How to use headphones with separates


Hi - does anyone have a suggestion on how I can listen to headphones on my system when I have a preamp and power amp and neither has a headphone jack?  Thanks in advance.

milog

Headphone systems are a different breed from main speaker systems. It is probably better not having a preamp with a headphone jack. They tend not to sound good, even on high end components.

I spent fifteen years developing my headphone system from meager beginnings. You can see where I landed in my virtual systems.

The best way to get started is to get a headphone amp and connect your preamp output to it. I highly recommend Woo headphone amps if you like highly musical and detailed music. Searching for the right headphone amp is every bit as hard as finding an amp for your main system. If you get serious about it is likely you may choose implementing a separate system. But the key is a headphone amp… and compatible headphones. Great headphones like Sennheiser 800’s require tremendous power and natural balanced sound. Others like Focal and UltraSonde require far less power, but still really natural sound, unless you like “details are all” kind of systems.

Yeah, as @ghdprentice mentioned you need a dedicated headphone amp you can feed from your preamp.  If you share your budget, what sound characteristics you’re looking for, and what headphones you’ll be using you’ll get some very helpful recommendations here. 

What I am having trouble understanding is that if I had “saved money” by buying an integrated amp, this would not be an issue.  Why?

Some stereo preamps and integrated amps have headphone amps built in and some don’t (separate amps don’t have headphone jacks), so you could’ve bought an integrated amp without a built-in headphone amp and still been in the same position you’re in now. Generally speaking, headphone amps built into preamps and integrated amps are not very high quality, underpowered, and often just an afterthought, so if you’re at all concerned with performance and/or have good headphones you’ll likely want a separate headphone amp. Hope this helps.