Useless headphone jacks in receivers

[A. Vivaldi]

Why do A/V companies continue to waste their time and my money putting headphone jacks on the front of their receivers? Every amp I've ever owned or listened to, whether it was hi-end or mass market, all seem to have one thing in common...their headphone inputs always sound like total crap! It seems most manufacturers don't take these things very seriously, so why bother? I'd rather have 10 more watts or some other more useful feature.

And besides, any serious audiophile who was an headphones enthusiast would probably have their own dedicated headphone amp specially made for that purpose. Does anyone know of any makes that have decent sounding headphone inputs?

 

[mazersteven]

Why do A/V companies continue to waste their time and my money putting headphone jacks on the front of their receivers? Every amp I've ever owned or listened to, whether it was hi-end or mass market, all seem to have one thing in common...their headphone inputs always sound like total crap! It seems most manufacturers don't take these things very seriously, so why bother? I'd rather have 10 more watts or some other more useful feature.

And besides, any serious audiophile who was an headphones enthusiast would probably have their own dedicated headphone amp specially made for that purpose. Does anyone know of any makes that have decent sounding headphone inputs?

My Denon 4806 has a good headphone jack. It's also Dolby Headphone. It powers my Senn 600's and AKG 701's. I need to turn the volume up when using the 701's.

 

[Nick250]

With past receivers, Onkyo 595 and Denon 1602, the headphone outs did not sound much difference than with the Corda Headamp (ver 1). I have not tried it on Denon 3806 yet. Headphones used were Senns 580 and Grado 80.

Nick

 

[Hi Ho]

I haven't tried the headphone jack in any other receiver but I know the one on my Panasonic is absolute crap. I could not believe how bad it sounded. Is it really that hard to route a decent signal to a headphone jack? Even someone who didn't care about sound quality at all would think it sounded bad.

 

[j_garcia]

I use mine on occasion. I definitely use the one on my 7200 late at night. So far, all of my Marantz gear has had perfectly fine headphone jacks with my Sennheisers.