How good are headphone amps as pre amps

[matengawhat]

i was just wondering how good headphone amps are as simple pre amps - for example i have both a pro-ject headbox II and the little dot mkIII headphones amps - both accept one source and offer a line out - i was just wondering how these would compare to a standard pre amp in terms of quality?

 

[Anonymous]

I presume you've tried it with your P35? I think I've decided on the Little Dot now so I should be giving it a go in a couple of weeks.

 

[matengawhat]

no not yet - keep meaning to try it as i have a spare p35 sitting on top of my wardrobe doing nothing - but i don't have anywhere to put it as have a system in every room i use

was wondering if the little dot and p35 would sound better than my solo movie although would need to buy a new source

just wonder sometimes how many of the extra features people use - for example for many years i had nothing but the cdp connected to my amp so did i really need 6 inputs ect

 

[Anonymous]

As you know I use mine as a pre-amp (just as an added bonus really, not just for the pre-amp functionality), I think it works well with a DAC, it gives it that added warmth you often loose with digital recordings. As for how good it is I really don't have a comparison, although I prefer the sound from the dot than straight from the DAC. Also using the DAC allows me many more inputs, than the one you have in the back of the headphone amp, so I have my PC, CD player and Xbox getting the pre-amp treatment.

 

[floyd droid]

The editor of another mag, that is bi-monthly, has been raving about the mf x-can V8 as a pre-amp. Interesting stuff.