Headphone Amp

[Larry La Belle]

Anyone have experience with a headphone Amp that I can use to practice with my headphones when the family is sleeping? I just have cheap small Peavy amp until I learn how to play and it has a jack labelled "headphone" but I get a lot of hum. I noticed one reference to a Vox amPlug Guitar Headphone Amp. on the forum. Is that the way to go and if so should it be plugged into the guitar out, or the pedal out?

thanks,
Larry La Belle

[Eric Philippsen]

A headphone amp is a must have. Some amps and preamps have convenient headphone out jacks. For others a separate headphone amp is the way to go.

If you do a search of the Forum here you should come up with some previous threads on the subject. Vox Amplugs have been discussed in those. Some find those to be inexpensive and suitable.

Not long ago I was in the market for a headphone amp. I did a lot of research and ended up getting a Cafe Walter headphone amp. Available online it's great. It's also pretty $expensive$.

Is it "worth it"? Oh, I dunno. It IS the best with rugged construction, great sound, QUIETness, battery or adaptor use and ease of operation. But, again, it costs a lot. I do use it almost every day.

[Butch Pytko]

Larry,
I remember some years ago Buddy Emmons was talking about a "More Me" headphone mixer. I checked around & couldn't locate what he was talking about, so at Guitar Center I took a chance on a Eurorack MX602A by Behringer, which is a 6 Channel. I also bought a good quality set of Sony headphones. I think the mixer was about $50.00. Not knowing if it would work the way I wanted it to, I hooked-up all my sources: FM receiver, tape deck, CD player & phono into the separate channels--which gives you the ability to mix each channel separately to the headphone channel. Amazingly, it worked like a charm! I had complete control to mix whatever source into my headphones. In the stereo headphones, I put my steel into one side, & whatever source into the other side. One thing though about the MX602A, there was no ON/OFF switch, so I had to plug it into a ON/OFF switch I rigged-up. I'm sure their are other brands that would work just as well in the same price range.

[Larry La Belle]

Thanks guys for the advice. I just ordered a Cafe Walter headphone amp and yeah they are expensive but why not use the best.
thanks again.

[Dick Sexton]

I use a Digitech RP150... And it will do a lot more.

[Larry La Belle]

Thanks Dick for the input. I looked up the DigiTech RP150 and it certainly looks like it does more than just filter the sound from your pedal output but is dis-continued on Muscians friend. It was also about half the price on clearance. I had already ordered the Cafe Walter Headphone Amp anyway.

[Gary Chiappetta]

The JamHub is worth looking at if you have the budget for it. I purchased one several months ago and am very pleased with it. The added advantage is that it will support band practice as well as individual practice.

[Bill Dobkins]

I have the Vox Ampplug acoustic. I love it. It was 39.00 at Musicians friend.

[Bill Ford]

I use the Behringer, Vamp2,(which has been replaced with Vamp3, $110)It has input for CD player so you can play along with tracks, also headphones. A little confusing to setup, but I got it sounding pretty good. Also Line 6 pods are good(easier to setup)They don't have cd inputs.

BF