Headphone Amp Recommendations

Can anyone recommend a good, affordable 4-8 channel headphone monitor amp for studio use? Mine just died, and I need to get something solid, good sounding, powerful, and affordable.

Iā€™ve had the forerunner of this for God knows how many years and it still works, now in my sonā€™s ā€œstudioā€ because he needs it for vocalists.
It may not have ā€œsound qualityā€, but it runs the signals to the phones no worries.

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https://www.thomann.de/gb/behringer_ha4700_powerplay_proxl_kopfhoererverstaerker.htm
Iā€™ve had this in my studio for five years with no problems. It just works.

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Behringer rack mount unitā€¦ used, it was a surprise how good it sounded and how many cool options were on it for some super cheap price. used medium and kind of a ā€œcontrol boxā€ā€¦I dont know the model number but its probably 5yrs old no issues.

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Yep, the HA4700 is a really solid piece of equipment.They make a 8 channel version too (HA8000), but the 4 channel has more features.

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Behringer gets knocked for reliability issues for some of their gear over the years, but those headphone amps still keep going strong! Iā€™ve seen them in racks in big and small studios alike. +1 for the Behringer!

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Thanks everyone - much appreciated inputā€¦

So Behringer is the only game in town?

My previous headphone amp was actually a very cheap Behri unit. I think I paid about $50 for 4 channels (maybe the forerunner to the unit Shack mentioned). It lasted about 9 years of fairly sporadic use, but decided to have a meltdown the other night.

It was actually still running, but sending ear-splitting shards of distortion into our brains whenever the drummer hit his snare drum,or the bassist played a loud note. Iā€™m certainly not complaining about getting 9 years for $50, and I was quite happy with the sound, quality-wise (until it bit the dust, that is).

ā€¦It sounds like the HA4700 is a more solid proposition, and would be somewhat of a step up, though.

Iā€™ve used the ART box and a couple of others but I canā€™t think of the name of them and for the cost itā€™s hard to beat the behri!

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[quote=ā€œColdRoomStudio, post:7, topic:872ā€]
My previous headphone amp was actually a very cheap Behri unit. I think I paid about $50 for 4 channels (maybe the forerunner to the unit Shack mentioned). It lasted about 9 years of fairly sporadic use, but decided to have a meltdown the other night.
[/quote] 9yrs for a $50 unitā€¦not bad. hell I read the Hiend Gearprostitutes sending $200,000 mixing consoles out for repairs. ā€¦that funny 9yrsā€¦$50ā€¦pizzas cost $20 and dont last long as that.

I find those Behringer units noisy. They are a good deal for the buck no doubt. Just as good can be a little 4 channel live mixer. You can use right, Left, aux 1, control room Right, control room left and head phone Left/Right outputs for a total of 7 outputs. You can more easily gain stage with one of these. I am loving the Motu system I installed which gives me a killer cue mix set up. I have mine set up to get 4 stereo or 8 mono mixes or anything in between. I can control it all or give the talent an iPad and have them control their own mix. It has been just brilliant for me.

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Iā€™ve used a behringer amp800 for the past 8-9 years. Its one of the very few things that went with me when I moved (wasnā€™t intentional, I somehow missed it when I was divvying up gear for sale and storage, so it went into the duffel bag). The sound can be best described as ā€˜okā€™, but the damned thing just wonā€™t die, so I just keep using it. I think I paid about 40 bucks for itā€¦ Though I see they cost a little bit more these days. To be fair, it wasnā€™t in use the entire time. I took a few years off. Imagine my surprise when I turned it on after sitting for that long and it didnā€™t let all the magic smoke outšŸ˜†

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Hi Calebz - thanks for your input - I actually ended up going with another Behringer - this one:

I mainly use it for band ā€œsilentā€ band rehearsals and recording drums, and Iā€™m very happy with is so far.

Nice!

I used to use mine a lot for ā€˜silentā€™ sectionals on those nights when no one wanted to make the trek to the practice room. E-drums, amp Sims and headphones are a great way to keep the collective creative juices flowing without pissing the neighbors off.

I just noticed how old this thread was. I apologize for the resurrection :blush:

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Hey - no worries! Always fun to discuss this stuff. ā€˜Silentā€™ rehearsals are the only way my current band practices now, due to my relocation from acreage to suburbia. My bandmates actually love it (and so do my ears!).

Mine only gets used for occasionally tracking drums these days. My place is too small to have the boys over on a regular basis - my wife would kill mešŸ˜¶

The upside is that the practice room isnā€™t very far away and the walls are about 4 feet thick, solid Rock/concrete. Practicing in an ugly old castle does have its advantages :rofl:

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Castle? Wow, sounds interesting!.. Have you joined Led Zeppelinā€¦or U2 perhaps?

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Black Sabbath :yum:

I would post a picture if I could figure out how. :joy:

Just drag and drop the photo into the ā€˜replyā€™ text box if on a computer, or hit the little ā€œupā€ arrow and navigate to the photo and upload in the icon bar at the top of the ā€˜replyā€™ box if on a mobile device.

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Thanks!

For all my poking around, I completely missed the ā€˜uploadā€™ button.:hushed:

So there it is (I hope). The core building is a 12th century mini-castle and itā€™s been added to a few times in the past few hundred years. The guy that owns it lives in a self contained apartment on the top floor and rents most of the rest of the place out to local bands. Heā€™s about 80, drives a WRX, likes rock and whiskey. Itā€™s a pretty cool place.

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Thatā€™s awesome! :+1: