Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Anyone using a headphone amp?

This is strictly focused on headphone use and not through any speaker setup, since there seems to be quite a few threads on that sort of setup.

I have a casio px330 paired with an akg k240 Studio thanks to the suggestions here and they sound great. What I noticed and sort of lived with is that my output volume caps at around 50-60 percent through these headphones. One solution points to buying a portable headphone amp but I was curious to know if anyone here is using this kind of setup on their DP since these products can get pricey.

A headphone amp will almost certainly solve the problem. If you can, see if you can buy one from a place with a good return/exchange policy though, just in case you don't get a good one to begin with. I bought one and it ended up actually not being good enough, and I use the headphone output on my hi-fi amp instead, which is excellent. I think I was very unlucky though.
When you test it, play at a slightly uncomfortably loud level, and see if the sound remains very clear and undistorted. Use the line-out from the PX-330 to drive the headphone amp - NOT the headphone output.

Greg.

try those: they are really cheap but have great quality: http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.18350 (free worldwide shipping, can't beat that)

I'll most likely move that direction myself since Headphones can be considered my "other" hobby. I give the edge to the AE-2 but Headroom is probably better for first time buyers. Headroom is a great company that is standard setting for an internet store. I've ordered from them before.

Headamp AE-2

HeadRoom Micro Amp

Thanks for the quick responses. Just to squeeze out additional information on further posts, can you name your headphone amp and your personal opinion on them?


p.s.
This is just so I can (or anyone else) use this as a reference on comparing products. I myself was looking at the Total Airhead / Bithead.

Well.. I have an uber set up for my main headphone music rig at home but I've heard the AE-2 at a meet before and trust Dr. Gilmore's engineering and manufacturing to buy for sure. A dedicated amp in this category will reduce the fine grain on the mids and highs, increase dynamics and lower the noise floor (really important for piano). It should be noted, all improvements will be marginal, but, as an audiophile myself, I have no problems facing the diminishing returns that mark the hobby. The headroom offering will be similar as the designs are very similar but I give the edge in customer service to headroom. They're a really excellent group.

I use a headphone amp, but not for a DP, but for an (Expensive) computer setup. I own the Grace Design 901 (which is priced at around 1500$), but it does an incredible job. It even emulates the 'space' given with speakers, so it's extremely accurate. The amp along with my Sennheisser HD600 do a stunning job! (Regardless that I mix on my control room, with my speakers, but the sound is also coming out on digital to the Grace Design and then to my monitors).

Sorry for my question but using acheap head amp like the Fiio E5, would it give me a better sound plugged at my clavinova line out than using the headphone our jack without the amp?

Instead of using an external headphone amp, maybe you can get a noise reduction set of headphones that have a built-in amp to drive the post processed noise reduced signal. I have an Able Planet noise reduction set I bought at Costco for around $50 and while you can use it as is with turning on the noise reduction, the volume is much louder with the noise reduction turned on, beside the noise reduction benefit. The sound is very good with it and I prefer it over other headphones I have to use on my DP.

I own a pair of sony's that have this noise reduction feature and it was the phones I was using before I purchased the k240s. They are very good on their volume but the quality of sound that comes from the k240s is something I very much want to stick with. As stated before on this forum, they really do sound like you're not wearing headphones and even surpass the quality of my internal speakers.

I know these amps will double their usefulness since I own other gadgets I can pair them with.

I tried posting on head-fi for suggestions on portable amps and DP pairing but got no love there. I also did post a budget of 100-150 so maybe that swayed off any replies to the topic. Here however if anyone has any suggestions please do share. Do consider price tag but for the sake of knowing whats out there I'll keep an open mind and SORT of an open budget. lol

wower,

I got really interested in this hobby while researching all of the different headphones out there. Head-fi almost got me to buy an HD600 as a first pair! Crazy price tags on something that isn't a linear price to quality ratio. To get into this would be awesome, but man, my wallet just can't handle the burden of it all.

.

I have those same headphones. I think my Yamaha DP drives them loud enough. But I notice that the amp built into my PreSonus irewire audio interface box makes the same headphones sound better and also, unlike the Yamaha Dp can drive to to the point of being way to loud

What I want now is a switch box with a built-in headphone amp. I play the piano either through the computer or use the internal sound. and then this goes to either headphones or external speakers. I'd like independent volume controls for headphones and speakers and a bix A/B switch to select the source. Looks like I'll have to built one as I doubt I can find anything like that off the self.

Is this headphone amp market meant for suckers? They want $349 for that unit!

Inside? Just two chips and a few passive components. At that rate a piano would cost millions.

What a racket!

RE: the switch box, I like M-Audio's idea of putting a computer audio interface right in the keyboard - e.g:
http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/ProKeysSono88.html
so you can leave the headphones plugged in to the keyboard for either the internal sounds or external computer generated sounds.
(in theory - I haven't actually tried one)

Greg.

I use this one.

Obviously not in the same league as the others listed here, but much, much cheaper.

I have some of what you are looking for done on the cheap. My M-Audio 2496 soundcard's RCA outs are split to go to a line level volume control (which controls the level of the daisy chained sub and satellite speakers) and the headphone amp I linked in my other post. I don't have an A/B switch (although this low buck one would work)



Looks like I need to dust!

As you mentioned, an AB switch would be nicer as I wouldn't have to turn one volume down and the other up when I switch between the two. I should do that.

i've built my own op amp to boost a signal, a 4 line mixer, and also bought the presonus 4 output headphone amp which I'm pretty happy with. I've tried a bunch of chips on my op amp, you know how they say this op amp is better than that op amp etc., most of them are completely linear and the difference only shows up when you drive them hard, and you get to hear clipping or the op amp oscillates, the better op amps will show better behavior at the extremes. You can also find that the cheaper headphone amps have poor power supplies, which of course you can replace with something you buy yourself if you hear hum from the supply. When I built mine, I went with a switched 9v power supply, very nice.

I'm not sure what products you are looking at the presonus hp4 is about $125, if I built it from scratch by hand, it would cost about the same to make.

I guess you can buy headphone amps with all kinds of EQ's and loudness controls on them, but that sort of thing should already be inside your piano.

I've also taken into consideration that I could "build" one and macmacmac's little comment made me think thats the route to go if it's possible. Does anyone have any plans or schematics and part list of a project you could DIY?

Google for that. There are MANY listings.

People like to make small battery operated jobs, built into small metal Altoids mint boxes.

Simpler solution ... Why not just buy a small stereo amplifier? You can get one for less than the price of the parts for a homemade headphone amp. It's a lot less trouble, too. There are plenty of them to be found on ebay.