Why not older receiver or amp?

[Katysax]

Reading the posts here it seems that you need to spend quite a bit to get a headphone amp that will drive some headphones.

It seems to me that many of the older home receivers and amps used good quality electronics at the headphone jack and provide more than enough power to drive just about any headphone.

I've been experimenting with different amps that I have at home for various reasons. Currently I am using an NAD 7175PE to drive both my computer speakers and my headphones. I am running the output of the 7175PE through a Lisa headphone amp.

The headphones sound great coming out of the NAD, the only reason I am also putting them through the Lisa is that I get a bit more soundstage with it. However, the Lisa output is a bit on the wimpy and dry side without coming through the NAD.

I see on Ebay many of these older NAD receivers and similar amps going regularly for less than $100. 1980s era Sansui amps would probably work well too as well as Nikko amps, older Marantz, etc. You get great sound and lots of power out of these amps and many of them can be picked up very cheap.

My only complaint with the NA receiver is that it is big. However, I used to have a 7225PE and I bet it has more than enough power with a much smaller footprint. I see those going for under $100 quite frequently.

So why not? Especially for people who want the power but don't want to spend a lot.

 

[grawk]

There are a lot of people who do just that. The advantage of going with a dedicated headphone amp is either convenience or tuned sound.

 

[darkswordsman17]

The big advantage that dedicated headphone amps offer over a reciever is that they tend to have less noise (or lower noise floor) and so you get a cleaner sound. That's been my experience at least.

You can see this in how headphone amps are these days. You've got the portable ones that are based around batteries, and then the good dedicated ones often have their own power supplies (Gilmore Lite and up).

Footprint does come into effect where people who own several setups (headphones and then particular amps for those headphones).

Lastly, audiophiles tend to not like to pay for features that they don't want/use. I don't know how many times I've seen people say they would've bought a product if it didn't include a feature that they didn't want. There's instances where even when you get a higher quality product for less money, if it has extra features they don't want, they'll pass on it. Somehow in their mind the fact that it effort was put into another feature than the one they want implies that it will be worse.

 

[robert1325]

I use a NAD 1600 pre-amp as headphone amp. It's pre-out sucks but the headphone amp section sounds very good. Warm and detailed

 

[Spareribs]

I have an old Marantz reciever and the heaphone out is excellent I have to admit. I imagine the headphone outs are probably excellent too with other vintage recievers too. Killer bargain especially since they also drive speakers too and have a built in FM tuner. If I were a casual heaphone listener, I would seriously get a good old vintage reciever and be happy and look no further!

That being said, it is also convenient having a nice smaller desktop amp like a Headroom model or perhaps a Ray Samuels amp for example. The smaller size is very attractive even if they are more expensive than many vintage amps which are huge and bulky.

If you are a tube lover, then a dedicated tube headphone amp is the way to go.

 

[dvw]

I use a Nakamichi STASIS receiver TA2A for my headphone amp. You just can't beat the quality for the price.

 

[DennyL]

When I first got into headphone listening I had three well-reputed mid-range 1970s -1980s amplifiers, and only one had a listenable headphone output, the other two were terrible, and I got a DarkVoice 336. I also have a Marantz CD6000 OSE and was amazed a few weeks ago when I tried its headphone output with my K701s and DT880s. It is very good, with only the bass being a little uncontrolled compared to my headphone amps. I feel that the Marantz would make a pretty good one-box solution for listening to CDs.

 

[augustwest]

My vintage receiver competes very nicely with most dedicated headphone amps.

- augustwest

 

[ziplock]

I have a Yamaha C80 Preamp from the late 80s. It has a dedicated amp circuit for the HP Jack. High gain, very low noise and sounds wonderful. I love this thing.

 

[kpeezy]

I have a Marantz receiver from the 70's coming in today for use with my TT. I hope it's great