# 80ohm headphones quiet directly out of a MOTU Microbook - Headphone amp needed?



## glennbroadway (May 9, 2017)

Hello, everyone. I'm new here - be kind  I'm a bit of a novice with a very simple little setup that I use for noodling about. My question is do I need a headphone amp? Here's my equipment.

COMPUTER: Macbook Pro running Mainstage 3 and Omnisphere 2
AUDIO INTERFACE: MOTU Microbook IIc
SYNTH: just one Kurzweil PC3LE7 workstation (going into the Microbook, which is also sort of acting as a mixer).
MONITORS: Yamaha HS8 (fed from the Microbook)
HEADPHONES: Beyerdynamic DT770 PRO 80ohm (fed from Microbook)

The DT770s are nice but quiet. Would a little headphone amp be what I need? Would something as cheap as this be worth a try?
Behringer MA400 Monitor Headphone Amplifier (~£22!)

Many thanks for taking the time to read this.


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## wst3 (May 9, 2017)

this one is right up my alley!!!

Several years ago I was tasked with designing a headphone amplifier for the Pivitec Personal Mixer System. Considering all the other stuff we had to get working that seemed like the easy chore, even the fun one. It turned out to be a lot of fun, but it was far from easy. Maybe one of the most challenging design projects I've ever tackled.

I learned quite a bit, but the one thing I will shout about is simple - do not buy a cheap headphone amplifier, it's just bad, the really do sound pretty awful. To get to that price point they have to cut too many corners. Don't do it!

On the other hand, don't buy one of those silly audiofool models either. Once you've made a couple design choices there is just no need to use oxygen free capacitors or any of that other silly stuff. Some of them sound really good mind you, but it turns out they don't sound better than any competently designed headphone amplifier.

Rane and Benchmark Audio used to be the gold standard, not sure either company even makes one any more (and too lazy to look right now.) These were well thought out designs that used proper power supplies, and proper topologies. One or the other did try to be a little clever, and it took me a while to appreciate why. I think it makes a difference, but by the time you get it loud enough to hear the difference there will probably be blood dripping from your eyes (and ears, but the headphones cover that up.

Recommendations...

Modesty prevents me from mentioning Pivitec again, so we'll jump to stuff you can buy, and there seem to be a couple of price points:

In the $200-ish range you can choose from Sony, Aphex, Apogee, Rapco, and Whirlwind - these are all well built, and will survive touring, but if you don't kick your gear around every day you may not need that level of ruggedness. CEntrance makes one in this price range as well, but I do not think it will drive your headphones.

At the $100 level you don't get rugged, but you can still get good - Presonus, AKG, and Henry Engineering all make great gear. I loved the previous version from Henry Engineering, and I trust them enough to put them on the list, but I've not used the current model.

Below that I don't think you have much of a chance of getting anything good.

Why no, this is not the first time I've heard this question<G>...


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## gregh (May 9, 2017)

as an alternative - and I would be interested to hear Bill Thompson on this - you can get beyerdynamic DT250 headphones that are very good and more suited to lower output systems (as far as I know).


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