Headphone Amp

[Poste]

Hi guys,
I was hoping somebody could point me in the right direction.

I want to build a headphone amp to place at the end of my effects so I can plug earphones into it and practice, no speaker and I will be using "usual" earphones.

I was looking at the Ruby amp or the CKKIII amp (http://www.amb.org/audio/ck2/)

But where I am getting confused is when there is Double Rubys and which one will be the best option???
And in the future could I in the future use either to power a speaker?

Thanks in advance for info.

[niconoe]

Hi Poste,

I'm a beginner but I'd like to join your "quest"... I'd really like to have something like you describe to test my effects builds in my flat that:

- Sounds and reacts as much as possible as a "real good guitar amp (say a classic fender)" from a saturation, impedance, ... point of view, so we can test stompboxes in an environment similar to a real large amp.
- Takes small space.
- Use low voltages so I'm not afraid of build it (newbie here!).
- Drives standard earphones.

I hadn't had an extensive look, but what I saw for the moment was:
- either a "hi-fi" headphone amp, not really guitar oriented.
- small amps like the Ruby, which are not really designed for headphones... I suppose it's not too difficult to adapt them, though.

Another question that comes to me is (as my dream is to have something that sounds like a real good old vintage amp) the role of the speaker in these vintage amps. Can we approach that kind of tone without having a real speaker or a simulation system ?

Are these detailed motivations similar to yours ? Does someone have links to interested projects... We're probably not the first to have this idea here

[merlinb]

Another question that comes to me is (as my dream is to have something that sounds like a real good old vintage amp) the role of the speaker in these vintage amps. Can we approach that kind of tone without having a real speaker or a simulation system ?

You could build a condor cab-sim, and simply bolt a headphone driver circuit on the end of it. I guess you could add some overdrive to it as well, but for testing effects I would have thought you'd want to listen to them 'clean'?

[jefe]

Hi guys,
I was hoping somebody could point me in the right direction.

I want to build a headphone amp to place at the end of my effects so I can plug earphones into it and practice, no speaker and I will be using "usual" earphones.

I was looking at the Ruby amp or the CKKIII amp (http://www.amb.org/audio/ck2/)

But where I am getting confused is when there is Double Rubys and which one will be the best option???
And in the future could I in the future use either to power a speaker?

Thanks in advance for info.

Check out this page for how to use a Ruby as a headphone amp - it's really just a matter of adding a 10 ohm resistor, and using the correct output jack:

http://www.runoffgroove.com/faq.html

I'm not sure what you mean by "Double Rubys".

[twabelljr]

The Ruby will work fine with headphones and after some effects. It can get very loud though so be careful! It is super easy to build and Runoffgroove has a great perfboard tutorial in their article. Experiment with different input caps for a fatter or brighter sound. A .047uF input cap with a dpdt to add a .1uF in parallel gives two good sounds. If you want to build it and have a speaker in the same enclosure wire your output as shown in Rog's FAQ:

If you just want it in a small box with the option of connecting to an external speaker, use a mono switching jack for the speaker out between the output and the headphone jack so that when you connect a speaker cable the headphone jack will be disconnected. Use a stereo headphone jack with the tip and ring terminals jumpered so you will have sound in both channels and put the 10ohm resistor as shown on the headphone jack only.
If you have a breadboard throw it together and try it out. It is super simple and very good sounding. It is much easier to try out different component values on a bb also. Or just perf it up and use a socket for the input cap. Go for it. It is a great little practice amp with a lot of possible tones.
If you want it to be clean as merlinb says just leave pins 1 and 8 disconnected. A gain pot is very effective though. I used a 5k and it works great. Didn't have a 1k. 
http://runoffgroove.com/ruby.html

[Mark Hammer]

The other possibility for a simple headphone amp is using an NE5532, or LM833.  These are favourites for headphone amps.  Here's an example of one implementation: http://www.paia.com/prodimages/hdasch.pdf

[Poste]

The condor looks like a simple circuit, how would I go about putting a "headphone driver" after it and how do you connect a speaker to it? I am only just getting the effect side of electronics down, not too sure on this amplifier stuff just quite yet