Headphones running from speaker level outputs
Posted by: Ben Giles on 12 January 2004
The other headphone thread got me thinking. I've been considering my different options - whether to get a headline and 650s etc. But it ocurred to me that I could use my spare Nait 3 to power a pair of speaker level headphones. Does anyone have any experience of these beasties? I recall that AKG made a set - wonder if anyone's got any and can comment?
TIA
Ben
Posted on: 02 February 2004 by prowla
A couple of months back, I bought a QED unit that does that. Basically it's 4 screw terminals, a couple of hefty resistors, a volume knob, and a headphone jack socket.
I haven't tried it though because the previous owner had tried a repair and shorted it to the case. (And I really wanted it to modify to do the line-level method anyway.)
Paul Rowlands
Posted on: 03 February 2004 by JamH
Years ago I had a pair of electrostatic headphones [I can't remember the make but it might have been something like pbl]. They cost about Euro/Dollar 50 [at the time] and they worked from the power output of my Quad amp [40 watts per channel]. The sound was good but a bit too detailed in the treble and also they were quite [physically] uncomfortable for long listenning sessions. They came with a small connection box which I think is/was a transformer [They did not draw any mains power].
I have not tried them with my naim 250 amp since I think they could well destroy it by not have the correct impedance needed for the speaker cables.
The 'Can Opener' box suggested in the previous post sounds like a good idea for lots of headphone listenning but it's a pain to have to disconnect the cables from the speakers.
James
Posted on: 04 February 2004 by Chris Metcalfe
The problem with doing this is that the output from a power amp (plus the circuitry preceding the output, preamp, power supply etc) isn't best suited to headphones. I lashed up a connector and 'drove' HD600s from a NAP250, but got a much better sound from a Headline-1 driven by a NAPSC-1. And the Headline-2 is better than the -1.
Had previously used Audio-technica ATH-7s, ATH-70s, and ATH-9000, as well as Jecklin Float electrostatics. All were great in their way but ultimately the amps and the transformer box combine just gets between the phones and the music. Headline is the best option.
