headphone distribution from mixer

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 9:00 am

for general playing and recording I prefer to use headphones. I like to have multiple pairs available so whatever I'm playing (my drumset is pretty far from my computer) I have a pair right there and anyone else that comes over has a pair to use too.

I have a presonus HP4 and I'm convinced it's a piece of shit.

I have 2 things to deal with. How to best hook up a headphone distribution piece to my mixer (onyx 1640), and which one to buy, I spend a lot of time in the headphones so quality is important to me.

alright, so is it better to run a headphone distribution amp through the headphone out or through the control outs? I'm guessing the headphone out. I want to hook my powered monitors directly to the cntrl room out, so that really just leaves me with the headphone out, and anyway I think the headphone volume should be controlled differently than the control room volume anyway.

can anyone recommend me a good headphone distribution piece?

my first instincts from browsing sweetwater are

ART HeadAmp6Pro
Furman HA6-AB
Rane HC 6

anyone have experience with any of these? or other suggestions in the sub $500 price range?

thanks guys

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 9:09 am

"so is it better to run a headphone distribution amp through the headphone out or through the control outs? I'm guessing the headphone out."

Nope, the headphone out is from an amp, take a line out and use that as the input for any dedicated headphone amp. This will be cleaner.

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 9:18 am

makes sense, but still leaves me with the problem of what outputs to actually use. I need it to be a sum of the whole mix. I guess I should use the main outputs.

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 9:22 am

not familiar with that board but you could bus everything to one channel. and use that output

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 9:28 am

that would work, but it would give me a mono sum. I want to preserve the stereo field I've created in the mix

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 9:31 am

does your board have a seperate set of outputs? I have mains, studio, control, and mix b, for sets of stereo outs lol.

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 9:37 am

yeah, i'm not using the mains, so I think using those will work. now i just need advise on a piece.

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 9:38 am

well i cant offer any help there, i just have a cheap crappy behringer, but it does the job lol

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 10:15 am

The ART headphone amp is pretty transparent to my ears, and can real push some volume if you need it.

Posted: Tue Aug 26, 2008 4:42 pm

Your control room outputs should fall back to the Mains (at a separate volume) if nothing else is solo'd. I'd imagine there are 2 outputs for Control room, yes? One is left, one is right. Get a pair of 1/4" splitters and you can feed both monitors and headphone amp at once.

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