[mcbrien]

 
I am in the unfortunate position of having my hearing deteriorate to the point that I have trouble understanding dialogue while watching movies. I guess I was somewhat of an audiophile with a moderately high end system that I use for audio for dvds as well as for music. For my wife's sake I've decided to start using headphones for listening to movies, but I can't figure out what I need to hook them up. I have two preamps, a Pass solid state and an Audible Illusions tube (currently using the Pass) feeding a Muse 160. I think I'll try some Grado phones, since I have other Grado products that I like (tonearm and phono cartridge). I'm thinking of the SR-60 or SR-80 phones with a 15 ft cable extension. After trying to research this, I guess I'll need a head amp. If so, is it possible I could use my Audible Illusions as a head amp? If not, I guess I'll try to build a DIY head amp, but I'm retired and on a somewhat limited budget. At the same time, I hate junk.
Decades ago I had Stax headphones and can't remember how they hooked up, but I presume it was downstream of the preamp and not the power amp. I'm not sure though.
Any suggestions or advice appreciated. 

 

[ProtegeManiac]

First off, NICE AMP. I recenltly discovered my friend's dad had at leat one each of the Muse amps, and he wouldn't sell them; my friend promised me first dibs on the estate sale in a few decades, then knocked on the nearest table.
 
 
Back on topic, I don't think there's a way to use either preamp to power headphones unless it had the jack for it (which means the circuit was designed for it). However, you can 
 
1) check if either preamp has an analog signal pass-through, usually labelled as 'Tape Output.' If they do, connect a headphone amp there, and when you listen through the headphones, just keep the Muse 160 off; or you can get a headphone out with the same feature, and connect it to your source. If you have more than one you'd use for headphones though this might be a problem.
 
2) read up on head-to-drive headphones like HiFiMan Orthodynamics here, and get their speaker amp adapters here. These basically work the same way as those Stax  amp adapters (NOT the energizers), but without the switchable pass-through to the speakers some of them have. Which means you'll be using the Muse 160 to power your headphones, but you'd have to swap cables when you swap between speakers and headphones. Take note you'd need to read up on this more because this is not intended for high-efficiency headphones, and probably not for low-efficiency headphones off a powerful amp like the Muse as well.

 

[mcbrien]

Would it be possible to split the audio out from the DVD player and go to a second system just for the headphones? I already have a second system I could use, but still with no phone jack. I need to play the speakers for my wife and headphones for me, if at all possible.

 

[hodgjy]

How do you mean split?  Like a Y-adapter?  If so, I don't recommend that.
 
Does your receiver have a tape out or preamp-out jack?  If so, connect a headphone amp to that.  Then, your wife can hear the speakers and you can hear the headphones.
 

 
Quote:

Would it be possible to split the audio out from the DVD player and go to a second system just for the headphones? I already have a second system I could use, but still with no phone jack. I need to play the speakers for my wife and headphones for me, if at all possible.

 

 

[mcbrien]

Thanks, hodgjy. My Audible Illusions preamp does have tape out. I thought this would work, but wasn't sure, since I've never used this output.
About splitting the output of the DVD player, if Y-adapters aren't good, is there an acceptable way to feed two amps from this source?
Again, thanks.

 

[hodgjy]

If your DVD player has both analog RCA outs and then a digital out, you can feed the digital signal into a DAC and then the RCA signal into an analog device.  I've done this several times.  Works fine.  You can run both simultaneously with no bad effects.

 

[tme110]

You're luck in that almost anything and everything can power the grado's so if you have a headphone jack somewhere it will work.
 
THOUGH, I am a huge fan of grado and my favorite headphone right now is a grado, BUT grado's are not good for movies.  I can't explain it but I hear it all the time and I personally don't like them for that.  Esp the 60's and 80's that don't have much of a sound stage.  I like listening to movies on my LCD-2's but though I don't like my hd650's at all, they sound the best (from my limited collection) for movies.
 
I have a blue ray player that is going to my my home theater system by HDMI cable but it also has an optical and COAX out that I send directly to my head phone's DAC/AMP system - so the one device feeds both systems.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

Quote:

You're luck in that almost anything and everything can power the grado's so if you have a headphone jack somewhere it will work.
 
THOUGH, I am a huge fan of grado and my favorite headphone right now is a grado, BUT grado's are not good for movies.  I can't explain it but I hear it all the time and I personally don't like them for that.  Esp the 60's and 80's that don't have much of a sound stage.  I like listening to movies on my LCD-2's but though I don't like my hd650's at all, they sound the best (from my limited collection) for movies.
 
I have a blue ray player that is going to my my home theater system by HDMI cable but it also has an optical and COAX out that I send directly to my head phone's DAC/AMP system - so the one device feeds both systems.

I liked my SR225's for watching movies. It might not have the soundstage, but it's convenient to sue since it works straight out of most receivers or USB DACs (if I'm watching on my computer), plus it has that 'crunch' to its sound. Makes action movie stuff sound exciting, like car crashes, or a Transform tacklinganother Transformer, or catapults pounding Minas Tirith, horse hooves punctuated by screams and spears stabs and swords striking shields...that kind of stuff. Although my HD600 is no slouch in that department, and I assume neither would many other headphones, I still prefer the Grados for these.