multible sources with headphone amps

reevesy · 09-03-2006, 10:24 PM

i've been humming and harring about getting a headphone amp for a while now to use with my senns and denon and have been taking onboard everyones comments and looking every now and then at the second hand market, especially a few xcan v2s that seem to cropping up.
now i'm thinking should i be looking at one that could be used with my archos mp3 player as well.
question is,once an amp is hooked up to a reciever can you use it with multible devices ie dvd player,xbox or anything else that is connected or are you stuck with the one output?
tried to download a xcanv2 manual but they've discontinued it and cant seem to find the answer anywhere else?

cheers in advance

NicolasB · 10-03-2006, 9:58 AM

It depends on the amp, but many of them have at least two inputs, and some more than two.

reevesy · 10-03-2006, 6:15 PM

ah right...so without sounding like a thicket...if i use my dvd player as a cd player as well, how would i get to hear this source through the headphone amp whilst still having the optical side of things set up?
i'm assuming i'd have to change all audio options depending on if i'm going to use the headphone amp or the reciever to listen to a source.
i take it a lot of these portable amps would just work from the recievers headphone out jack?
just trying to work out if a amp is worth the hassle or not as i dont want to be firing up my pj to change settings every other time.
cheers.

StevieDvd · 10-03-2006, 6:36 PM

The headphone amp would normally be connected to a line out usually L/R rca sockets. Smaller equipment like an Ipod/Archos can have a 3.5mm stereo line out.

Connecting to the DVD player L/R out may be possible as often the digital & analog are both working at the same time. I think I did this on my home cinema setup to try late-night listening options.

If you have an option on your amplifier to use a tape out to the headphone amp you should then be able to listen to any source connected to the amp.

The last thing to do is connect a headphone amp to the headphone jack socket as the signal quality is already compromised at that stage.

As stated a few headphone amps do 2 inputs (more expensive as are the ones with even more input options).

Steve