egr
Offline
Abandoned on Fire

I've got an older pair of excellent headphones that I use with my mixer but they're 300ohms so almost nothing else I have can drive them.  I've been looking around at portable (battery powered) headphone amps but the prices and reviews are all over the place.  Anybody have recommendations or experience to help me find a solution?  Thanks!

These are all over eBay and is what I'll probably go with if nobody has an opinion:  http://head-direct.com/product_detail.php?p=36

I'd prefer not to go over $30 on this if that's possible.

low-gain
Offline
Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA
egr wrote:

I'd prefer not to go over $30 on this if that's possible.

Then you wouldn't want my pocket mixer i'm designing. 

teehee


Your best bet would be to purchase one of those nuby speaker systems that plug onto the bottom of the dmg, then mod it to have a headphone output (just run the headphone output in parallel w/ the internal speakers of the nuby. Should be more than powerful enough to drive a 300ohm load.
Just watch your ears!

egr
Offline
Abandoned on Fire
low-gain wrote:
egr wrote:

I'd prefer not to go over $30 on this if that's possible.

Then you wouldn't want my pocket mixer i'm designing. 

teehee


Your best bet would be to purchase one of those nuby speaker systems that plug onto the bottom of the dmg, then mod it to have a headphone output (just run the headphone output in parallel w/ the internal speakers of the nuby. Should be more than powerful enough to drive a 300ohm load.
Just watch your ears!

That's an interesting idea!  I've already got a couple of those mp3 player cases with the powered speakers built in.  I'll sacrifice one in the name of science.  smile

EDIT:  ...and I AM interested in your mixer design, I'd just like to get more use out of my AKGs right now

Last edited by egr (Jan 26, 2010 6:52 pm)

low-gain
Offline
Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA

excellent..

yeah. just wire the + sides of the speakers to your L and R of your headphone jack, then the - sides of the speakers should already be common to each other so running a wire from just one of them to the ground should be all you need to get it to work. If you dont want the internal speakers of the device to run while using the speakers just put those on a simple DPDT switch to turn them on/off while leaving the headphone jack you've wired in parallel (probably wired directly to the amp's pcb, not the speakers) in tact.

smile Let us know how it turns out!

BitPop
Offline
York, Yorkshire

This is what I have

http://www.behringer.de/EN/Products/HA400.aspx

It's very good with my 64ohm HD280s. Not sure how it will run 300ohm, maybe drop Behringer an email and see?

This seems to be their ticketing system

Last edited by BitPop (Jan 29, 2010 4:22 pm)

low-gain
Offline
Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA
BitPop wrote:

This is what I have

http://www.behringer.de/EN/Products/HA400.aspx

It's very good with my 64ohm HD280s. Not sure how it will run 300ohm, maybe drop Behringer an email and see?

This seems to be their ticketing system


Price sure is right on that. Might be a good option for the money.

Ogrim
Offline
Westcoast Norway

I believe the CMOY headphone amp is able to drive 300ohm. I got a kit off eBay for 20$.

low-gain
Offline
Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA

hell the built unit is $20. you can't go wrong!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi … 0200722078

and it's even bi-polar supply! which means more headroom! WooT!

Ogrim
Offline
Westcoast Norway

where is the fun in not building it yourself? wink however, I would probably buy the pre-build if only for the case. my CMOY looks like a homemade explosives device, so I dare not bring it on flights tongue

egr
Offline
Abandoned on Fire
low-gain wrote:

hell the built unit is $20. you can't go wrong!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi … 0200722078

and it's even bi-polar supply! which means more headroom! WooT!

Yeah, I believe this or something very close is what I'm going for.  I pulled apart one of the mp3 player amps that I had and decided that the parts and labor I would need to convert it weren't worth the hassle when these are available.  Also, I can blame someone else when it jacks up my equipment lol smile

EDIT:  This is the other option I'm considering.  Has USB rechargeable battery and very good reviews.  Might not have the juice I need tho.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi … K:MEWAX:IT

Last edited by egr (Jan 29, 2010 5:50 pm)

low-gain
Offline
Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA

my guess is that that USB headphone amp will probably not drive much for very long. given the fact that it's a single rail 5 volt supply.

the CMOY is a +/- 9V supply which will/should give you more headroom, and more driving power.

Ii'm going to order one of the built units only to save on time. The circuit in realty would only cost you about $8 to make but you get a printed circuit board which saves time.
But $20 w/ chassis is stupid cheap. no clue who they're making money on it. but oh well.. When i get one i'll give it a listen to see how i like it.. and report back to this thread.

arfink
Offline
Minneapolis

Cool. I got a cheap pair of cans that could really use a decent amp... actually, they could use alot of things, like a headband that doesn't *creak* when you move your head! Anyways... this looks like a nice enough thing.

low-gain
Offline
Milwaukee, Wisconsin USA

just noticed.. the reason for it's being so cheap.. smile look where he's located. teehee

Beware
Offline

I was just about to recommend anything from Fiio, but I was already beaten to the punch!  Great stuff for amazing prices.

BitPop
Offline
York, Yorkshire

Aw man!  If I didn't already have a headphone amp I'd buy this RIGHT NOW

egr
Offline
Abandoned on Fire
low-gain wrote:

my guess is that that USB headphone amp will probably not drive much for very long. given the fact that it's a single rail 5 volt supply.

the CMOY is a +/- 9V supply which will/should give you more headroom, and more driving power.

Ii'm going to order one of the built units only to save on time. The circuit in realty would only cost you about $8 to make but you get a printed circuit board which saves time.
But $20 w/ chassis is stupid cheap. no clue who they're making money on it. but oh well.. When i get one i'll give it a listen to see how i like it.. and report back to this thread.

I've got one on it's way as well.  I finally found some real discussion about it (including some responses from the builder):

http://rockgrotto.proboards.com/index.c … amp;page=1

Very positive stuff.