Headphones and headphone amp recommendations please

[Lostgallifreyan]

After many hits and misses, I use Audio Technica AT40fs out of a Mackie 1202VLZ. The Mackie is obviously AC powered with a 1-watt headphone output, and the inputs on the first 4 channels are combination XLR/1/4" to the Mackie VLZ preamps. With this, I can get REALLY loud in the headphones with no headroom issues at all.

And of course, with 1/4" inputs on the Mackie, it's nothing to use your pedals, a tube channel to warm things up, etc., or you can route throught the effects sends in the mixer, or input any source you want to play along with. Lots of used and barely used Mackie 12's of different vintages are out there as lots of players or groups start with one, then go bigger, and sell off these little gems.

I use a 1202VLZ too. Unfortunately one winter the warmth attracted a mouse that got used to sleeping there before I discovered that the incontinent little bastard had pissed on it. If I could get those VLZ inputs and that phones output and a more basic form that mounted in a 1U rack, I'd be happy. Even better would be MIDI control of general mixer routings so I don't have to use a computer and an Echo Layla rack to do that. (And MIDI is mouseproof).

I like Sennheiser HD25 phones. I've tried many over many years, and these were the ones that stopped me looking further. There are more comfortable phones, but these rival the room monitors (Mackie HR-824) and are sonically very similar, so it's easy to gauge details in sound either way, though if I ever need something that gets into a sound like a neural implant might, I use Etymotic ER-4S. If I want to examine a bassline in a recording, these will reveal details I can't detect with anything else I've tried. They're not comfortable, but they're worth having to help understand how someone else played something.

An old Oberheim GM-400 is my only signal processor, it's extremely good, though there are probably recent variants on the general design and capability. It even has a tuner, and a good phones output. I modified one for 12VDC supply, so I can set up to practise anywhere with 12VDC, that rack box, a couple of cables, and the bass, and the headphones. Total setup time can be less than one minute without having to hurry.