Simplest headphone amplifier ??

[Leandro]

My drummer has a metronome with an 1/8" headphone jack but no volume control.  He asked me to make him a sort of headphone amplifier so he can boost the signal and have a volume control.

Setting aside your first answer ("get a good metronome, ya cheapskate!"), what is the simplest circuit I could build for this?  Since it's just a click-click-click, high fidelity is not an issue, just a volume boost.  (As soon as he brings the metronome over, I'm gonna try it with the almighty NPN Booster, but what if I don't get enough headroom?)

Thanks!

[casey]

i sent you a private message......

[RDV]

I haven't tried it, but it's certainly simple! From GGG.




RDV

[Leandro]

Thanks, guys!

[casey]

leandro:

you've got mail...

[Elektrojänis]

LM386 should also work for headphones. A single potentiometer can be used as a volume control in front of it too.

[lightningfingers]

http://www.headwize.com

[jsleep]

Yes, I've done a 386 headphone amp, very simple and works great.  Much like the Smokey amp IIRC.  It was actually the very first DIY that I ever did, years ago, from a newsgroup with a text schematic!   :roll:

JD Sleep

[Mark Hammer]

Both the NE5532 and LM833 dual op-amps are designed to be able to deliver mucho current into low-impedance loads in the range of speakers and headphones.  The NE5532 has a longer history and is more widely available since it is the older device and is second sourced, but the LM833 should be able to be used in an identical manner.

[Leandro]

http://www.headwize.com

Nice site!

[Leandro]

Yes, I've done a 386 headphone amp, very simple and works great.  Much like the Smokey amp IIRC.  It was actually the very first DIY that I ever did, years ago, from a newsgroup with a text schematic!   :roll:

JD Sleep

If you still have that schematic, I'd love to see it.  In any case, I think I'll just try something off the LM386 application notes.

Thanks again, guys!

[casey]

Yes, I've done a 386 headphone amp, very simple and works great.  Much like the Smokey amp IIRC.  It was actually the very first DIY that I ever did, years ago, from a newsgroup with a text schematic!   :roll:

JD Sleep

If you still have that schematic, I'd love to see it.  In any case, I think I'll just try something off the LM386 application notes.

Thanks again, guys!

you should have got my email that i sent to you, it had a 386 based
headphone amp in the attachment.

[Leandro]

you should have got my email that i sent to you, it had a 386 based headphone amp in the attachment.

Got it, thanks!

Related question...  I got the CMoy headphone amp schem from the HeadWize site that lightningfingers posted about.  It uses two opamps.  If I have a quad opamp chip of which I'll only be using two sections, do I have to do something with the other two unused ones like in logic chips, or can I just leave them unconnected?

[David]

Leandro:

Don't use Moy's headphone amp.  Look up the build article by Alan Campbell.  That's much better suited to guitar.  I use it all the time as my effects tester.  One 386, that's it.

[Mihkel]

http://www.generalguitargadgets.com/v2/diagrams/headphone_ez.jpg

You can add a pot to the output for volume control.

[Leandro]

Leandro:

Don't use Moy's headphone amp.  Look up the build article by Alan Campbell.  That's much better suited to guitar.  I use it all the time as my effects tester.  One 386, that's it.

I'm not looking for a headphone-suitable guitar amplifier, but rather a line-level headphone amplifier.  I'll look it up anyway, 'cause oddly enough I'm learning quite a bit by reading up on headphone amps.  

[RDV]

I built the Alan Campbell one 2nite. It works quite well. A little muffled for my tastes so I took out that .0047uF in the FB loop that he recommended, now it sounds pretty darn good with a delay and a fuzz into it. I was using my ROG Ruby to play through the phones but that had to much treble.



RDV