[Jim McC]

An A/V receiver's headphone jack? Or does "needing an amp" mean a separate headphone amp?
 
Thanks.

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  An A/V receiver's headphone jack? Or does "needing an amp" mean a separate headphone amp?

 
Any headphone output is technically an amplified output; the question is whether it's enough or if it will need/benefit from more powerful amplification, like one with a separate and bigger (relative to what circuit it's driving, vs the HT receiver's which powers several channels of analog amplification and the whole digital circuit) power supply.

 

[PurpleAngel]

  An A/V receiver's headphone jack? Or does "needing an amp" mean a separate headphone amp?
 
Thanks.

 
The headphone jack on 98% of the modern A/V receivers uses the speaker amplifiers to also power the headphone jack (maybe in a crude way).
High Ohm (over 100-Ohm) headphones do better with receivers, over headphones with lower Ohms (under 60-Ohms).
A few more specialized (and high costing) A/V receivers come with a built in dedicated headphone amplifier.

 

[Jim McC]

Thanks. One of my receivers is about 5 years old(Insignia) and one(JVC) is about 8 years old.

 

[kramer5150]

Absolutely a receiver serves amplification/attenuation functions for a headphone thats plugged into its front.  There are a lot of HF members who use vintage receivers as headphone amps, Marantz, Sansui, Kenwood, Pioneer are the popular ones.  These receivers typically tap the headphone power off the speaker amp section.  On my Sony and Denon amps (with the cover off) I can trace the headphone signal wires back through the unit to the speaker amplification board.  Theres also a set of wires that goes to the main logic board to auto-detect headphones being plugged in.  There have been scattered threads about resistor tapping speaker leads to power headphones, Ive never tried it myself.  FWIW both my HT amps have a very dark / distant, warm sound that emphacizes bass.  Not sure if this is a general by-produt of resistor tapping speaker leads, or if the amps designers voiced it this way intentionally.  Its not all together unpleasant sounding though, its a nice contrast to the other amps in my sig.
 

 

[Mr Rick]

 
I use an SAE A7 integrated amp, as well as a bunch of other Schiit. LOL

 

[kramer5150]

Should also be pointed out that HT receivers almost always have internal DACs and can accept either toslink or coax digital from any source transport.  So the warm/smooth/groovy signature stems from both the DAC and amplification stages working together within the same unit.

 

[Jim McC]

Thanks guys. Do most receivers work better with high or low ohm cans? Or do they power both well?

 

[billybob_jcv]

It depends. Many of them do not do a good job with either. The issue is that the headphone jack may have a high output impedance, which usually works better with higher impedance headphones, but if those higher impedance headphones are also not very efficient, then you might not get the volume you want. Your best bet is probably a relatively high impedance headphone that is also efficient.

 

[Jim McC]

Thanks