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Use Kenwood KA-70 to power head phones?

post #1 of 9
10/28/11 at 11:02am
Thread Starter 

Hi,

 

How could I attach the speaker amp to headphones?

 

The amp is 8-16 ohms and 60 watts 

 

I was thinking maybe attaching the positive and negative speaker wires of L and R channels to L and R RCA cables, then using an RCA to 3.5mm stereo Y-cable?

 

Would this work? Are there risks of damage?

 

 

Thanks

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post #2 of 9
11/1/11 at 9:58am
Thread Starter 

Any thoughts?

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post #3 of 9
11/1/11 at 10:14am

That's a lot of power to drive through headphones. Does it not have a headphone jack on the front? Most of the integrated amps do.

 

Typically systems that use the speaker outs, run them through a transformer of some sort, to control the signal strength.

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post #4 of 9
11/1/11 at 10:28am
you could run it off the speaker outputs since it'll have no problem driving very high to low impedances through the outputs but what headphones do you plain on driving is the question.

best way to do it in my opinion is rewire the headphone for balanced 4-core cable and wire a 4-pin XLR plug. that way it becomes more versatile and can make your own 4-pin XLR to speaker wire cable and can make a balanced 4-pin XLR to 1/4'' TRS jack. i rewire all my headphones with 4-pin XLRs. it's easier and less retarded then dual 3-pin XLR cables(don't understand this since 4-pin XLR do same job while adding less weight).
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post #5 of 9
11/1/11 at 12:22pm
Thread Starter 

Thanks for the info, (I will be using FA-003s)

 

Upon closer inspection, (and re-orientation) I found the headphone jack on the front of the amp, haha. don't know how I missed it!

 

Is the head phone jack is still "amplified"? just to a lesser degree than the speaker wire outputs?

 

 


Edited by nailimexam - 11/1/11 at 12:23pm
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post #6 of 9
11/1/11 at 6:26pm
it's ran off the same power amp section and tied to the speaker outputs but controlled through dropping resistors for both left and right channel. the dropping resistors is what gives it's output impedance and it's max power rating at the headphone out. usually most older amps like your kenwood allowed up to atleast 1w-2w which is enough even for high impedance 600ohm headphones.
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post #7 of 9
11/1/11 at 10:35pm

You have a nice vintage unit there. Enjoy!

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post #8 of 9
11/2/11 at 9:37am
Thread Starter 

Thanks, I will. 

 

Out of curiosity, how "nice" is the unit? (i.e. how much would I have to spend on a new headphone amp to get an improvement in sound?)

 

 

P.S. Rex, do you play cello? (I noticed your avatar over at audiokarma has what looks like a cello scroll with VC printed on the corner of the pic.)


Edited by nailimexam - 11/2/11 at 9:44am
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post #9 of 9
11/2/11 at 5:03pm
i love the sound of the cello but never played one personally. i do play violin,guitar and piano often though.

for your amp question. it all depends on what you think currently think of the kenwood and what type of improvement you want. i can't answer exactly cause to be honest i have very little experience with headamps. i use my headphones straight from speaker outputs of my vintage amps and receivers i own which is more then satisfying. if you plain on getting a headamp make sure see if you can audition it first hand and see how it compares and what you personally want. but your kenwood should do more then find for just about any headphone out nowadays.
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