Members Quarterwave Posted May 13, 2010 Members Share Posted May 13, 2010 Hi all, I'm at the point where I need to incorporate a rack-mountable headphone amp into my humble recording set up. I have a simple recording path using only 2 channels straight into a balanced-input soundcard - as I only record 1 track @ a time - acoustic guitar and vocals mostly. My monitoring set up is - sound card into an Alesis RA150 into a pair of unpowered Event 20/20's. I have access to a 12 channel Soundcraft mixer that has a headphone output if I can make that work, but I may need to run up to 4 headphones at one time, so maybe that option is out. After looking at the outboard headphone amps, they all seem to be crap until you get into the $400 + range (used), and truth be told, I don't want to spend that much on a headphone amp - I would rather spend it on another soft synth. Is there any way that I can split the sound coming from my soundcard to go direct into the Alesis power amp, and another signal into a headphone amp without causing any signal loss ? As I am trying to keep the signal path going to the monitors as clean as possible, as I'm sure that running it into a Samson or Behringer unit will have a detrimental effect on the sound.... Thanks in advance for any ideas.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Lee Knight Posted May 13, 2010 Moderators Share Posted May 13, 2010 Behringer makes a couple of things that I swear by... mostly cause they work way better than they should for how much they cost. One is the ADAT/Pre combo, and the other is the headphone amp. It's perfectly fine. cheap - got one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted May 13, 2010 Members Share Posted May 13, 2010 I agree with lee on this one. You can get one of these half rack amps that will drive up to 8 sets of bones. They have a flat responce, have plenty of power, has 2 channel inputs which are switchable for A/B comparison, and a line out to plug your studio monitors. All in all, you can push a button to shut off your studio monitors and just use the headphones, or vice versa. You have level meters too. http://www.walmart.com/ip/Behringer-Miniamp-AMP800-4-Channel-Stereo-Headphone-Amplifier/10333938?sourceid=1500000000000003260420&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=10333938 They have a whole series of the mini rack units which sound decent. Besides the headphone amp I got the mini preamp which is pretty darn good for a transistor unit. The voicing settings and limiter are mild but the phantom, and low cut come in handy for dubbing vocals. Much better than the cheap art starved tube preamps. They also make a mini, EQ, 24 bit effects unit, and a unit for bussing and connecting Turntables. Again not the highest quality, but a big step low budget stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted May 13, 2010 Members Share Posted May 13, 2010 Rolls makes one that costs almost nothing, is rock solid, and works really well. Good and loud, with four adjustable volume "faders", and surprisingly clean for the money. Check that one out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted May 13, 2010 Members Share Posted May 13, 2010 Rolls makes one that costs almost nothing, is rock solid, and works really well. Good and loud, with four adjustable volume "faders", and surprisingly clean for the money. Check that one out. I have one of those too. Not so rock soild though. Mine developed a distortion problem probibly cause by long headphone extensions that loaded the signal too much. I replaced all the op amps but it still distorts. I did a signal trace on it and the signals clean before a cap and distorted afterwards, so i'm 99% sure I just need to replace that but just havent gotten around to it. Sound wise, they will do the job for tracking and dont color the sound. I prefer a littel more beef myself. I have one really good set of headphones that sound good with anything. I got maybe 20 other sets all of varying quality. Some need that extra boost to perform well especially for the drummer. I do have a wireless set that gets alot of use. The transmitter remains connected and I can just press the button on the headset and adjust the volume on the side. Quality isnt the best but for the convenience its a winner for tracking and not having to deal with the extra wire. lightweight and comfortable too. It uses an infared signal which is a straight path so if you got people walking in front of the transmitter it may not be the best tool. I put the transmitter up high so thats minimised and it is quick and easy. You just need to remember to shut it off. I left it on for 2 days and the thing was still working so the battery life is pretty good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members UstadKhanAli Posted May 13, 2010 Members Share Posted May 13, 2010 I've been lucky then. Mine's gotten kicked around a little because it's often on the floor, but so far, it's solid thankfully!! Then again, I haven't loaded 'em as much as you have... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Quarterwave Posted May 14, 2010 Author Members Share Posted May 14, 2010 Ok, thanks for the insight guys - I'll look into the Behringer, Rolls or Samson units. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WRGKMC Posted May 14, 2010 Members Share Posted May 14, 2010 I've been lucky then. Mine's gotten kicked around a little because it's often on the floor, but so far, it's solid thankfully!! Then again, I haven't loaded 'em as much as you have... I may have just had too much load on it like I said, maybe it was just built with a weak cap. Quarterwave, ART makes a small version too. If you want a full rack unit, Behringer and Alesis make large ones too. I power extra monitor speakers with some HiFi heads. I use a set or Car Speakers and HiFi speakers besides my studio monitors to check mixes. Each of those heads have Headphone jacks I use for tracking. I do prefer the one because the head has a mono switch that comes in real handy. The tone controlls help too. Sometimes I may have a hard time hearing something in a raw mix when adding parts. If I'm adding bass and I'm having a hard time hearing the kick or snare to follow the beat, Instead of popping an EQ in those tracks, I can just boost the high or low end with the tone knobs and get the mix adjusted good enough so I can filter out parts I dont need to hear or bring up the things I do. Tracking vocals or dual tracking guitars can benifit from this too. I'm able to loop the EQ with a button too and can get the tracking mix any way thats needed in the headphones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members nerol1st Posted May 15, 2010 Members Share Posted May 15, 2010 This is the one thing where I think Behringer is ok. Headphone amps are not in your recording chain so why not go for one that does the job. I have the presonus HP4, and while it has plenty of headroom, the lack of I/O on it ruins it for me personally. I really want the HP60. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members GZsound Posted May 15, 2010 Members Share Posted May 15, 2010 I have a couple of old Samson headphone amps and a newer Behringer. All of them work just fine. The Behringer will accept two separate inputs so I can run four independent monitor mixes with the two Samsons. I don't think you need to spend a ton of money on headphone amps since they are basically for monitoring and as has been said, not in the recording chain. Spend your money on something else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ambient Posted June 4, 2010 Members Share Posted June 4, 2010 +1 on the behringer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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