I know that the 950 lacks a headphone jack from reading an earlier post, but I was wondering what the options are for headphone listening with the 950. Is there some sort of adapter that could be purchased? I am considering the 950, but I enjoy headphone listening and could not justify the purchase without a way of connecting them.

Thanks in advance!

The best bet would be a headphone amp, which could be connected to the tape loop (if it had its own volume control, which most do) or to the second zone output (which would give you the ability to have independent input and volume control of the headphone amp). If you don't want to spend the money on a headphone amp and have an old receiver lying around that has a headphone jack, you could use it as a headphone amp.

One thing to keep in mind -- both the outputs I listed are capable of passing analog inputs only. They do not receive audio from digital audio inputs. That just means that any source you want to listen to will need to have analog cables hooked to the 950, even if you don't use them when listening normally. If that was a problem and your amp had line outputs (which pass the incoming signal right back out), you could connect a headphone amp there.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

Gonk,

I just want to confirm what you said above. Will the 950 convert digital signals to an analogue signal available at the analogue TAPE output? You say not - and I can't find anything in the owner's manual that says much on the subject.

How about the converse? Will the 950 take all audio input signals, analogue and digital, and pass them digitally through its two digital outputs? Again the owner's manual is not clear on this - or I've not found the right passage.

If so another option would be to pass a didital signal to another device that has a digital input / headphone jack - say an old unused DD pre-amp.

I'd check it out myself but my 950 is in the process of being boxed up and sent to the shop for a minor tune-up. When I get it back I am, however, planning on running one digital out connection (coax) from the 950 to a sound card on a computer (to be able to sample / rip a variety of sources - including some of my record collection) and the other (optical) to an unused DD pre-amp precisely because it has a headphone jack.

Comments?

Jeff Mackwood

Jeff

I've been told that the VCR/tape loop outs do not convert digital signals to analog, and I've confirmed this on the VCR loop outs. I recall reading at one point that the digital outputs are purely digital pass-through (no A-to-D conversion), but don't remember where I heard it and haven't tested it myself.

Here's a quirky thought, though, if you had a spare receiver with digital input and headphone jack. Connect the tape out and a digital audio out to the receiver (say for the sake or argument that the analog input used is "tape" and the digital input is "CD"). Then you could select either the analog (tape) or digital (CD) input on the receiver, depending on the source selected on the 950.

To carry that to even greater heights of quirkiness, how about this concept for a headphone amp: an analog input (with a pass-through output for convenience, perhaps, so you could put it inline with a tape deck or something) and a digital input, with a volume control and an input selector on the front. It could even include Dolby Headphone processing.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

Gonk,

Sounds do-able - and not all that quirky for those of us who love to patch all sorts of things together!

I definitely have to do some playing around once I get the 950 back.

Jeff Mackwood

I guess the path you should take depends upon what you want to listen to. Gonk's suggestions would certainly work well if your listening was primarily 2 ch. However, Dolby Labs has announced a Dolby Headphone processing algorithm that would seem to be the way to go for home theater. At present this only seems available in the US for those with a PC hookup. Beyond that (and while its no immediate help), based upon the references at the Dolby site, there is equipment available outside the US that includes this processing algorithm. I am waiting for the device Sony is selling in Japan - a cordless, digit Dolby Headphone setup. I am assuming its only a matter of time before this makes it to the US.

[This message has been edited by 73Bruin (edited November 26, 2003).]

If you are looking for a headphone amplifier go to www.headphone.com. They have a good selection of amps. There is a lot of information available on headphones, and amps. I have a Headroom Little. It is a fine sounding amp in its basic form, and has a great upgrade path. Go for it.

Any pre/pro, receiver, or headphone amp that has one or more digital inputs capable of multi-channel decoding would need to provide a 2-channel mix from all incoming channels of any digital signal, if that signal was anything more than stereo, in order to provide a stereo recording output or stereo headphone output.