[adsmithy]

Hi,

My current music setup goes like this:

E-mu 1212m sound card > Marantz MA-500 power amps > speakers.

I want (but can't) integrate some headphones into my system.

I would like a pre/headphone amp, so that I can control the volume on my system and drive headphones too. It must have a remote control.

Budget I've not idea, but I want something high end, that will not "colour" the sound. I've used a Marantz SR4200 AV amp in the past, and it sounded terrible in stereo, so I took it out and went direct from sound card to power amps. I'm worried adding something inbetween again will result in reduced quality, but I'm sure something good enough will just let whatever the sound card outputs to pass straight through unaltered.

I was looking at the audio-gd Pheonix as a guide.

Headphones will probably be Sennheiser HD650.

Any thoughts appreciated,
adsmithy

 

[OCD,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,]

If you can do without a remote control, then do a search on the Presonus "Central Station".

The "Central Station" is a great headphone amp and a great preamp plus it also has a really good sounding DAC. It is a lot of bang for the buck. I, also, have the 1212M and I much prefer the Central Station's DAC over the 1212M.

 

[adsmithy]

Thanks for the suggestion.

It does have a remote option, but it's a wired unit. Basically I'd like to adjust the volume on the amp while listening in bed at night

The other thing that worries me is where I would put it, as it's quite big (and ugly

) with the metal brackets on the side.

On the plus side, it has loads of inputs which is good as I'd like to connect up my PC and maybe sometimes my CD player too.

I wonder if there are any other alternatives like this? Would it be an idea to look at a seperate DAC + pre/headphone amp?

cheers,
adsmithy