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Compact headphone amp with aux in and DI / EQ


Al Krow

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The OP said Headphone amp mate, not a pre-amp with headphone capabilities, there is a difference.

DG M500 is a pre amp with an EQ and DI out and Headphone out , unfortunately no aux in, and it also has a power amp attached, but you wouldn’t buy any DG products though would you........

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2 minutes ago, Cuzzie said:

@nightsun you have no idea how good a solution that is........

@Al Krow remind me, have you got one of those...?

I have a pretty good idea as I use it for everything mentioned ;-)

  • Aux in
  • Headphone out
  • DI
  • More tonal posibillities than I car to list here
  • Runs on mains/battery/USB Power
  • Multi-FX for gigging (or playing)
  • Happily sits on my Pedaltrain Metro 20 (with a few other pedals)

Anything else?

 

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1 minute ago, Tonteee said:

I thought the B3 too - not that I've ever owned one, just know from here how good they apparently are - but they dropped the XLR out on the latest one, didn't they?

Yep you need the B3 for the DI, they do come up used occasionally (and everything has it's price)

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Nightsun - totally agree. The Zoom B3 is an excellent and very underated piece of kit, and at the prices these were being sold for second hand a few months back a complete steal (I personally think they deliver lot more value than what they were selling for). No hesitation in recommending - it's a LOT of gear for the money if you can get your hands on one.

As you and Tontee have both just mentioned, its newer sibling (the B3n, which I do have) doesn't have a DI out. So I wouldn't really consider getting both the B3 and the B3n if the only extra 'bit' that the B3 is providing me is a DI out.

Neither are particularly compact, are they, though?

@Cuzzie I take your point about the difference between a headphone amp with decent DI / EQ capability and a pre-amp / DI with a decent headphone, but I think they will actually amount to the same thing at the end of the day whichever you put first in the sentence?

Edited by Al Krow
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1 minute ago, Al Krow said:

 

@Cuzzie I take your point about the difference between a headphone amp with decent DI / EQ capability and a pre-amp / DI with a decent headphone, but I think they will actually amount to the same thing at the end of the day whichever you put first in the sentence?

No, I don't think that's true - it's about product focus.

FWIW, I don't personally think a headphone amp and a DI pedal are really in the same area - I would prefer a decent sounding DI/EQ pedal and a separate headphone amp for home/practice.  It's the whole 'do one job well' philosophy.

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7 minutes ago, Al Krow said:

Neither are particularly compact, are they, though
 

Nope, but they aren't huge either.  Before I went down the board route it quite happily slipped into the front pocket on my gig bag.  Depends on your reasons for compact I suppose.

If you have the B3n, I'd also be recommending a decent DI rather than replicating functionality, or flogging the B3n and getting the B3.

I don't use the DI, so always up for a mutual temp swap if you want to have a play. I guess the B3n uses the same patches?

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15 minutes ago, Tonteee said:

No, I don't think that's true - it's about product focus.

FWIW, I don't personally think a headphone amp and a DI pedal are really in the same area - I would prefer a decent sounding DI/EQ pedal and a separate headphone amp for home/practice.  It's the whole 'do one job well' philosophy.

Totally agree about product 'primary' focus point and getting something for what it's really good at / famous for.  Been having that particular debate elsewhere with the Learned-Cussed-Cuzzie (is that going to catch on?) in relation to other bits of kit.  (Btw he and I are the best of mates, so any perceived 'spats' are purely intellectual!) 

My thinking here is a practical one - if I can get everything into one box job done. I'm probably not  actually going to need either the headphone out or the DI by themselves that often, so if I can get a box that does both pretty well then that justifies getting it in the first place, in terms making sure that it gets used more than occasionally. Having something ultra compact / portable is always a bonus in my books. I lack Cuzzie's girth! :D

Edited by Al Krow
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5 minutes ago, nightsun said:

Nope, but they aren't huge either.  Before I went down the board route it quite happily slipped into the front pocket on my gig bag.  Depends on your reasons for compact I suppose.

If you have the B3n, I'd also be recommending a decent DI rather than replicating functionality, or flogging the B3n and getting the B3.

I don't use the DI, so always up for a mutual temp swap if you want to have a play. I guess the B3n uses the same patches?

That's really kind, but I've also got the Zoom MS-60B which is starting to cover off my Zoom multi-fx needs (particularly since it had the firmware upgrade and an additional 84 patches). So I suspect, if anything, my B3n may simply be finding its way to the FS section in due course.

I think the B3n patches have been 'upgraded' a touch from the B3, although some would say not always for the better! There was a bit of a comparative discussion of the merits of the two in this thread.

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Fair doos @Al Krow, I shall let you guys get at it, then.

However, before I sidle away, I thought I'd share the below, which has cleverly incorporated Bluetooth instead of an aux in.  Not bank breaking either.  Might make for a cool home setup.  This is one flavour, there are others available.

http://www.joyoeffectpedals.co.uk/joyo-guitar-amplifiers/tube-valve-amplifier/VIVO-Bantamp

Edited by Tonteee
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Haha - please don't sidle away, it's always good to have intervening voices of calm rationality! 

Bluetooth. Hmmm...I tried that before with bass related gear and the latency was just terrible - particularly in terms of trying to use a bluetooth headphone to listen to what I was playing.  I quickly abandoned.

But I guess for aux IN that point should disappear for some uses, because it doesn't matter if the input is 30 to 50 ms delayed if you are not looking at an audio and video feed at the same time? So it will be fine for Spotify from your phone. Less good for YouTube from a computer with the video playing along.

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True, the Bluetooth version is pretty important. My Bose Soundlink Mini (original version) for example is perfectly fine for video-synced stuff like YouTube/Netflix as well as gaming! Quality of components is key. Still, wouldn’t want to be playing bass via Bluetooth.

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Yep, for everything but Bluetooth functionality a PJB Cub is probably the better solution. Built like a proper amp (with protection for the drivers), 2 channels with independent EQs, Aux input, headphone out and the ability to chain an extension speaker. I can’t imagine the B-Social sounding better than the PJB Cub or Double Four tone wise, either. 

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40 minutes ago, Tonteee said:

I liked the idea of the BT aux in, but you're quite right - I don't think it's at the point of running the bass through just yet!

The bass and headphones don't connect via BT so any delay is really a non issue unless you are playing along to a video. I use a cheap BT adaptor hooked up to my digital field recorder, in to my Zoom B3n. it doesn't matter how long the delay is, once it hits the Zoom i play along tohit in perfect sync (as perfect as i can anyway). I know for a fact it has a long delay, so using it on bass is impossible (ive tried), but its not noticeable if just streaming music,

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I have a EBS Microbass 2, which I love - it's my core tone for playing live - but I don't use it for practice as I found it hard work getting the volume aligned.

Also, I don't like the 3.5mm headphone jack and I don't think the FX return that is used as an aux in gave a stero signal.

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