Headphone output of Sansui's integrated amps?(+)

[doussia]

Hi there!
Haven't received the AU-D907 yet, but already have a question regarding the quality of headphone output in this or other quality Sansui integrated amps. At the same time as I am looking for a speaker amp, I am looking for a headphone amp (my wife is pregnant, so I expect not to have many opportunities to listen to the 'big' amp pretty soon).

I am now considering a dedicated headphone amp. What can you say about the overall quality of sound one can get from a 'phone' jack of a good Sansui amp?

Thanks in advance,
Andrei

 

[Punker X]

The headphone jack it hooked to the output of the amp and is not a separate part or card in the amp. There is just a resistive network to reduce the output to the jack. So if your new Sansui amp is good, the output at the HD jack will also be good.

X

 

[doussia]

to Punker X

Thanks for your answer.

The reason I am asking this question is all this fuss about headphone output stages generally being of poor quality because they are engineered as a secondary 'extra' with no real thought or effort put into making them sound good. Matter of fact, makes sense. Or is it a novelty associated with all these 'new trends and continuous improvements' that make modern equipment sound 'continuously' inferior?

Actually, I thought that a headphone jack is fed from the preamp circuits, not the power stages. Wrong, am I?

Cheers,
Andrei

 

[Punker X]

Most if not all vintage equipment that I have worked on, the headphones are directly off the main outputs, with a few resistors to reduce the signal. The Sansui G-4500 I have on the bench right now is that way. When I was using a Marantz 3300 pre-amp. I didn't have headphones unless I ran the output of the power amp to the pre and used the pre to switch between speakers A or B.

X

 

[doussia]

Dont these resistors compromise sound quality?

A.

 

[Punker X]

I really could say. I am definately not an audiophile. I've never taken the time to rig up something to bypass those resistors and A and B with headphones.

Resistors are passive components, at audio frequencies there should be no reaction with a resistive component. There for theoretically there should be no difference in the quality. There could be interduce interference from the wiring to the headphone jack since the wiring is usally run from the back where the outputs are to the front of the unit.

On some units with problems the head phone jack may sound good where the speaker outputs have problems. For instance I just finished up this G-4500. The headphones sounded fine, but when I hooked up speakers and interduced a load to the amp, I found that amps were actually blown.

X