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Why no headphone for Tube Amps

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JOHN PAUL PICKLESIMER	Why no headphone for Tube Amps I'm looking for a small tube amp with a headphone so I can practice late at night and not wake the dead..I can't seem to find one at the Internet stores MF, Music 123,ZZ etc. help..to they make such a critter.

11/24/2005 3:07 PM
Kursad	it requires a cabinet simulator which are usually solid state. it can be included in tube amps without increasing the cost much, but apparently the manufacturers are not only interested in a cheap solution but rather the cheapest solution...

11/24/2005 3:39 PM
JOHN PAUL PICKLESIMER	Are there any tube amps with headphones out there or am I stuck with SS forever...?

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Kursad	you can also use a dummy load and an external cabinet simulator weber has some interesting products for this purpose https://weberspeakerscom.secure.powweb.com/weber/hpa50.htm (note: I didnt try these... so I cannot comment about if they will work well or not)

11/24/2005 11:30 PM
Steve A.	Mesa Boogie makes an F-30 amp that sells for about $1000 and includes a headphone output. Usually the tube amps designed for recording will have a line out or a headphone out, along with a switch to disconnect the speaker. http://www.mesaboogie.com/ A line out will work (assuming that you can switch off the speaker) but you will need to get a direct box or cheap mixer to drive headphones from the line out signal. One caveat: tube amps can be noisier than ss amps, and you might hear a lot of crap in the headphones which would usually be filtered out by the speaker. Steve Ahola

11/24/2005 11:30 PM

Steve A.

    Mesa Boogie makes an F-30 amp that sells for about $1000 and includes a headphone output. Usually the tube amps designed for recording will have a line out or a headphone out, along with a switch to disconnect the speaker.

http://www.mesaboogie.com/

    A line out will work (assuming that you can switch off the speaker) but you will need to get a direct box or cheap mixer to drive headphones from the line out signal.

    One caveat: tube amps can be noisier than ss amps, and you might hear a lot of crap in the headphones which would usually be filtered out by the speaker.

Steve Ahola

11/25/2005 3:29 AM
Dai H.	A Pod or Sansamp type device might be simpler, less hassle. I use a Marshall through a Palmer spk. simulator and I also have a Marshall SE100 spk. emulator, and they are okay but they use more power, plus in a small room you have to position yourself so the gtr. pickups don't pick up the magnetic field (the hum and buzz) from the transformers, plus what Steve said. Or maybe a very very low power tube amp in a closet mic'ed up would be satisfactory, not piss off neighbors, etc.

11/25/2005 3:29 AM

Dai H.

A Pod or Sansamp type device might be simpler, less hassle. I use a Marshall through a Palmer spk. simulator and I also have a Marshall SE100 spk. emulator, and they are okay but they use more power, plus in a small room you have to position yourself so the gtr. pickups don't pick up the magnetic field (the hum and buzz) from the transformers, plus what Steve said. Or maybe a very very low power tube amp in a closet mic'ed up would be satisfactory, not piss off neighbors, etc.

11/25/2005 9:01 AM
Steve Dallman	As stated, you need a dummy load big enough to handle the power of the amp, a circuit to drop the level from speaker to headphone, AND a frequency compensation circuit to mimic the frequency response of a speaker in your headphones. A speaker in an amp is basically a mid range device, rolling off in the low end and drastically in the high end, around 4-6kHz. Headphones are full range devices and without frequency compensation, your guitar would sound overly bright, buzzy and strident. It might be OK for clean, but forget about using distortion. The tone controls on the amp aren't sufficient for mimicing the response of a speaker.

11/25/2005 9:01 AM

Steve Dallman

As stated, you need a dummy load big enough to handle the power of the amp, a circuit to drop the level from speaker to headphone, AND a frequency compensation circuit to mimic the frequency response of a speaker in your headphones.

A speaker in an amp is basically a mid range device, rolling off in the low end and drastically in the high end, around 4-6kHz. Headphones are full range devices and without frequency compensation, your guitar would sound overly bright, buzzy and strident. It might be OK for clean, but forget about using distortion. The tone controls on the amp aren't sufficient for mimicing the response of a speaker.

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