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From phono stage straight into headphone amp

ikorman

ikorman

Active Member
I have been posting like a regular newby all over the forum so it's time for a headphone question. :-)

I do most of my listening using headphones. I will be building a phono stage soon and a DYI headphone amp could be just around the corner. I wondering if I can bypass my Marantz 1120 altogether. In other words, if I don't need to drive speakers, can I go from phono stage straight into a headphone amp? Do most headphone amps have a gain control? What about tone: like bass and treble?

I have a couple of EQs. Can they be inserted between phono stage and headphone amp for tone control?

Last question (at least for this post): is there such a thing as good sounding wireless headphones? What kind of prices do they command? I remember getting some expensive Radio Shack wireless headphones a decade ago but they sucked. Did this technology improve?
 
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Any reason why you can't keep the TT plugged into the Marantz, and use the headphone jack?

I can't comment on wireless headphones, because I don't know.
 
mayidunk said:
Any reason why you can't keep the TT plugged into the Marantz, and use the headphone jack?

I can't comment on wireless headphones, because I don't know.
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To simplify things? And I am not happy with the noises coming from the Marantz phono stage.
 
While your aspritions towards a minimalst approach by going directly from a phono stage to a headphone amp are admirable, your insertion of an eq and wireless phones are totally conrdictory to any gains you might make.

With wireless headphones you will totally negate the headphone amp. In fact, you would/might be able to bypass it totally, except for a volume control.
 
Just make sure it does not reverse polarity, like my CJ pre-amp. It's phono stage is totally incompatible with my headphone amp.
 
I use the low side pre-outs on my Jolida JD9 phono stage straight to my headphone amp. Sounds wonderful!!
Regards, Sam :music:
 
I've been using the phono-preamp-to-headphone amp architecture in my home office system for the last 3 years. Works great :music:. Initially, I had a Dynavector P-75 feeding a Little Dot Mk III, but have since replaced the LD with a McCormack Micro-Headphone Drive.
 
sabocat said:
Hey Tedrick, how's that Nova sound with your classic?
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Sabocat,
Sorry for the tardy response; I've been off-line for the last couple of days.

I like the Nova Phonomena a lot. I'm currently using a Lyra Delos LOMC which displaced a Dynavector 17D3 Karat. Both carts worked really well with the Nova and sounded great.
 
Cool. I'm toying with the idea of selling my preamp and possibly my headphone amp for a good pre with a headphone amp output. The CJ, with it's reversed polarity, does not mesh with my headphone amp. Any ideas?
 
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