Inexpensive Pre with headphone jack recommendation

find a melos sha-gold. you won't be sorry. you can probably get a used one now for under 1k. i had one -- outstanding headphone capability and a darn good preamp as well.

AVA makes preamps and sells them direct...they have SS, and tube hybrid designs...new for less than $1000 (factory direct).

I've never heard them, but people seem to like them...they have a 30 day guarantee...and they have headphone amps built in.

I think the AVA may stand for Audio by Van Alstine??

i have a rotel rc 970 preamp for sale that has a headphone jack, it sounds great and is cheap for only $200. Most of rotels preamps have headphones jacks and they all sound very good for the price

If your emphasis is on headphone listening, you might consider getting a Headroom "Home" headphone amp. Besides being a first rate headphone amplifier, it can be used as a very decent little preamp.

The Anthem preamps by Sonic Frontiers have an excellent actual headphone amp section, not just a phone plug-in jack. You should be able to find a used Anthem Pre-1L or Pre-2L for $400 to $500.

Adcom GFP565 can be bought for $250. It has a good headphone amp and not too shabby of a phono section!

the only problem w/getting a melos sha-gold is it will likely end up in yer *main* system, cuz it's such a nice preamp! ;~) the headfone amp is universally regarded as one of, if not *the* best headfone amps out there. another lower-cost option for a bedroom system would be the melos sha-1 - basically the same unit as the sha-gold, but only 3 inputs, (the sha-gold has 6 inputs), and half the price. all these units can be serviced & upgraded by melos audio restorations: melosaudio.com

doug s.