Some amps and preamps have no on-board headphone amp, e.g. NAD M10 and M12. These two examples also don't provide a fixed level line out, so the only option is to use the analogue pre-out to feed an external headphone amp, possibly with a Y connector if you're feeding active speakers as well.
In this case (or when you simply want to improve headphone listening with an external amp that's better than the one built in) is the usual method to turn the external headphone amp volume to maximum and use the source amp's volume control?
I've seen comments that doing this can increase the noise floor, affecting the quality of the headphone audio, but I can't think of another way to do it.
In this case (or when you simply want to improve headphone listening with an external amp that's better than the one built in) is the usual method to turn the external headphone amp volume to maximum and use the source amp's volume control?
I've seen comments that doing this can increase the noise floor, affecting the quality of the headphone audio, but I can't think of another way to do it.