This or that...headphone amps.

[jd56hawk]

 

 

 

[msb]

I picked up a HoTone Thunderbass 5 watt amp for a song on kijiji. Fairly cheap , it looked like a funky little thing , total impulse buy. I had a nice practice rig , so I didn’t spend much time using a speaker with it , but I was surprised by the time I spent using it as a headphone amp. Had a mini aux in so I could plug in a tablet and play along. I was spending considerable time with the headphones memorizing material.  I didn’t want to drive Herself bonkers. Later I found a Phil Jones BigHead on kijiji , the HoTone worked wonderfully but I couldn’t resist the PJ. It’s a more elegant solution. Before the HoTone I had been using a GK MB200. It also has a mini aux input. Many little Class D heads can be run without a load , and have a mini input.

 

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[Gank Bass]

I've been using the joyo bass headphone amp for a year or so and have been very pleased with it, cost me just over a tenner on Amazon 👍

[bassbiscuits]

I use a Vox Bass Amplug, connected to my laptop and some headphones. 

 

Cheap and cheerful. Does the job nicely. 

[pineweasel]

I am a fan of the Boss Katana Go. A huge variety of excellent tones from the built in amp models and effects, and bluetooth connectivity means you can play along to songs from your phone wire-free. It can also act as a digital interface to a computer. It's a more expensive option but the sound quality and convenience make it worthwhile for me.

 

[PaulThePlug]

EHX

Zoom B1on

[tauzero]

I've got three which are rather more expensive options - Nux Mighty Plug, Boss Katana Go gen 1, and Positive Grid Spark Neo. The Spark Neo is nice if headphone wires annoy you. The Mighty Plug and Katana Go let you use your own headphones - I think the sound quality on the Katana Go is a little better than the Nux but it's not a great difference. All three let you connect with Bluetooth to play along with your chosen music.

[SamPlaysBass]

On 02/12/2025 at 14:52, tauzero said:

I've got three which are rather more expensive options - Nux Mighty Plug, Boss Katana Go gen 1, and Positive Grid Spark Neo. The Spark Neo is nice if headphone wires annoy you. The Mighty Plug and Katana Go let you use your own headphones - I think the sound quality on the Katana Go is a little better than the Nux but it's not a great difference. All three let you connect with Bluetooth to play along with your chosen music.

Tempted to go down one of these routes for a living room practise tool. The Positive Grid stuff looks amazing and satisfies my hatred of wires. Dare I ask, if you had to say out of your lot which is the ‘best’ (not necessarily bang for buck but which is the best outright), which would you choose?  

[tauzero]

48 minutes ago, SamPlaysBass said:

Tempted to go down one of these routes for a living room practise tool. The Positive Grid stuff looks amazing and satisfies my hatred of wires. Dare I ask, if you had to say out of your lot which is the ‘best’ (not necessarily bang for buck but which is the best outright), which would you choose?  

 

The Positive Grid. I don't use the others since getting that.