Integrated Amplifier with good headphone output?

Phil99

Phil99

Phil99

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I'm currently borrowing a very old Technics amplifier off a friend and the headphone output of this is far, far superior to listening to my Sennheiser HD555's straight from my soundcard (X-Fi).

As the difference is so significant, I'm looking to buy an amp of my own. Trouble is, there are, of course, many options.

I'm not sure I can mention places, but I've been looking through the selection on a popular retailer (mostly Cambridge Audio in the stock list). Even within the Cambridge Audio selection there seems to be a rather confusing mix of amps in the same price range.

A reconditioned Cambridge Audio AZUR 340A is the same price as the Cambridge Audio AZUR 540A V2 or reconditioned Cambridge Audio AZUR 640A V2, which is mighty confusing to a newbie such as myself, and that's just the Cambridge Audio selection!

So, to cut a long and pointless story short, what is my best bet for a good, future proof, amplifier for less than £200inc? I've seen a few AV receivers in this range but they don't seem particularly great, but I'd entertain the idea of one if it somehow works out better value. A decent quality headphone output is essential as I probably won't even run any speakers off it for a while; I'm avoiding standalone headphone amps as I want to future proof :)

Thanks for any suggestions! :D
 
The headphone output on any budget amp is not really going to be any better than the technics amp you have now. I know you say you don't want one but I think a decent headphone amp is whats needed to improve your 555's. Two other alternatives would be to either get a Beresford DAC that has a headphone amp in it, this also has a volume controled preout so could be hooked up to a power amp and speakers at a later date. The other option would be to replace your x-fi with a Asus Xonar Essence STX which has a good headphone amp in it and would work well with any hifi amp bought at a later date.

Dave
 
Just about any stand alone headphone amp will be better than a £200 integrated (for headphone use, obviously).

Your techinics amp probably has good headphone out put becuase it's old,(i'm guessing 'quite' old) and in times gone by things like that had more attention paid to them and quality is better. At the lower end of the market things are made to a budget and headphone outs are one of the first to go, or cheaply added on.
 
That's what I feared :( This amp must be late 70s/early 80s.

I'll have a look at the other suggestions. My fear was that I'd end up spending quite a bit on a headphone amp and then end up replacing it with an integrated amp at a later date when I get some proper speakers so I was looking to get a head of myself a bit, unfortunately it does seem like headphone outputs are the first thing to go on budget amps though, so as you say I guess you can't expect too much from the lower end ones that do have an output :(
 
Get a DAC with a built in headphone amp then if you choose to get a good amp + speakers you can still make use of your DAC, also you'll probably notice more of an SQ increase than with just a cheap amp.
 
The decent DACs seem to be in the £150 range, whereas I can get a Cambridge Audio 640A for £20 more; apparently this model has an inbuilt headphone amplifier instead of the typical resistor circuit from the main amp. Has anyone ever used one of these before?

I will probably get a chance to demo the 640A, but probably won't be able to get my hands on a DAC to compare. It seems the 640A normally sells for £300, but as it's end of range it's heavily discounted at the moment.

I'm not intentionally ignoring the advice so far, I'm just trying to find the easiest solution that won't end up costing the earth :p

The idea of a DAC is quite appealing as everything I use has a digital out, I'm just not sure I can justify £150 on something that would only be used for headphones when my headphones only cost £60 to begin with :D Unfortunately it seems the only Beresford on sale nowadays is the USB version which added £50 to the original £99 price tag.
 
It's actually the amps where the headphone output is stepped down from the main circuit that sound better. Almost all older amps did this and most still do today, though some do have a separate and nasty circuit for the headphone amp. However, I'd imagine that if a decent company makes a point of mentioning separate headphone amplification it'll be decent.
 
Well there was a iBasso Boa and a Firestone Fubar on 'bay earlier for under 100. You can also pickup the 2009 model of the Zero, if you get more cash then you could add OPAs to bring the price closer to 150. There's an Aune that keeps going cheap too but i'm not sure if it has a headphone amp.
 
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