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When did headphone amps become "necessary"?

soulfarmer

soulfarmer

Active Member
Most advertisements for headphone amps (or phono preamps for that matter) seem to have a line in them like "the headphone jack on most modern day amplifiers are an afterthought and are crap so you need to buy our product".

What about older gear? Was there ever a time when the headphone jacks were good? Is there a general time period when the quality started decreasing? I was talking to a guy at the audio store who I trust who commented that the headphone jack on my 70's Sherwood "should be pretty good". It does sound pretty good, but GAS always makes me wonder if a headphone amp would make it sound even better :music:

Thanks,
J
 
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You often hear about the poor quality of op-amps used for the amplification of headphone jacks, but the majority of headphone jacks on amps are run off the speaker outputs with 50 to 100 ohm resistors as pads. So the argument can't be made for everything.
 
There are several ways to get a headphone-out signal. The most common is simply to attenuate the regular output with a resistor, as Celt mentioned. This is especially common on most of the vintage silver-fronted gear so many of us around here like. In most cases, this makes for quite good headphone sound. Try the headphone out from a 2285B or 9090 and you shouldn't be disappointed. In fact, the Marantz 1060 amp has often been recommended for use as a headphone amp! Few models would have had dedicated headphone amplification, separate from the main amp circuits, as this involved added expense in an area that most consumers wouldn't have known or cared about.

That said, there are poor-sounding headphone jacks on some gear. I think it is probably much more common in modern amps than in vintage. A lot of listening today is done through crappy earbuds; in a world where "Beats by Dr. Dre" is considered high-end and most people listen to MP3s, you don't need high-fidelity output for headphones to sell your product. Those who care about headphone sound will buy separate units, anyway. That's a bit ironic, though, as some modern chip circuitry (Tripath chip models come to mind) should sound good through cans.

In any case, a dedicated headphone amp will usually be designed from ground up with the typical characteristics of headphones in mind, and should give a better result than at least some units out there. A high-end headphone amp paired with a high-end set of cans can be a near-orgasmic sonic excursion that everyone should experience.

To answer the original question, I think headphone amps became "necessary" when: (1) people tried them and found the sound was improved, and started spreading the word.
(2) sellers realized they can make more money by promoting the idea that these things are necessary! (They aren't, in many cases, but they can be worth the expenditure nonetheless.)

Of course, a lot of (esp. high-end) gear doesn't even have a headphone jack. In such cases, some sort of headphone amp/output device is a must, if you want to use headphones.
 
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I've asked this myself. My Soundcraftsmen pre-amps have always handled headphones well. Some even have two jacks; one to kill the output to the power-amp automatically and the other to not. Add to that that all my Crown PS-series amps have a "monitor" jack on the front panel that can also be used for phones. I can't imagine why I'd need anything else, but then I'm not using cans as my primary listening source.
 
IME, any headphone amp I've had (3 now) have been better than to significantly better than any headphone out I've tried (of new and old receivers and integrated amps).

Just IME. Imo it's worth it to try; you can always sell it back for not too much loss if you don't like it/think it's worth it, or maybe even try a company that will give you a trial period.
 
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Arkay said:
There are several ways to get a headphone-out signal. The most common is simply to attenuate the regular output with a resistor, as Celt mentioned. This is especially common on most of the vintage silver-fronted gear so many of us around here like. In most cases, this makes for quite good headphone sound. Try the headphone out from a 2285B or 9090 and you shouldn't be disappointed. In fact, the Marantz 1060 amp has often been recommended for use as a headphone amp! Few models would have had dedicated headphone amplification, separate from the main amp circuits, as this involved added expense in an area that most consumers wouldn't have known or cared about.

That said, there are poor-sounding headphone jacks on some gear. I think it is probably much more common in modern amps than in vintage. A lot of listening today is done through crappy earbuds; in a world where "Beats by Dr. Dre" is considered high-end and most people listen to MP3s, you don't need high-fidelity output for headphones to sell your product. Those who care about headphone sound will buy separate units, anyway. That's a bit ironic, though, as some modern chip circuitry (Tripath chip models come to mind) should sound good through cans.

In any case, a dedicated headphone amp will usually be designed from ground up with the typical characteristics of headphones in mind, and should give a better result than at least some units out there. A high-end headphone amp paired with a high-end set of cans can be a near-orgasmic sonic excursion that everyone should experience.

To answer the original question, I think headphone amps became "necessary" when: (1) people tried them and found the sound was improved, and started spreading the word.
(2) sellers realized they can make more money by promoting the idea that these things are necessary! (They aren't, in many cases, but they can be worth the expenditure nonetheless.)

Of course, a lot of (esp. high-end) gear doesn't even have a headphone jack. In such cases, some sort of headphone amp/output device is a must, if you want to use headphones.
Click to expand...

