[Kiep]

Anybody tried it? I realize there will be a lot of impurities from preamp and cables etc plus one must be careful with the volume but there must be some advantage to this.
Looking for opinions and experiences. I am really itching to try it with a Krell

 

[Duggeh]

With notable exceptions like the AKG K1000 and Ergo AMT, headphones have very very low power handling ratings. Think 1 watt territory. Theres no physical reason why you couldnt use a power amp with headphones by wiring them up to the speaker taps, but doing so would, even if you could be as careful with the volume as you would have to be, probably be a waste of time sonically, youd be wasting the amp on a purpose for which it was not designed and the headphones would be connected to an amp which was not designed for headphones.

You asked if there were any advantage to doing such a thing. I dont think that there is. The possible disadvantages are many however.

 

[cotdt]

many here have tried it and some with great success. there's no real difference between a speaker amp and a headphone amp other than gain and having to drive a difference impedance. if you can modify the gain then it might be a good option. but most cheap consumer speaker amps have background noise that is more noticeable with headphones than with speakers. the power handling of headphones is actually even lower than 1W, more like 200mW for full-sized cans, before their drivers melt.

if you have a low-power amp like a Pass Labs/FirstWatt, then with a few simple mods they can work great with headphones. The T-Amp with the output inductors changed would also work well with headphones, although more mods would be required to lower the background noise. and of course you want to recable your headphones for dual mono.

 

[edisonwu]

Its just not designed for any headphones except K1000.

 

[cfraser]

Most "audiophile" preamps put out far more power than the typical headphone amp. Why can't you just use a preamp output, even if it doesn't have a phone jack?

Edit: I'm assuming if you have an amp you have a preamp...

 

[edisonwu]

There used to be a "box" that connecting between a power amp and a headphone to make the power amp possible to drive headphone. I don't remember the name and where I saw it. Sorry..