headphone amps

[crox]

We are currently running six mini-active foldback speakers, which put out quite a lot of volume, which is now causing too much stage noise, in turn causing problems for vocalists.

 

I have successfully swapped the keys player to in-ear, running through his amp (main culprit of excess stage noise), so thinking about doing the same for drummer and bassist.

 

What headphone amps are any good? I don't have a budget, but being a church, I don't want to spend a huge amount.

 

In terms of off the shelf, what headphones are good? What options are available for custom in-ear moulding as my drummer will probably want those!

 

TIA

[Rob_Beech]

If you are wanting a multichannel one. Without spending alot of money I've had good results with the Behringer HA4700.

 

This is a 4 channel headphone amp capable of taking a stereo mix and 4 aux mixes so each channel can mix between it's own aux mix and the generic stereo mix.

 

They also do an 8 channel version but this doesn't drive headphones lower than 100ohms per channel whilst the 4 channel on will drive to 8ohms per channel.

[crox]

If you are wanting a multichannel one. Without spending alot of money I've had good results with the Behringer HA4700.

 

This is a 4 channel headphone amp capable of taking a stereo mix and 4 aux mixes so each channel can mix between it's own aux mix and the generic stereo mix.

 

They also do an 8 channel version but this doesn't drive headphones lower than 100ohms per channel whilst the 4 channel on will drive to 8ohms per channel.

 

Any brands other than Behringer? I have had a look at the above, but how would the headphones connect to it? XLR to adaptor unit? I also have a natural aversion to Behringer, cheap, but for a reason!

[Shez]

Any brands other than Behringer? I have had a look at the above, but how would the headphones connect to it? XLR to adaptor unit? I also have a natural aversion to Behringer, cheap, but for a reason!

 

I've got a Samson S-Phone; the Behringer is very similar to it. It's always worked perfectly for me. Main stereo balanced in with additional unbalanced stereo inputs on each channel for "more me' type applications. Each channel has three headphone sockets; one at the front, two at the back, all 1/4" jack. Inputs also all 1/4" jack. Decent metering and enough welly to drive headphones louder than I'd be comfortable with!

[dbuckley]

Another suggestion: the Mackie HMX-56

[Bobbsy]

Frankly, if it was me there's no question I'd buy the Behringer. In terms of "bang for the buck" their headphone amp is unbeatable and I have no qualms about the quality for this application.

 

If you're dead set against Behringer, I own a couple of Fostex headphone amps that have been going for more years than I can remember. They're a model or two previous to the ones they sell now but if anything the new ones look at bit tougher in build quality.

 

However, if I was buying today, it would be Behringer.

 

As for headphones, in your situation I'd probably be tempted to go with something relatively cheap, possibly domestic Sennheisers, and treat them as something to be replaced every year or so. One thing I WOULD do is make sure everyone has the same headphone to make sure the sensitivity is identical.

 

As for moulded ear buds for the drummer, those are fairly specialist. However, something you might try is hitting the yellow pages and finding a local supplier of products for the deaf. When I needed similar for TV studio use, I found a local place that could do what I needed considerable cheaper than going through the pro-audio scene. Maybe I was lucky, but worth a try.

 

Bob

[jamesperrett]

As a drummer, I prefer to use headphones that let through as much of the natural cymbal sound as possible so that I can really hear how I'm hitting the cymbals. Electronically reproduced cymbals just don't work well enough for me to hear what I hear acoustically. I keep a pair of Sennheiser open backed headphones for this purpose in the studio.

 

Cheers

 

James.

[Rob_Beech]

James,

 

That's an interesting one, but in larger venues where only the few people at the front get any idea as to how the cymbals sound acoustically then the rest of the audience is hearing the Cymbals from the OH mics and any spill into every other mic on the stage (noisy sods) so whilst you're trying to hear the acoustic sound to adjust how you're hitting them.....would it often not be better to hear a similar sound to what will be heard by the people out front and adjusting your hitting so it suits that..

 

I appreciate that each room is different and your monitor mix may not contain these (often may not be able to due to people putting in smaller framed monitor boards than FOH ones). Also if you are working from a monitor desk, it may be setup completely differently to the FOH one. But even so, it's still an electronically reproduced sound which is often going to be closer to what the audience hears.

 

There's no right and wrong just an idea I had.

 

Rob

[Shez]

Frankly, if it was me there's no question I'd buy the Behringer. In terms of "bang for the buck" their headphone amp is unbeatable and I have no qualms about the quality for this application.

 

When they first came out, they couldn't drive 8 ohm headphones; I seem to recall they were specced to drive a minimum load of 16 ohms... Presumably that's been fixed in the later models? That was the main reason I went for the (more expensive) Samson at the time.

[Rob_Beech]

IIRC the HA4600 (an earlier model) would drive to 16ohms. Though I may be wrong. the HA4700 drives to 8ohms. As does the samson, The 8 channel one only to 100ohms but this also seems fairly common across the board.

 

Out of the cheap and nasty range (all be it always more than useable) the Alto ones also only drive down to 100ohms. Pretty useless for IEM's as a rule but more than useable with a lot of headphones.

 

 

 

 

 

Edit.

 

Curiosity got the better of me there, unfortunately I was wrong. The HA4600 only drove down to 100ohms like many of the others.

[MarkPAman]

but how would the headphones connect to it? XLR to adaptor unit?

 

It has one headphone out on the front & 2 on the back, for each channel. Normal TRS headphone jack.

[Mr.Si]

I've used a (another person's) Behringer unit without any problems.

I bought myself the Presonus HP4, that was around £100 a couple of years ago IIRC. It only has 1 headphone mix though. Whereas the Samson and Behringer ones have options for more inputs so that one unit can have different mixes for different musicians. (I didn't need that when I bought mine)

[Sound Man]

We have used the Behringer HA4700 headphone amp for a couple of years now at my local church without any problems. We have got it set up for three different headphone mixers, one mix for the worship leader, one mix for the keyboard player and one mix for the drummer. The drummer wears is a pair of Behringer headphones but I can't remember what model number they are. Make sure you get some of the gold mini jack to standard jack adaptors for your headphones as some of the cheaper types tend to have intermittent connection problems. The Behringer headphones we have came with a gold adaptor which screws onto the jack so it can't get lost, hopefully

 

David

[Rob_Beech]

Better still. cut the plug off and connect a stereo jack (preferably a decent one) then adaptors don't matter.