looking for a good 4-8 ch headphone amp...

Ethan Holdtrue · Post by **Ethan Holdtrue** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 9:47 pm

I found an alto hpa-6, and a Samson that looked the part but I was wondering if any one had any opinions on any others?

I'm wanting to not spend more than $150, but don't want to get a $20 turd either.

JWL · Post by **JWL** » Mon Feb 12, 2007 11:14 pm

I love my Mackie HMX56, but that's $239.... well worth it though to get individual headphone mixes.

I'm Painting Again · Post by **I'm Painting Again** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 5:14 am

I've been getting by with the $40 rolls 4 channel..I would love to get one of those cat5 systems with remote mixers though..

RodC · Post by **RodC** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 6:52 am

jwl wrote:I love my Mackie HMX56, but that's $239.... well worth it though to get individual headphone mixes.

+1

Dont know how we lived without it.

Jeff White · Post by **Jeff White** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 7:20 am

RodC wrote:
jwl wrote:I love my Mackie HMX56, but that's $239.... well worth it though to get individual headphone mixes.
+1

Dont know how we lived without it.

I am officially selling my Behringer and getting one of those.

Jeff

Coco · Post by **Coco** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 8:38 am

I bought a behringer and the p.o.s. was broken right out of the box.

eh91311 · Post by **eh91311** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 10:03 am

Behringer; I have a HA4000 4-channel one. I've had good luck with mine. The Behringer is a little unrefined, but loud as hell. I have one of those expensive OZ Audio HA-6 ones as well, the OZ is built like a tank and very clean sounding, but I'd rather use the Behringer. It fits in the rack, and I think that it drives difficult headphone loads (like AKG 240's) louder than the OZ.

JamesHE · Post by **JamesHE** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 10:12 am

I had a behringer, which was fine. Loud but a little tiring. The eq is wothless.
Now I have stuff multed and going to little mixers. Which is great since I'm usually performing and enginering not just enginering, so I don't like having to setup everybody's mix.

Jeff White · Post by **Jeff White** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 10:19 am

Coco wrote:I bought a behringer and the p.o.s. was broken right out of the box.

I've had mine for about three yrs and it's been fine, though it doesn't get used every day. I'm sure that it would have died almost three yrs ago if that was the case.

Jeff

yardleyone · Post by **yardleyone** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 12:07 pm

ebay yourself a Rane HC6

JustinHedrick · Post by **JustinHedrick** » Tue Feb 13, 2007 5:51 pm

i have the alto. I like it. I would love to build individual mixes.....but.........for as little as I record it sounds good, and is loud....and cheap..yeah cheap..

justin

sparky · Post by **sparky** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 6:52 am

-1 on that Behringer POS. We had to take ours out of the rack because it would overheat and go into thermal shutdown during takes. POS. If we manage to keep it cool (w/ fans and heatsinks), it sometimes gets through whole takes, but if its been on for a few hours and the room is warm, its pretty spotty.

eh91311 · Post by **eh91311** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 4:48 pm

sparky wrote:-1 on that Behringer POS. We had to take ours out of the rack because it would overheat and go into thermal shutdown during takes. POS. If we manage to keep it cool (w/ fans and heatsinks), it sometimes gets through whole takes, but if its been on for a few hours and the room is warm, its pretty spotty.

sparky, which Behringer model headphone amp are you using... the 4-channel or 8-channel one?

Professor · Post by **Professor** » Fri Feb 16, 2007 8:03 pm

I trust that by "4-8 channel" what you are really meaning is 4-8 outputs all listening to just one stereo feed, right? That's a lot different than 4-8 separate stereo feeds, but given the gear being recommended, I'm guessing that's the idea.

I think it makes a lot more sense to buy a simple power amp (maybe you even have a spare hangin' around the house? ) and run the outputs to a headphone splitter box along the lines of this:

I run two 60wpc amps back in the machine room and have the amp outputs parallelled to a couple of output jacks spread around the live room and control room. Then whenever I need a headphone connection, I plug a box into one of the monitor output patches and I'm set. The advantage over a single, rackmount unit, is that I'm not trying to feed headphones for a six-piece band from one point in a rack, and I can continue to expand by buying more boxes (I happen to have 8, but you can start with one or two). The boxes discount to a pretty cheap price, so the only question mark is the amp, but even a $20 home stereo receiver from a pawn shop will be way more than enough to push a few sets of headphones, and will be 10 times the build-quality of any headphone amp from Rolls or Behringer.

-Jeremy

The Real MC · Post by **The Real MC** » Sat Feb 17, 2007 5:58 pm

+1*10^6 on the Rane HC6. They have plenty of power to push 600ohm headphones cleanly.

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looking for a good 4-8 ch headphone amp...

looking for a good 4-8 ch headphone amp...

I prefer the Behringer....

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