I built a chu moy headphone amp a while back, but tube amps are getting my interest. Chu Moy released a nice writeup of a tube based headphone amp. Ironically, tubes are easy, getting the right transformer is the issue these days.
11 thoughts on “Tube Headphone Amp”
Leave a Reply
Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy)
thats really cool, and good write up. btw the first link does not work.
First link not working.
Ya, thats a nice little tube amp. I think the SOHA (also on that site) sounds better though. Easier to build too.
The MJ clone isn’t a bad headphone amp… but pretty far behind the state of the art in DIY work. Since then a whole raft of other tube headamps have been developed… some with superior performance and many that are much easier to build.
I think the only that has received a full write-up is the SOHA (http://headwize.com/projects/cavalli2_prj.php) which is a low-voltage hybrid design that IIRC is not as well thought of as the MJ. But there are several other new designs out there…. dig around headwize forums if you want more info.
Also here is the original cmoy headamp link: http://headwize.com/projects/showfile.php?file=cmoy2_prj.htm . Not a bad amp for how simple/cheap it is but mine doesn’t get much use since I built a PIMETA a few years back.
oh please, take it one step further & make a tube based ipod dock! what is there is already great!
but i once put my ipod thru my friends old tube stereo system & was amazed @ the warmth of sound!
Tube? TUBE??!! That amp thing has no internet connection at all!
Nothing like the warm sound of a tube amp. Solid state’s all fraught with odd-order harmonics.
HAHA, I get steves post, because the internet is a series of tubes, but really, nice work on the amp, good to see simple tube amps for diy work.
realy good idea never seen this before think i trie my hand at this one . nice work hackaday
I highly recomend building a headphone amp. My first was a CMoy which I still use as a portable amp. My newest is the SOHA that blip posted and I highly recomend it. Combined with my Sennheiser HD555’s, its probably the best sound I’ve ever heard (granted there are MUCH better and MUCH more expensive setups out there, I just don’t have access to them yet).
Does anyone know if this unit could double as a phono pre-amp, like the one produced by bellari for $225. IF so this would be an amazing and more economically viable alternative.
Forgive my ignorance, but why use a headphone amp at all?
What’s wrong with the signal source?