CONTEST Headphone Practice Amp 🎸

CONTEST
fig

fig

Village Idiot
It’s late, the kids are snoozing and the wife is binging on a TV show, and you’ve got a melody rattling in your brain. To the guitar! (or bass…Fig Labs does not discriminate). Alas, yon amplification system would surely rouse the youngsters and release the Kraken that lives inside your wife. Despair….

Good News Everyone! [checks bank account]….Good News for some of you! Fig Labs is here to get that groove out of your head and into your ears-only…

I haven’t tried any of the bass models, so that model will be chosen from the feedback of all of you magic members who lay down those lovely lows..I’ve seen the Vox & Blackstar Amplugs, and the Donner Basement.

What I have for the winning gee-tar player is a brand new Fender Mustang BT. , but these contests are about getting the right gear in the hands of players, so if you, or someone you know , has a more better amp in the same class, please share, and the winner can pick from the list..and with all of the expertise floating around here…they’ll make a sound choice!

How do you win? Stop by and say “hi Fig“, and if compelled, leave some groovy input on practice amps, and we’ll do the rest! All you have to do win is post on this thread.

Flap yer gums before Friday goes away on the east coast of US, and we’ll reach in and yank out a couple of winners on Saturday.

Thank you for reading, thank you for the input, and good luck!


K3UWAYB.png
 
I used to work at a music store - tried a bunch of different headphone amps. None are perfect, but IMO the Mustang Micro is a step above the rest in regards to tone and effects. Sounds decent with bass too.
 
(to the tune of "Helloooo, Nurse") Helllooo Fig.

I mostly play through headphones, and my current amp setup is absurd but I'm incredibly happy with it, so feel free to skip me over if I win. I play into an dual channel orange micro amp clone, and feed the effects loop out into the effects loop return of a 1x12 Boss Katana. I hate the built in amp models of the Katana - they are good for what they are, but there's nothing really "orangey" either clean or dirty. The built in effects (especially cab sim, reverb, delay, etc) make this insane setup worth using and I have full control over the pedal chain both virtual and real. It's not terribly hard to get an orange sound out of a stock Katana using the dirt pedals built into it but the amp doesn't play well with input pedals when doing so.
 
I have two (three maybe?) headphone amps currently.
  • The MXR headphone amp design is one that I build into pedals if I want a simple headphone output, and it works well. I like running it at 30V so I have a SMPS that I run with it to step input up to there.
  • I have a pair of 16ohm headphones that sound really good, and I thought "hey, that's a pretty common guitar speaker impedance", so I built an AX84 Firefly tube amp with a simplified preamp and limited the output level so I can have a tube headphone amp without blowing my brains out.
  • Not sure if it counts, but I also have a TwoNotes Torpedo CAB M+ that I use as a headphone amp sometimes when I want that tasty IR flavor in there.
 
I found the Blackstar Amplug to be decent, but the Mustang Micro is a step up. I'd love to DIY a 125B headphone amp + cab sim that plays nicely with my drive pedals though...
 
Hi Fig!

I use a a fender super champ head with a 12” Jensen in a custom cab I built. It’s crazy overkill for a practice amp but it has tubes and it lets me play in my bedroom while my daughter sleeps in the next room and I can have a nice low end sound come out without being super loud. Oh wait that was just a fart… but the amp sounds great at super low levels and can get loud enough to be too loud when no one else is home. It can’t touch my 100watt West but at home 100watts is insane. I’ve been able to avoid headphones with this set up and never have woken her up. When I do use headphones it’s the unicab into an old Rolls headphone four out box. Still like the open air sound of this Jensen though. Good luck to everyone. Fig rules.
 
  • Love
Reactions: fig
hi Fig -

While I do not have a headphone amp per se....I have used headphones with my HX Stomp which sounds great, but is not quite as portable as some of the dedicated headphone amp offerings.

The one that has intrigued me for a while is the NUX Mighty Plug. Reviews on it are mostly positive and they recently released a V2. Seems like a good bang for the buck option with all the model support, effects and can be used as an audio interface.
 
  • Like
Reactions: fig
Great stuff so far! :love: btw, I’m also shopping some of these being mentioned, and will offer my ‘crapinion’ at a later sequence of events…(y)
 
Hi Fig...

I recently got my first "Headphone" amp, and even posted a NAD thread... right here:

NAD - A mini one

So, I was lured by Amazon Prime Day to buy something I really didn’t need. First impression: - When I picked up the box off my porch first thing to mind was - Dang it’s light ! - Once out the box, thought was - It’s much smaller than I thought. So at this point, I was thinking, yet...
forum.pedalpcb.com forum.pedalpcb.com

The Joyo line offers loads of options in terms of style and at 20W can be very loud when connected to a cabinet.

Best feature is the Bluetooth option, allows you to play in a back track while jammin with your headphone...

But beware, I heard the Bass amp option is not so good...
 
  • Love
Reactions: fig
Hey Fig :)

My headphone rigs are both great sounding, though I must warn that neither is all that portable.

The first one is just the headphone out of my Vox Mini Superbeetle, which is my bedroom amp. Great little amp; it sounds absolutely fantastic! Unfortunately I don’t get too many opportunities to play it thru the cab because during the day my dad is in his office in the next room over on zoom calls, and at night (I’m a bit of a nocturnal being, myself) there are of course people sleeping. Because of that, I play thru the headphone out very frequently, and it’s honestly really great sounding. There’s no true cab sim, but it sounds infinitely better than most plain headphone outputs.

The second one is a usb audio interface plugged into a usb-a to usb-c dongle plugged into my MacBook M1 with GarageBand running. The amps in GarageBand are all just okay sounding, and the effects blocks are also just okay, but I’ve made a handful of good sounding presets and even more terrible sounding (but terribly fun) presets. I also have one of those USB to 9v adapters from LMS, so I can easily hook up a random fun effect or two. It’s a mess of wires, but it’s vaguely portable and it has a million different ways to futz around with fun sounds.
 
Hi @fig ! I use a 1590BB headphone amp / mixer with a cab sim and a LPF. It has two channels so inputing a backing track or metronome is very easy. There is room for improvement with it, but it's definitely my most-used DIY build.
 
Hey Figgy.

Here's what I use currently for headphonetics: a knockoff of the Behringer headphone monitor which is presumably a knockoff of some other company's product and which cost me about $20 on AliExpress. It's not that loud but that's a good thing; won't damage my poor old ears too much.

I have various amp-in-a-boxes and a UniCab if I feel the need.

EDIT: As it's exactly the same as the Behringer except without the Behringer logo, I'm guessing it is the exact same thing and comes from the same factory.
 

Attachments

  • mmm.jpg
    mmm.jpg
    114 KB · Views: 9
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: fig
hi Fig!

My "headphone amp" is a Unicab as an insert in a hi-Z channel of my mixer, through which I run my pedalboard.
I've been happy with that setting both playing through headphones or my monitors when I play with other gear.
The Muustang BT looks interesting as a smaller portable solution, as I could just put it in my case and bring just that when I go to the cottage, or to visit our relatives out-of-town.
 
  • Like
Reactions: fig
Hi Fig.

I haven't ever used a "headphone amp", so I will be of no use on that front. The only things I have plugged headphones into are my Zoom 505 (worked great while I was deployed), Boss GT-8, and my 15W practice amps. My Fender Rumble 100 has a phone out but I have never used it, so I should probably give it a go.
 
  • Like
Reactions: fig
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top