[valveman]

I have been asking myself this question and cannot think of a reason why I would spend lots of money on a headphone amp when I can use the Behringer 602 mixer as a high end headphone amp. The specs are impressive. I own this model and works great as a heaphone amp. Very quiet, has lots of headroom, great dynamic range. The price is attractive <$80 as well. Allbeit not portable. Components are high quality caps, resistors and ICs.

MIXERS / POWERED MIXERS - ANALOG MIXERS - EURORACK MX602A : 6-Channel 2-Bus Mixing Console

I should mention I own a Little Dot II++ and a PV2

 

[lucky]

Good point. I've got a UB802, and I've just discovered it makes a marvelous headphone amp.

 

[knugge]

I just found the MX602 hidden away deep in the dark abyss of my storage room. I plugged it in to my eMac and it sounds good. I have no dedicated amp for my K701 but this little mixer, which is, was, very cheap here in Sweden is far better than the HP-out on my Marantz SR7500 receiver, which might be saying nothing. Soundstage, attack, smoothness, clearness, sound of instruments and vocals and detail is great. Again, compared to the receiver and my computers (eMac, Macbook).

 

[Bloodoath]

I needed a mixer to blend two cards to one set of headphones. Bought the Behringer xenyx 502 to try it out. I was very worried a mixer would effect the sound in a very negative way. I was way wrong.

Playing from PC to Nuforce Icon Mobile portable amp/dac to mixer to Sony MDR V900HD. Used to go straight from the Icon to headphones. Way more power from mixer and detail of music is much better. Mixer does not seem to color the sound at all but phones seems to have gotten much clearer. Now looking for a better DAC to feed the mixer.