Hifikrazy:
"This may be a dumb question, but is there any difference between using a headphone amp, or using the headphone jacks of a normal hi-fi amp?"
Not if you're lucky enough to have a very good head amp section included in your regular amp, like the sugden headmaster, apparently. I suspect this usually is not the case, hence the need for a dedicated headphone amp.
To Mr P.
"Hi,
What issue in particular or were the reviews spread out? Can you name a
few I could check out , or was the X-can that good? Thanks.
See First tests, January 2004. Know this because I ripped it out of the magazine to go and buy one myself.
-->X-can V3: 4stars, Creek OBH-21(SE) (&Graham Slee & Sugden headmaster): 5 stars