Why don't more amps have headphone jack?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » 4 Sep 2003 4:57 pm

I don't get why more amps don't have the ability to bypass the speaker and go to a headphone for practice. My old Yamaha has this feature and I end up practicing with it even though it's not a great steel amp. I know that you can buy headphone amplifiers, but how much could it possibly cost the manufacturers to build this feature into the amp. This is especially relevant on something like the Peavey 112, which is intended for use as a practice amp as well as a performance amp.

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I just checked the Peavey website and the 112 DOES have a headphone jack. Hmmm, that's really nice.<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Stephen O'Brien on 04 September 2003 at 06:02 PM.]</p></FONT>

Donny Hinson · Post by **Donny Hinson** » 4 Sep 2003 5:26 pm

That sounds like a $5 question to me!

Actually, there's a little more in play here than the $5 cost. For amps with a master volume control, it's only the addition of a jack and a few inches of wire. You do a simple voltage divider that just taps in the end of the last preamp, and wire that to the headphone jack. Now, turn down the master, plug in your headphones, and you're there! For amps without a master volume control, though, it can be a bigger problem. Now, you have to have some sort of cut-out jack to disable the power amp, and therein lies the problem. "Switching" jacks that aren't used regularly sometimes cause problems. The "cut-out" works when it isn't supposed to, and presto, dead amp! (No sound from the speaker.) And now, you have a customer complaint (which they want to avoid at all costs). Sooooo, until there appears to be a real demand for such a modification, the manufacturers are happy to let you worry about how to use headphones. Steel amps aren't a real big seller to start with, and when you consider that maybe only one in ten owners would even use such an "accessory", you begin to see why they haven't all been made that way.

I think.

Anyhoo, kudos to Peavey for doing it to their newest amp.

John Bresler R.I.P. · Post by **John Bresler R.I.P.** » 4 Sep 2003 6:02 pm

My Carvin SX-100 has one. Comes in handy.

JB

Budd Kelley · Post by **Budd Kelley** » 5 Sep 2003 3:31 am

I usually don't get to practice during the week until late. I am telling myself that this is the time I would be performing if I had a gig! My neighbors really like the headphone jack on my amp!! (So do my dogs)

Jackie Anderson · Post by **Jackie Anderson** » 5 Sep 2003 10:15 am

How you get the headphones to stay on your dogs? My beagle has real slippery ears, and the phones just won't stay put.

David Doggett · Post by **David Doggett** » 5 Sep 2003 11:23 am

Well, electro-techs may be shocked by this, but many times I have plugged headphones directly into an amp's speaker jack. Naturally you first turn the volume off before you plug in, and turn it up very carefully. Most headphones are rated for 4 ohms or above, the same as many amp speaker jacks. This never seems to damage either the amp or the headphones. I use to run my stereo record player into two of the jacks on a Fender Super Reverb, and my guitar into another (as I remember it had two channels with two jacks for each). I would unplug the speaker from it's jack and use a Y adapter to run the mono signal from the amp into the stereo headphones. This may seem completely crazy, but I never had a problem. Now I run everything into a cheap little mixer and plug my earpnones into that.

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 5 Sep 2003 11:48 am

The GD Walker Stereo Steel amp has a headphone jack with separate volume AND an input for your rhythm tracks, so you can play live and your tracks blended into your phones. Great idea! Love it!

Larry R · Post by **Larry R** » 5 Sep 2003 3:53 pm

The new Evans amps have the headphone jk. I love it when tuning in noisy surroundings.