Turntable & Headphones

You need at least a phono stage to equalise the signal from the cartridge and an amplifier to amplify this signal to the headphones. With Naim, the purest method would be a stageline phono stage into a headline headphone amp, both powered by NAPSC power supplies or better.

That's a 4-box solution; a 1-box solution would be any integrated amp with a phono stage and a headphone socket. You'd get a pretty good sound out of the NAD series.

Hi Chris,

I already have a phono stage, all I am looking for is something cheap and chearfull that would power the headphones.


Regards


NB

How cheap? There are headphone amps on the market for £29.99, but the cheapest Naim combo is over £500. The Creek one at about £150 is very good.

Alex,

The Roksan has come to the office to get it away from small children, hence the need to buy a new amp!

It isn't for the new sistem sadly, I am seriously considering putting the new sistem in storage, again to stop it being damaged. Its not funny seeing someone kicking your drive units!

Regards

NB

Rod,

I have just picked the chips up! It will be next week at the earliest before I get chance to listen to them.


Regards


NB

If you already have a phono stage, you could just add a headphone amp. One relatively inexpensive model comes from Project - the same people who make the cheap phono stages. It comes in an SE style box. It has two line inputs and two headphone outputs so you can share with your work colleagues. The two line inputs is a really nice feature since you can attach both your phono stage and CD/MP3 player to it at once.

Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.

[This message was edited by Frank Abela on THURSDAY 13 November 2003 at 17:33.]

Look around on http://www.head-fi.org/

They have a dedicated section on headphone amplifiers.

You'll have to figure out how much you’d like to spend, tubes or solid state, battery or AC. Lots of question.

It’s a great site with lots of helpful people.


Mitch aka braillediver

Frank,

Please forgive me for being thick but can I just plug this in between the phono stage and the headphones?

I don't really want to go to the expense of another amplifier!


Regards


NB

er...yes. The phono stage provides line level output. The headphone amp is just that - an amp dedicated for headphone usage, just like a Headline.

Regards,
Frank.
All opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of any organisations I work for, except where this is stated explicitly.

Thanks Frank,


NB

Elsewhere there's details of how to mod a 62 for headphones. (I'm just looking to swap my 62 for a headline, but will do the mod if there's no takers.)
In your case it'd be a few quids to go down that route though. Looking at ebay, 62s seem to be going for up to £200 at the moment and then you'd need a SNAPS or Hi-Cap.
Perhaps it would be better to buy a s/h integrated amp instead...

Paul Rowlands

In the end I went for a Creek OBH-21SE headphone amp. It has arived today and its a nice piece of kit.

Sounds pretty good as well, initial sound out of the box is nicely balanced. Its quite smooth, bass is quite powerfull and the mid-range is nice and open.

At least it gives me chance to listen to some of my CD's.

Regards


NB


Sistem is now Roksan Caspian, Creek Headphone amp, Sennheiser 590's!