Using a Surround Sound "Amp" for headphones

Read the 'vintage receiver' thread on here for plenty of thought on this...

-Daniel

Quote:

Originally Posted by Windsong 

No, I'm not trying to make them sound surround sound. I just thought maybe I could use my Pioneer surround sound processor (the thing you plug the speakers into) as a headphone amp to get better sound. It has a headphone out of course. What do you think?

I actually thought the same thing when I first got into head-fi. I have a Pioneer VSX-1019AHK as my AVR and LCD-2s as my headphones. The Pioneer definately has enough power to drive them, but not in any eloquent manner. Through the Pioneer AVR, I did most of my listening to cable music channels. My cable box is connected via optical to my receiver. I don't think that the Pioneer does a fantastic job of D/A conversion for music when compared to dedicated DACs. The sound out of the headphone jack sounded flat in comparison to what I've heard. Most people I've spoken to about current Pioneer receivers don't recommend them for music but rather for movies and home theater. Apparently Denon, Yamaha, and Onkyo do a better job with music. Of this I cannot speak to this because I have not heard them.

With respect to the vintage receiver thread, definately check it out. Be careful, it can become addicting. I recently acquired a vintage receiver, a Luxman R1120, off of Craigslist and it blows away my Pioneer AVR with respect to stereo music listening through my speakers (Def Tech 7002) and for headphone listening. No comparison. And the receiver is 30+ years old and it cost me less than half what I paid for the Pioneer. They were bred for different purposes.

The Pioneer AVR's (or most AVRs of today) are not meant to be hifi quality audio machines. The manufacturers of these new receivers love to push how many channels can be driven at once and how many watts you get per channel, that all sorts of Dolby soundtracks can be decoded. They are purposed more for home theater and movies. Today the common measurement of wattage is the max per channel. In the 70's the measurement was for RMS power. Big difference. I highly recommend finding a nice vintage receiver if you want to go cheap. Check out the vintage thread like BournePerfect recommends or Audiokarma if you want a plethora of information.