Headphone amp for practice

[Worldeeeter]

I have a Mesa Boogie Carbine M6 combo, which will shake the foundation of my condo. However, as I have not yet moved into a house of my own, the lady downstairs likely wouldn't appreciate the Boogie's finer qualities.
I am looking at the C Tech Pocket Rock-It and the Korg Pandora Mini as options to practice at home using headphones, and playing along with my iPod via the line-in.
Does anyone have experience with either, or preferably, BOTH of these devices? If so, I'd love some input (no pun intended).
Keep in mind - I'm not looking for professional gig or studio sound here, just functional bass practice parameters.

Thanks!

[KJung]

I use the Cafe Walter headphone pre. Separate volume and input for iPod or metronome, and 'studio quality' tone for not much more money. It is a 'no frills' professional unit (no drum machines, or whatever) but it sounds great and is built like a tank. Sold through Bass Northwest website.

Highly recommended for bass practice, and worth the extra money. IMO.

[Worldeeeter]

Originally Posted by KJung

I use the Cafe Walter headphone pre. Separate volume and input for iPod or metronome, and 'studio quality' tone for not much more money. It is a 'no frills' professional unit (no drum machines, or whatever) but it sounds great and is built like a tank. Sold through Bass Northwest website.

Highly recommended for bass practice, and worth the extra money. IMO.

Is that the HA-1 / HA-1A?

[scowboy]

Good choices but actual amplifier section will be a bit on the wimpy side. I'd also advise the Cafe Walter if only for the fact that's it's been built with bass in mind and will probably reproduce the lower frequencies a whole lot better than an IC based, Made In China type devices that does a lot of stuff but nothing well.

I use a very nice Creek OBH-11 hi-fi headphone amp with any number of devices in front of it. Typically a Soundcraft Notepad mixer or a Rolls mixer I have which has a 1 MIC input, 1 guitar input and one stereo input. I just spent a week in a hotel for business and I took the Creek and Rolls with me to practice in the evenings. Headphones were my tried and trusted Sony MDR-V7's which are now over 20 years old and on their 3 set of ear pads!

[KJung]

Originally Posted by Worldeeeter

Is that the HA-1 / HA-1A?

I believe the 'A' is the current model, and represents an upgrade of the original.

[lowfunk99]

I have have a Pandora and love it!

[seanm]

I like to use a small mixer. Gives you much more flexibility. Plus you can record the output.

[JxBass]

I have a Pandora and a Cafe Walter. The Pandora is cool for playing with drum tracks and effects. From a pure bass headphone amp perspective the Cafe Walter is the best there is, IMHO.

[nashman]

Why buy a separate unit? I plug my ipod into the input of my amp, unplug the cabs and use the headphone jack on my amp.

[seanm]

Originally Posted by nashman

Why buy a separate unit? I plug my ipod into the input of my amp, unplug the cabs and use the headphone jack on my amp.

IIRC, his amp does not have a headphone jack. Most don't, although many combos do.

[Worldeeeter]

Originally Posted by seanm

IIRC, his amp does not have a headphone jack. Most don't, although many combos do.

Absolutely correct - I should have mentioned that in my initial posting. Mesa Boogie doesn't do headphone jacks, so I need an alternative. It is temporary, until I get a house and can set up a legit "music room".
In the meantime, the Cafe Walter and Pandora are both at the top of my list.

[nashman]

oops - sorry - bad assumption on my part.

[Worldeeeter]

I ordered the HA-1A today.
Thanks to all for the recommendations; you were an excellent resource!
I almost bought a $49 headphone amp that I will likely use more than my $1300 combo amp. I'm glad I spent the extra $$$ on a product that is made by a private musician, and backed by him as well.

[Worldeeeter]

UPDATE: I looked for a Cafe Walter Audio page on Facebook, but he didn't have one. I e-mailed Walter and suggested it, and he went and did it!
So, if you have a FB account, make sure to "like" CWA, and if you own one, write testimonials on his page. Walter is apprehensive about his page getting nothing but spam on FB, so all the good vibes we can contribute will definitely help!

[basswave]

Originally Posted by KJung

I use the Cafe Walter headphone pre. Separate volume and input for iPod or metronome, and 'studio quality' tone for not much more money. It is a 'no frills' professional unit (no drum machines, or whatever) but it sounds great and is built like a tank. Sold through Bass Northwest website.

Highly recommended for bass practice, and worth the extra money. IMO.

+1 I use mine everyday.

I also take it to gigs to warm up with I sat and learned material in studio green rooms using the Cafe Walter.

You cannot go wrong with them.

[Lichtaffen]

I borrowed my friend's Cafe Walter for a week and really loved it. Nice clear sound without any frills. I recommend it as well. I'll be ordering one as soon as I have the extra cash.

[KJung]

Originally Posted by Worldeeeter

I ordered the HA-1A today.
Thanks to all for the recommendations; you were an excellent resource!
I almost bought a $49 headphone amp that I will likely use more than my $1300 combo amp. I'm glad I spent the extra $$$ on a product that is made by a private musician, and backed by him as well.

Very cool! It is a great little unit. A couple things I found out with mine through the years. First, plugging in an iPod directly works great. The aux input is a 'stereo plug'. However, to use a metronome in that input (great way to play at relatively loud levels for 'feel' and keep the metronome balanced, you need a 'stereo to mono' cable (or just a stereo to mono female to male plug you can get at any electronics store) so that the metronome comes out of both channels. Works great.

Finally, the Cafe Walter actually has enough power to drive higher quality, higher impedance headphones. I recently upgraded my headphones to the Beyerdynamics 990Pro 250ohm model, and my gosh, it is like playing through a high end board. You have to turn the Walter up quite a bit more to drive them, but that 250 ohm is at the top of the sweet spot that is recommended for the Cafe Walter. Spendy, but if you spend a lot of time using the unit, it is money well spent to upgrade to a sort of 'professional studio grade' headphone.

Enjoy!

[JxBass]

Cafe Walter sets the standard for headphones amps IMO.

[zon6c-f]

My choice would be: KORG Pandora. I have the older PXB-4 and I LOVE it. Newer Pandora models as I understand are more generic; guitar oriented, whereas the PXB- 4 was bass specific. Find one used and be prepared to be amazed.

I am not so technologically advanced and I am still learning what that tiny monster can do: Tuner, Looping, Drum patterns, pitch shift as well as amp and box modeling. Can operate on batteries [ 4 hours tops] for "remote" location use. Try that with other modeling headphone amps. Initially quite expensive in my opinion.

I bought mine used for a fraction of NEW $$ cost from ebay..same as new only without warranty..no issues. I would miss it dearly if lost, stolen or destroyed.

I have used both the Pandora and Line 6 with headphones for silent practice as well as in front of my amps..no issues with either for live use.

I also have Line6 xt pod "black butter bean". I love it too but it does not have the aux in like the floor model line 6. Both Line6 units are better suited for on-the-fly-live changes. I haven't scratched the surface of capabilites of Line6 either, as it is very computer adaptable.

Important: Make sure you have a decent set of headphones as little "ear pods" probably cannot take the bass pre amp volume; would destroy ear pods or "walkman" style headphones in a second.

[wrench45us]

so Phil JJones bass buddy is no longer a consideration?

based on research here, it seems about 50-50 shot of getting a noisy hissy one or a brilliantly super quiet one