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integrated amp and headphone amp?

ZEROTANGO

ZEROTANGO

New Member
I have searched around and I haven't found a good answer.

I have a Yamaha YP-211 turntable plugged into a Kenwood KA-54 Integrated amplifier and I'm listening with my sennheiser HD-380 headphones.

My question is a headphone amplifier a good upgrade between the integrated amp and headphones or is my integrated amp sufficient? Would I get a lot more definition and better sound with a headphone amp in between?
 
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I've tried it both ways. On some of the more modern/clinical sounding amps or receivers IMO a headphone amp adds some warmth. On my vintage 70's amps and receivers a headphone amp adds nothing. Just give it a try and go with what you like. That's all that really matters
 
It really depends how the amp drives the headphones. A lot of modern gear has separate opamps for cans. Vintage gear usually ties their output into the speaker output using step down resistors. The latter is almost always sufficient with no extra amp required. Opamps otoh can be hit or miss. My system was geared towards headphones when I started building it so my preamp is more accurately described as a headphone amp with a set of outputs for a power amp.

The only time where a vintage amp might be overkill is with low ohm headphones. Grados seem by all accounts to work fine however some low ohm IEMs hiss and him attached to older receivers and IAs.

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I have enjoyed the extra power provided by my Sansui preamp being fed by a DAC/headphone amp unit. While it is more than is needed by most of my can collection, there are those few that need a kick-in-the-pants to really come alive. Also, I perceive an added warmth from the pre-amplifier. Suits my preferences and keeps my vintage piece in the loop. As indicated above, let your ears be the judge. Since the pre has a phono amp, I'm covered that way. The specs on the pre are nearly as good as the DAC/Headphone amp, so any losses are not noticeable to me.
 
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I have a ton of vintage gear and spent many years listening through the headphone out of pre-amps, etc... I thought it was fine.

However, now that I am older and sharing the house with kids, wife, etc... I listen to my headphones more than my speakers.

I prefer the sound from stand alone headphone amps. You can run them off of your tape out connections. Eventually, I setup a dedicated headphone rig.

There are many decent headphone amps out there around $100. I would suggest the Schiit Vali at $120. No affiliation, just my opinion.
 
I have two vintage recievers a Marantz 2220B, and a 2226B, I also have a vintage Yamaha CA-610 II integreated amplifier. I also have a few dedicated headphone amps, and the main difference that I have noticed, is that the dedicated amps have a much lower noise floor, in fact, when I set the volume at the level I normally listen to, the background is completely silent to my hears, and this, of course, can be a very good thing, during those quiet musical passages.

Oh!, and all my headphones are Grados, by the way.
 
I've run my headphones through a Sansui AU-222 amp with pretty good results, but using a good dedicated headphone amp has made a huge improvement in sound quality. The key is matching the amp to the headphones. They don't all sound good together. My Audeze headphones sound lousy through a Marantz amp I have, but ok on the cheap Sansui, and incredible on my Yulong dedicated HP amp. I also have a Antique Sound Lab dedicated headphone amp, and the Audeze sound poor on it due to lack of power. Yet the ASL amp sounded ok on a pair of Q701's. I agree with Stacker45, that the floor noise is lowered.
 
I prefer a dedicated headphone amp. I try to keep the music raw and unprocessed as possible. So in your case, I would run the the headphone amp from the "tape out" to utilize the Turntable and the Kedwoods RIAA, but skip the tone controls.
 
I had been planning on getting an external headphone amp, but that all changed when I bought my Fisher 800C. The headphone-output on that thing is downright-amazing (It runs off the power tubes apparently, so you get the same great sound with headphones as you do with speakers). If you ever plan on upgrading to a tube-powered system and ALSO plan on using headphones a lot, consider buying an old 500C, 800C, or 400 (The *00C series models have the headphone-out). It's a great way to kill two birds with one stone, and those models can be had for under $500 all day long (I paid $425-$450 for mine WITH a case, and it already had the coupling caps replaced along with other caps).
 
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I bought from the record store the only headphone amp they had, a Citypulse EF-3.01 headphone amplifier with no instructions and no electrical plug at a cost of 200$ instead of (630$ New)
I bought a plug at value village for 2$. There is a remote that came with it and hasn't been unwrapped, it's heavy and made of steel!


Ok, I figured out where to plug the RCA wires: turntable to phono, then Rec to Input of headphone amplifier. I will write my experience after a few listening tests.

After 10 minutes going back and forth plugging my headphones into the headphone amp and my integrated amp I notice a good difference in quality. The best way to describe is like putting reading glasses on and the text becomes clear or the difference between a rough sculpture and the finished product. I think for 200$ it is worth the price but if I had to pay 630$ no way.
 
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The turntable is connected to the far left labeled "Phono", also connect the grounding wire (if it has one) to the GND lug above the "phono" jack.

The Headphone amp is connected to either tape a or b "Rec" jack. This will feed directly from any source that is connected (CD, Turntable, Radio).

Now make sure headamp volume is turned all the way down before you start, as the audio is straight from the source, the volume and tone knobs on the Kenwood will do nothing. You control volume to your cans at the headphone amp.

Kenwood_KA_550_9.jpg
 
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