[MayorSimpleton]

Newbie here - so please scuse my ignorance!

I'm thinking of completely upgrading my system (Arcam CD72, Onix OA20/2, B&W DM303, iRiver iHP140) and focussing on headphones rather than speakers, as I rarely listen to music outside of headphones these days! I'll ditch the speakers and the amp, and grab myself a set of Grado SR225's and good headphone amp, and a set of Shure e4c's for my mp3 player.

My question is; can i buy a good headphone amp that will also allow me to output to a cheap set of speakers on the rare occasion that I might want to? I looking for simplicity (the MF X-CANv3 is the kind of thing I'm after), I only need one input and volume is the only control I want, but I would like to be able to drive speakers if needs be.

Does such a thing exist or are headphone and speaker amps essentially 2 different things?

Cheers, and sorry if it's a dump question!

Sgt Pluck

 

[firefox360]

One amplifier that might suite your needs is the Little Dot 3. It's a nice little tube amplifier that is perfect for driving headphones (was actually made for that), and it also has a pair of speaker outs on the back. Although one note of advice, you're gonna want to use low power/high sesitivity speakers if you hope to be able to listen at decent and above decent volumes, as the Little Dot only has a few watts of power.

On the other hand if you want an excellent speaker amplifier and great headphone amplifier, the NAD C320BEE is always a recommendation around here. They have enough power to drive almost every speaker on the market, they have one of the better built in headphone amplifiers of any integreated amp, and they're also pretty cheap if you can find one used.

 

[xxlMusikfreak]

The X-Can has a loop out and doesn't provide a adjustable line-out.

The only Amp I know which can also power speakers beside the LD3 is the C.E.C. HD53(R). You can also change volume for speakers/headphones or 2 headphones separately.

The other possibility is an amp with pre-outs and some small poweramps.

 

[vorlon1]

Here is a place that sells the NAD new for $299.

http://www.spearitsound.com/nad/C320BEE.asp

 

[apostate]

There's the Cayin HA-1A:

http://www.ttvj.com/index.php?main_p...roducts_id=810

and the Dared MP-5:

http://www.6moons.com/industryfeatures/dared/dared.html

and if you don't mind a little DIY there is also the Bottlehead S.E.X. amp:

www.bottlehead.com

Ant

 

[kwkarth]

Grab a Dared MP5 while they're still available from audiolineout.com

http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=154365

Cheers!

 

[Loftprojection]

I have the Jasmine T200 tube amp, it drives the speakers in my home gym with a nice warm tube sound and it has a USB DAC inside which can be very useful if you want to play music directly out of your computer. The headphone out is pretty good. I'm not sure if they still produce this amp but every once in a while there is one in the classifieds here or on ebay.

 

[Ferbose]

You may consider Furman HA6-ab:
http://www.furmansound.com/products/.../system3_1.php

It is an headphone amp that also drives speakers.

 

[MayorSimpleton]

Thanks fella's - plenty of food for thought there.... I'll let you know which way I fall.

Cheers,

Pluck

 

[a1rocketpilot]

You may also want to consider the M3. It isn't set up by default to run speakers, but you just need to make a few minor tweaks to the setup to allow that. For more info, go here (http://www.amb.org/audio/mmm/) and click "Other Options" on the navigation bar at left.

Aditya