock I can find on an otherwise great preamp.

[alanford69]

That was my experience as well, when I had the BP-26 I could not drive my HifiMan HE-400i at all.
The BR-20 headphone out is a different beast, now I have a Beyerdynamic DT 1770 Pro and sounds very well with the new preamp

[James Tanner]

Hi Folks,

Yes back in the day with the BP-26 most headphones were easier to drive so we just used the preamp to drive the phones.
The new BHA-1 and the new BR-20 and BP-19 preamps have a dedicated headphone section for the more difficult headphones available today.

james