Headphone splitter - using headphone amplifier to increase volume?

slambo69 · 19 Oct 2015 at 15:02

I have been looking at getting a Fiio A3 portable headphone amplifier for use with my tablet so when I am travelling, I can share a couple of sets of headphones/earphones. Using a splitter on its own obviously reduces the voltage/volume and makes it too low for planes/buses etc.

Would this work in increasing the volume significantly? Or does anyone have any better suggestions?

Any advice appreciated.

Rroff · 19 Oct 2015 at 15:07

Portable amps like that aren't really designed for driving multiple sets of headphones especially if the headphones are different - depending on what you are trying to drive you might find the amp doesn't have enough output current and/or voltage to handle the load. (This doesn't just mean that the headphones might run quieter and/or suffer from minor sonic distortion but the op amps themselves might not be stable without increased input voltage).

It might work but most amp designers advise against it and point to distribution amplifiers instead.

slambo69 · 19 Oct 2015 at 15:14

Thanks for the reply.

Is there any brands/models of distribution amplifiers you recommend? (preferably 'portable')

Rroff · 19 Oct 2015 at 15:26

Not really an area I'm overly familiar with - I suspect a splitter and specifically picking some high sensitivity headphones would work well enough i.e. I can run both sets of my Sennheiser Momentums off a fairly low powered source via a splitter no problem.