Headphone query

I have all Quad equipment( Amp,Pre-amp & CDP) all of which have no headphone socket.
Suggestions please on how to resolve so I can use headphones.
also recommendations on reasonable quality phones that will do the Quad justice

 

Not very familiar with Quad pre-amps but I think they have (or used to have) a tape loop. If so you need a headphone amp and connect it to the tape outs. I use and really like a Rega Ear with Beyer 531 phones. Grado and Senheiser are also popular phone choices. Depends of course on how much you want to spend, and like speakers, personal taste is a big factor. Try to find a shop where you can listen to a range.

 

Many thanks, I have short listed two amps.
The Rega Ear (Able to obtain for £118)
Little Dot Mk III (similar price)
Comparisons would be appreciated.
I have on the rear of my pre-amp the follow sockets:
Tape out(record) and Tape in(Play) which are selected by a Tape monitor switch,would these be suitable for connecting a phone amp to?

 

Stax headphones come with a dedicated headphone amp that connects to the tape out sockets of your preamp.

If you're not familiar with them, Stax's are electrostatic and (IMHO) blow conventional designs out of the water. I heard a mates Senheisser HD650 - not cheap at £250 - and was well impressed. Until I bought the cheapest Stax. I was a very happy chappy, my mate not so happy

 

I have short listed two amps.
The Rega Ear (Able to obtain for £118)
Little Dot Mk III (similar price)
I have both the little dot 11 ++ and the Rega Ear and use them with AKG 701 and AKG 301s I much prefer the little dot amp and tend to use this with the 701s for a very detailed open sound that is never tiring and sounds so musical. The only problem with the Little Dot is the dissipation of the heat produced while it is switched on. I find that I need to allow it to cool down after 2 hours of use. I am investigating a way of using heatsinks attached to the sides of the casing to help with this problem.

 

You can use the speaker outputs. All you need to do is connect the headphones via a pair of resistors (L-Pad) per channel. Believe it or not, a quality power amp run like this makes for one of the best headphone amps you can get.

Something like 100R in series with the outputs followed by 10R in parallel should do the job, then connect a headphone socket to that. If you don't want to swap wires you can even put a speaker switch-box on there to select.

 

Many thanks for your replies.
Tenson---Unfortunately your post came a little late as I have ordered a Little Dot amp,but thanks for the advice

Dreftar---Glad I chose the Little Dot, On researching the various models there is an issue with the Mk II and it tending to get hot.Have you had a word with David at Little- Dot,he is very helpful([email protected])
I needed to place mine on a Atacama rack so the MK III fitted the bill as it is a lot cooler