Headphone amp or 2 channel hi-fi amp?

[Robert94]

Currently I have a Cambridge Azur340a amplifier with B&W 685 S2 speakers. I am likely to buy some headphones and want them to be equivalent or better. I was thinking of getting some Sennheiser HD650 cans. My amplifier has a 1/4inch headphone jack. I was wondering if it would be suitable to run the headphones through this and what the difference between using this amp and a dedicated headphone amp would be? Will the quality be as good and is it easy to overload headphones using a 2 channel amp? On most amplifiers will the audio jack output less power than the 2 channel outputs at the back (I would assume so)?

I will try and contact the manufacturer about the final point.

Thanks in advanced for responses!

 

[markw]

since you already have the Azur, most definitely go for the headphones now. See how they work with the amp. You might be surprised.

There is a lot of ego-centric hoopla in this field and sometimes it costs a lot of money only to learn later that you didn't need to.

Naturally, headphone jacks don't send out the same power that the speaker outputs do. they ar e intentionally made that way. Headphones can't handle that much power. Headphones can only handle a certain amount of power and that's fine. Headphones don't have to fill a room with sound, only your ear canals.

If you find you don't like the sound with your Azur, then buy a headphone amp, but make sue you can return it if it doesn't live up to your expectations.

 

[Robert94]

Awesome, regarding the power I was just worried that it might deliver too much power, which is why I mentioned it. Thanks for the reply, I will heed your advice. I don't really want to buy a dedicated headphone amp anyway so I'm hoping that the amp I have will be equally as good at outputting from the headphone jack as it is for the 2 channel output!

 

[tyhjaarpa]

Headphone section is separate from speaker section in any amp. Can it damage your headphones if you crank headphone section all the way is different story. But I would say you will get hearing damage before you damage your headphones, as long as you have the headphones in your head and not in table. I myself use the headphone section of my avr and I have been really happy with it.

 

[KEW]

I believe, assuming you have a decent amp (and you do), you are much better off spending $250 on headphones than $150 on headphones plus $100 on a dedicated headphone amp!