Arkay, well stated. But, "near-orgasmic sonic excursion"........man, I need to get some better HP equipment. :D
 
I plan on adding headphone jacks to my tube amp set up like this. I have some gold headphone 1/4 jacks from Radio Shack. Just trying to figure what value resistor I'll need. Headphones plan to use are 50 Ohms 91 db. Haven't got to that project yet though.
 
To be fair, the headphone jack on almost all amplifiers is an afterthought:D

Arkay pretty much nailed the reasoning, most vintage amps simply pass the audio to a couple of cement resistors, to take the signal down to headphone level...other amps may have a simple little transistor amp, or op-amp for headphones. All of those can of course, sound pretty good. In my opinon, and indeed, personal experiance, though, a dedicated amp will really help improve things, even a middlin' headphone amp and middlin' headphones can sound pretty good, and better than through amplifiers.

My headphone setup, a little dot i+ w/ grado sr-60i's sounds awesome, and was overall about $200-$250, it sound better than my pioneer sx-727, and speakers...far better, in fact (it's what I base sound quality, and albums, on for the time being). I have tryed the headphone combo on the 727, it's nowhere near the same.

A dedicated system means it was make for heaphones, which are typically much higher ohms, and have different circuit assumptions (ie; resistance, current, etc) than a main amplifier.

I will say, though that the 727 and my old pioneer se-305 headphones are a pretty good match for each other, same with the pioneer se-2p's. But those were probably made with pioneer equipment in mind. Your sherwood probably does pretty well, and if you are happy with it, then don't worry about it...but if you do a lot of headphone listening, then I would recommend a dedicated amp.

EDIT; wow, lots of words, but little said:D
To DrMux, good luck on the project, sounds like fun!:thmbsp:
 
I think the big change was the change to higher impedance headphones. Back in the day, I think most phones were 8 or at most 16 ohms. I could be wrong, but the ones I had my hands on were. Low impedance phones need a lower voltage (but more current) to drive to acceptable levels. They worked pretty good off of op-amps driven with 12 volt rails. Higher impedance phones need more voltage swing, so the old headphone amps just don't cut it anymore. My new AKG-701 are 62 ohms....

Terry
 
I've been using a full size receiver as a headphone in my dinky cube at work for a while now. I've wanted a headphone for a while now and have flip-flopped between a SS Meier and a Chinese hybrid import. Mere want advanced to need a couple of weeks ago when I found out about this one. I need this Schiit:

http://schiit.com/products/valhalla/
 
elcoholic said:
I've been using a full size receiver as a headphone in my dinky cube at work for a while now. I've wanted a headphone for a while now and have flip-flopped between a SS Meier and a Chinese hybrid import. Mere want advanced to need a couple of weeks ago when I found out about this one. I need this Schiit:

http://schiit.com/products/valhalla/
Click to expand...

Allow me, "that's some good schiit"! :D

they don't say sch... er anything about who make the 6N1P or 6N6P tubes. Chinese maybe at $40 for 2 matched pairs. Dunno.
 
There is a difference between a need and an accessory! Thus a new business genre was born. Driven by the harder to drive properly modern headphones.
Regards,
Jim
 
When people want a different sound signature...or they have high impedance headphones, who require serious power to be driven.
 
If you are searching for the best sound possible, let me assure you that a good set of headphones and a good headphone amp will sound far better than a headphone setup coming out of a receiver. I have a couple of headphone amps that are truly amazing. I have the Stax SRM007t, Stax SRM007ta and the Headroom Balanced Max Headphone Amp. I use a number of headphones with these amps including the Stax Omega two, Stax 4070, Stax Sigma Pro, Stax Lambda Pro as well as the Sennheiser 650s. The sound is just amazing. If you are an audiophile and you are looking for the best sound possible, then this is it; not the sound of a headphone coming out of a reciever. Scottsmrnyc
 
I got a pair of K701s...out of the headphone outs from Yamaha A-700, Pioneer garbage 5.1 receiver and headroom airhead the best is the Yamaha integrated IMO. The pioneer's was obviously an afterthought and the headroom is average at best. It does drive efficient speakers well during power outs :P
 
Celt said:
You often hear about the poor quality of op-amps used for the amplification of headphone jacks, but the majority of headphone jacks on amps are run off the speaker outputs with 50 to 100 ohm resistors as pads. So the argument can't be made for everything.
Click to expand...


I had some tell me the same thing. I've done allot of reading on this subject since then and find that it simply is not true in many cases when dealing with decent audio equipment.
 
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For some folks, a trip to Rat Shack to obtain some rca to headhpone jack adaptors and plug them into your cd player output directly (assuming cd player has volume control) and you might be very happy assuming you don't need ear shattering levels.
 
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