Noobie question about headphones and PRS amps

[tcurrin]

Hello,

I'm looking at the amps listed on the site and am making a list of what to try. Being a noobie to amplifiers, I'm a little confused as to which amps allow you to plug in headphones and which ones do not. The specs on a lot of the PRS amps identify 8, 16, ... ohm outputs. Would these be suitable as headphone jacks if the resistance of the headphones matches on of these?

Thanks in advance. I'm liking the demos I see of the Sweet 16.

Tom

 

[László]

No, those are speaker outputs and would not be suitable for headphones, unless your plan is to blow up your headphones and go deaf in the process. Chances are that the amp would not see enough of a speaker load and blow its transformer, too.

Speakers are designed to take the output power of an amp, as well as present a proper load. Headphones are not.

Amps with headphone jacks are usually solid state amps and modelers, or take a headphone feed from a special circuit.

Do not try to hook headphones up to the output jacks of a tube amp, unless the headphones themselves are designed to take a power amp's output; some Stax electrostats come to mind, because they have a box designed for hooking up to an amplifier.

 

[tcurrin]

Thanks. I'll need to keep searching. I need to have a headphone option available while trying to approach the tube sound.

 

[László]

Thanks. I'll need to keep searching. I need to have a headphone option available while trying to approach the tube sound.

I'd just use a modeler on a computer, since that's so simple, and there are good ones out there from several developers (the Scuffham models are absolutely first class and allow you to use impulses sampled from good speaker cabinets, for very little money) but there are hardware load boxes available at various price ranges that you can hook any amp up to and use headphones. The Palmer boxes are very popular, but there are a few others as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NaS9ho_ryo

 

[g.wizz]

I wonder if you tried the Hughes and Kettner Tubemeister series i have the 18 watts version and it has the red box arguably the best direct box
in the market today which allows you to connect it to a small mixer or stereo monitors with excellent results.
also check out the Egnater amp series
hope that will help.

 

[aristotle]

If you're looking for a tube vibe through headphones at bargain basement prices, grab a Marshall Class 5 head. They're going for a song nowadays (A local guitar center had one for $199 at a recent sale.)

Has a headphone out which sounds great and is completely safe. And, hook it up to your favorite cab and it works well for up to small club gigs.

I don't know if any PRS amps have headphone outs standard (none that I have do...) but if you have your heart set on a PRS amp....and I can certainly understand that... you can always get an attenuator that has a line out. Be careful though. I blew up the output tubes of a beautiful DG30 using an attenuator....

 

[axe24]

soHow you do that.is a ,attenuater used to drop wattage, to go from 15 watts to 5 Watts?