[labeelen]

Hi All,
I am looking for a good headphone amplifier.

The cheapest boxes i found where about EUR 50-60 and the more serious ones start at EUR 300+

Then I ran into this Behringer HA4700 which in fact is a 4-channel headphone amplifier for Studio and Life-performance use.
http://www.behringe...index.cfm?lang=ENG

I don't actually need multiple channels but at EUR 125 this looks like really good value for money (XLR inputs, 4580 Opamps and ALPS potentiometers, etc)

What are your opinions ?

regards,

Louis

 

[plainsong]

I got one of the lesser (about €60) Behringer mixers that had a headphone amp on it, and ouch. Paired with the dt770s the highs were downright dangerous. I got it from Luukas, and I can see why it wasn't his cup of tea. But that was just for that pairing. Who knows, maybe what you're looking at is better. But my thought is that Behringer makes budget kind of stuff, so you'll get a budget kind of sound.

I got a Pimeta for €130 that was a significant step up.

Not too scientific a reply, but that's my experience.

 

[Orpheus]

in general behringer is crap. their digital EQ's seem to be good, but i wouldn't buy anything else they make. if it sounds too good to be true, it is.

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

I'd definently go with a Pimeta or a Gilmore Lite in that range, AVOID the Behringer.

 

[Mastergill]

Run away the fastest you can from every piece of gear with the name "Behringer" on it! Just plain crap.

 

[labeelen]

As I wan't to connect this amp via my Ballanced (Transparent MusicLink Super) cable to my Krell KPS-30i (CD player) XLR inputs are a requirement.

Can the Pimeta and/or Gilmore Lite be modified to support ballanced XLR inputs ... or both XLR&RCA ?

Thx,

Louis

 

[roll-man]

This topic comes up every so often...About 3 years ago, I bought a Berhringer HA 4400 Powerplay 4 channel amp on ebay, new, for about $50. I bought it as sort of an experiment. As we know, people around here spend hundreds if not thousands on amps...I figured I would see if there was thousands of dollars worth of sound quality difference. I honestly expected it to sound like utter garbage, but for 50 bucks, I have to say, it wasn't all that bad. This thing is most definitely a piece of professional sound gear. It's well built, has a bunch of features and get this...It will drive 12 pairs of Senn HD6xx headphones. There is a general distaste for pro gear among audiophiles, myself included. I often consider though, how easy it is to get caught up in the hype, emotion and romanticism attached to very exotic, super expensive audio gear. We've all bought that super high end thing, that we ended up trying to convince ourselves sounded incredible. Let's face it, this is the same gear that is in the recording studio where the music is actually created. Granted, that's not saying much as most popular music is recorded to sound ok on the average Joe's home stereo. Truth be told, I do not regret having bought it. I don't use it very often, but it has come in handy when comparing multiple sets of headphones. You can pretty much take it anywhere, plug it in, connect your source and audtion headphones on the fly without plugging and unplugging all night long. And since they're all plugged into the same amp, there is a sense of relativity between phones. In other words, each set of headphones can honestly be compared to each other. It has also come in handy if you have a few people over watching a movie, and for some reason, you can't crank the home theater. Each person can plug in, control their own volume and enjoy the flick. Again, for fifty bucks, it wasn't the worst purchase in the world....

 

[luukas]

Quote:

Originally Posted by plainsong Paired with the dt770s the highs were downright dangerous.

Well, I suppose the A2 ZS is rolled off in the highs then, because they never annoyed me...

 

[cosmopragma]

My first double post ever.

 

[cosmopragma]

One of those Behringer amps was my first dedicated headphone amp,purchased used via ebay.
I listened maybe 2 hours through this amp since the jack of my preamp delivered a clearly better SQ.
Behringer is a german company, and here Behringer stuff isn't considered as serious studio equipment.Their main target group are teenage bands on a budget trying to build a cheap home studio.

 

[Orpheus]

let's put it this way. i've owned 3 behringer units before:

1. behringer 24x4 mixer. one channel went dead. knobs on other channels were not centered correctly, and was very hard to tell if i was doing the right adjustments. also, i feeled unconfident with levels and other adjustments. sound quality was fine though, but operationally the mixer kinda sucked. oh, and sliders and knobs felt cheap.

2. behringer ?: i bought something once on clearance, but i returned it immediately. i forgot for what reason.

3. behringer sound exciter: bought on clearance (probably used.) still have it, but never used. i did turn it on for testing, and it sounded REALLY REALLY REALLY bad. totally useless. oh, and 2 out of the 4 toggle leds did not work. my BBE 862 sounds much better. and also, this unit, like all behringer things, have like 3-4x the features of its competitors (in this case, the BBE and Aphex). however, those features work really badly, and the unit just was useless.

 

[John Reeves]

Hi,

Since you discussed prices in Euros I presume you are living in Euroland. If so you may wish to check out Meier Audio, a sponsor of Head-Fi. The Porta Corda 2 amplifier has a class A switch and is 175 euros.

Regards,
John