The Sound Signature of a Headphone Amp

The tape out is a line level output that bypasses the amplifier and volume controls of your integrated amp. This should allow for input into a headphone amp. The headphone amp will control the volume for your headphones.

Headphone amps are like all other high end audio equipment. They each have unique sonic character and in general sound better the more you spend. Headphones also have very large differences in power requirements… just like main speakers. I have owner headphone amps from a hundred bucks through my current setup in which with high end 300B tubes cost over $6K… and worth every penny in sonic character. This has enormous current capacity, so any headphone is going to sound it’s best. It is a Woo WA5… you can see the system under my user ID, virtual system.

Many good headphones are hard to drive. So, it is important to match the headphone amp with 

I highly recommend looking at Woo headphone amps. They are incredibly musical and natural. 

@ghdprentice I was told by the ASR Amp Designer to use tape outs to connect to a headphone amp. The headphones themselves are low impedance and easy to drive. Probably similar in sound to the Focal Clear MG. There’s a headphone jack in the amp however I’ve been having problems with it and for low impedance headphones, I was advised to have a tech install a devider in the headphone output. I’ve just gotten to where I want to buy a headphone amp but the Woo amplifiers are beyond my budget. So I’m thinking the Schiit Mjolnir 3 as I’ve read that it punches well above its weight. But getting back to my original question, how much of the sonic footprint is the ASR and how much is the Schiit?

I would say most of the character is going to come from the head amp since your integrated is working primarily as a switch box in this situation. 

@ghdprentice Thanks! My power amp is going to be hard to match. When I upgraded my streamer/renderer to an increase of around $3,500.00, the difference was noticeable but not to the degree I’d anticipated. I’m stuck in my head with the same scenario regarding this headphone amplifier. I’ve just started my interest in headphone listening because I’ve found myself having to continuously replace the mylar panels in my Quad 2905 ESL’s. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.

Replacing Quad panel? That is terrible. They should not need replacing for at least a decade or so. Have you identified a cause?

You could slowly put together a headphone system, over time. I typically use my headphone system for an hour a day and my main system for two hours. Both of mine have the same sonic character by choice. You might look for a used high end headphone amp.