is there a good bass guitar headphone amp?

fatNfunky · #1 01-30-2012, 11:23 PM

I like to play while the family is watching tv, but my current battery powered thing just sounds weak, id really like a quality device, does anyone know of one?

portable not 110.

hmm after a quick search looks like the korg pandora might work?

phangtonpower · #2 01-30-2012, 11:38 PM

I have a korg PX5D that I have going into a portable headhphone amp or a headphone tube amp. Here's my portable rig.
Reader Rigs: Phangtonpower

And here is my home rig tube amp.
MiniMAX Overview

fatNfunky · #3 01-30-2012, 11:46 PM

is there any difference in the power of the korg pandora models?

if there is one thing i really dont like its a clipped signal,

i really dont care about 200 'effects' just a nice clean sound is what i want.

and cheap as possible

Duke21 · #4 01-30-2012, 11:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fatNfunky

is there any difference in the power of the korg pandora models?

if there is one thing i really dont like its a clipped signal,

i really dont care about 200 'effects' just a nice clean sound is what i want.

and cheap as possible

Then Vox Amplug is your thing.

phangtonpower · #5 01-30-2012, 11:54 PM

I'm not really sure about the power difference of all the models. I also don't really care about the effects either. If your headphone amp has a line out, then you can have it sent to another dedicated headphone amp like I have done.
Check out this company. FIIO-Amplifier
Their amps are decently priced and are actually pretty good.

iabssplyr · #6 01-30-2012, 11:56 PM

+1 for the Vox Amplug. I use the AC-30 model because I had before switching to bass and it doesn't sound half bad. There's a bass Amplug now with available compression, I believe, though I haven't tried one yet. It could be what you're looking for.

Munjibunga · #7 01-30-2012, 11:59 PM

Used Raven Labs PHA-1, if you can find one. Fantastic sound with plenty of bells and whistles.

phangtonpower · #8 01-31-2012, 12:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Munjibunga

Used Raven Labs PHA-1, if you can find one. Fantastic sound with plenty of bells and whistles.

Wow that seems pretty awesome! Wonder how it sounds. They seem hard to come by nowadays.

Munjibunga · #9 01-31-2012, 12:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phangtonpower

Wow that seems pretty awesome! Wonder how it sounds. They seem hard to come by nowadays.

The sound is great. Steve designed them to also be used as a preamp. It has stereo aux input for play-along with 3-band tone control for the bass. The aux has independent left and right channel volume controls and a separate volume control for the bass. It also has two headphone jacks. The one in the photos below is an early model. Later ones have a power input jack.

bongomania · #10 01-31-2012, 12:41 AM

Forget Raven Labs, they've been out of business a long time, and their preamp uses an impossible-to-find power supply (or two batteries) and the ones you'll find for sale at a decent price never have the power supply. There are many choices that sound just as good, for equal or lower prices, without the BS and headaches.

Cafe Walter; Jacques Fat Burner; Phil Jones Bass Buddy; Exar Ibex; [sfx] various models; DHA various models; plus most active "mini mixers" from a variety of brands like Yamaha, Behr, Mackie, Rolls, and ART.
http://sfxsound.co.uk/mainpage.asp?page=h1
http://www.philjonesbass.com/pjbdire...products_id=39 (can be found cheaper used)
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guita...ner-compressor
http://www.bassnw.com/New%20Effects%...walter_HA1.htm
http://www.davehallamps.co.uk/page29.html
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-a...31262000000000
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-a...30565000000000
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/pro-a...75229000000000
http://www.ovnifx.com/exarpedals/ibex.shtml (I'm the US vendor, but it's out of stock just now)

Again, the Raven Labs unit may sound nice enough, but it's too much money to pay for something that is difficult to power and there's no chance of service since they're out of business; and it doesn't sound "that much nicer" than the other items out there.

phangtonpower · #11 01-31-2012, 12:45 AM

Yeah I actually saw the pix on headfi, but no one commented on the sound. If I didn't have my current rig, I would have probably got this. I just wonder if it would power HD650's or K701's decently. Both my amps do a decent job and both were in the 300-400 buck range and are only amps to drive headphones with no EQ like the Raven><

greencow · #12 01-31-2012, 12:48 AM

I so want a schematic for that Raven Labs

**JxBass** · #13 01-31-2012, 04:39 AM

Cafe Walter. I also own the Korg Pandora and while it's nice for what it offers in features, it doesn't compare to the Cafe Walter for pure bass tone.

clutchcarter · #14 01-31-2012, 05:07 AM

Vox Amplug, cheap ($50.00), super portable, works great!

fatNfunky · #15 01-31-2012, 07:08 AM

i have the vox amplug, but i have the guitar (not bass) version.

its kinda weak in tone and volume for me.

fatNfunky · #16 01-31-2012, 07:54 AM

seems to be a lot of headphone amps on the www,

is there a difference between the signal (volatage) that comes out of an mp3 player compared to a bass guitar?

im guessing the signal from an active bass guitar is 'hotter' then an mp3 player, and would overdrive the input on many portale headphone amps,

but i could be wrong?

TheBass · #17 01-31-2012, 08:08 AM

I mostly use my little Boss Micro BR for noodling at home. It's not the best headphone amp in the world but it has got all features I need to practice in one package.

Duke21 · #18 01-31-2012, 08:36 AM

I've the Vox Amplug as mentioned earlier. But since I tried Amplitube iOS (iPad and iPod) I've stopped using the Vox. So basically, iOS device with Amplitube/ GK app/ Ampkit is the future for me as long as we are talking home use.

Shippy · #19 01-31-2012, 09:31 AM

I use the Electro-Harmonix battery powered headphone amp, which works great for me when traveling. I paired it with the Audio Technica ATH-D40fs Professional Enhanced-Bass Studio Monitor Headphones. These are full over-ear cans with Neo 40mm drivers. Compared to many expensive headphones, these are a steal. I paid about fifty dollars from B&H Photo. I prefer over-ear cans and not ear buds. I compared the Bose and Dr. Dre stuff at Best Buy, and I'm completely happy with my AT cans.

The only problem with the EH headphone amp is: I can't do 'play-along' with a iPod or cdplayer. For that, I've hooked up a small mixer at home, but it sucks for bass tone, but I can hear the notes clearly. You could add a pedal pre-amp and solve the tone problem, but now you're not portable. With the EH amp, it's battery powered and has a belt clip, so you can wander the house and jam to the play-along in your head...

moles · #20 01-31-2012, 12:55 PM

Since we're moving a bunch of stuff around in the apartment this week, and subsequently changing my practice areas up, I'm looking at headphone amps too...
I keep sort of going back to looking at the Zoom B2. It looks good on paper, since it's got the headphone out, and can be run on batteries, and I *thought* it had an mp3/cd player input jack...apparently it doesn't...
It's twice the money as the Vox Amplug, but if it had that cd in it would be worth it to me. So back to the search....
Slightly OT, but I thought it'd be funny to mention that 15 or 20 years ago, my solution to that kind of problem was to run the cd player through earbuds, then the bass headphone amp would go through bigger cans that sat right over top. Once you got over the all the wires you had to deal with, it worked pretty well - not that I want to go back to doing it that way.