best headphone amps?

liquidsmoke · April 04, 2011, 02:23:55 AM

Modeling or not, built in speaker or not.

I need something for late night playing and I'm guessing some of you use these types of units.

I need one that can do high gain metal sounds and fairly clean sounds and has an input for my drum machine.

If the electronics/headphone out actually sound good that would be nice too. I had a couple of small practice amps in the past that had headphone jacks and they sounded terrible.

Instant Dan · April 04, 2011, 09:30:33 AM

Probably a Line6 POD, I need one too.

hayseed · April 04, 2011, 09:37:35 AM

I haven't heard too much on them, but those Vox plug-ins look pretty cool and they are fairly cheap. Maybe worth checking out

grimniggzy · April 04, 2011, 10:12:11 AM

Quote from: hayseed on April 04, 2011, 09:37:35 AM
I haven't heard too much on them, but those Vox plug-ins look pretty cool and they are fairly cheap. Maybe worth checking out

my buddy was telling me about the bass one, he said its awesome.

Hemisaurus · April 04, 2011, 02:02:25 PM

I had a circuit that used a couple of pedal power transformers and a couple of tubes, probably be pretty easy to add a drum machine input to. I'll see if I can find it.

bass sic · April 04, 2011, 05:19:55 PM

No matter how good a amp you get it all comes down to quality headphones. I had a rocktron unit that I thought sucked till I ran it through a good headset.

Hemisaurus · April 04, 2011, 06:03:30 PM

Can't find it, this is similar.

Power can be had by 2 12V wall warts, one stepping the voltage down for the heaters, the other stepping it back up again for the plates, the two heaters are connected in series.

See http://www.dogstar.dantimax.dk/tubestuf/mnibl2-2.htm for an idea.

black_out · April 04, 2011, 09:25:02 PM

dude...all you need is a home stereo system, a soldering iron, a matchbook, a cantelope, and hemi as you're next door neighbor.

Hemisaurus · April 04, 2011, 09:53:44 PM

We're missing the point that he needs a line input for his drum machine.

You thought about one of those trainers like the Tascam or Korg? They have modelling, drum machines, CD or MP3 players, some even record and let you multitrack yourself.

liquidsmoke · April 05, 2011, 12:49:28 AM

I'm not going to build anything myself but perhaps someone else will based on that circuit.

Thanks for the recommendations everyone. I have some reviews to read now.

About headphones, mine aren't pro quality but they are pretty good. The issue I remember from the past was the headphone jacks on cheap little practice amps being really crappy. With a modeling or training type unit I would imagine them being much better sounding.

edit: About the drum machine thing, I use mine as a metronome when playing my songs.