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Newbie Question: Using Speaker Amps as Headphone Amps?

post #1 of 8
9/26/09 at 5:06pm
Thread Starter 
Sorry for the dumb question everybody - but could anyone explain why one could not just use speaker amps instead of a "headphone amp" -- provided that you had your headphones terminated in such a way as to connect?

It seems to me like then you might get a lot more amping power for quite a lot less money?

Okay, again, sorry if this is totally stupid, I just don't know!
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post #2 of 8
9/26/09 at 5:22pm
Headphones don't need the kind of power speakers do. There's also questions of impedance to consider.

Most headphones use well under 1 watt of power. There is zero benefit to giving them 80 watts, in that case, and it's extremely expensive to build an amp that can put out 80 watts of power to the same level of quality that a good headamp can put out one watt.

Part of what you need to know is that amping power does not correlate to volume in a linear fashion. If 1 watt drives speakers to 85 dB, two watts doesn't drive them to 170. Every successive milliwatt from the first onward gives you exponentially less volume than the one before it.
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post #3 of 8
9/26/09 at 5:24pm
.
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post #4 of 8
9/26/09 at 5:56pm
Speaker amps are designed for an (in general) an 8ohm load few if any good headphones present that kind of load for an amp. You can drive headphones from a speaker amp but you need to create an adapter to compensate for the difference in load and sensitivities in headphones vs speakers.

Here is one example
Headphone Adaptor for Power Amplifiers
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post #5 of 8
9/27/09 at 4:42am
Speaker amplifiers simply put out too much power for most headphones. Unless you talk AKG K1000 or K340 that is...
In most cases you are much better off using an amplifier specially designed for headphones.
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post #6 of 8
9/27/09 at 8:58am
my Yamaha RV 493 cannot drive my HD600 properly because these are an high impedance headphones (300 ohms) as opposed to the regular 6-12 ohms needed for speakers...
headphones and speakers, although both producing sounds, are two completely different beasts!
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post #7 of 8
9/28/09 at 4:05am
There are many amps and recent avr's that have very good headphone out's.

My Marantz avr with spdif in and with direct sound enabled[no processing] has a good sounding headphone out.
An old Kenwood amp I have in another room has a great sounding phone output,but its being fed from a RME card[analogue]

Are they as good as a dedicated headphone amp,maybe not, but depending on your music and your phones they can sound just as good.

If you have an amp/avr and you like its sound then save some money and enjoy it.
A dedicated amp for phones is not essential for good sound.
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post #8 of 8
12/30/09 at 8:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sherwood View Post
Part of what you need to know is that amping power does not correlate to volume in a linear fashion. If 1 watt drives speakers to 85 dB, two watts doesn't drive them to 170. Every successive milliwatt from the first onward gives you exponentially less volume than the one before it.
Then again dB isn't lineair either, it's logarithmic. 20dB isn't twice as loud as 10dB, but 10 times as loud. But then again, it doesn't really change your point. Just being a little smarty-pants .
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