As I await my first Stick like a ten year-old waits for xmas, a 10 string paduak with Stickup, MR, mediums from SE. @ 4 days to go ( after about ten years of drooling), I am seeking some wisdom on a stereo input headphone amp to practice privately. Anybody have a headphone rig that works for them? I was looking at the peavey ampkit hd to connect with the ipad, but it doesnt seem to have a stereo input. Cant wait to stumble and tap.

Welcome Stuart

Where are you from?

Brett

new york city mostly. yourself?

Connecticut. Steve Addelson is in Long Island If you haven't met him you need to.

Brett

Stuart

Welcome, look at this post, headphone amps discussed.

http://stickist.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4036

Cliff

The voice of the inexperienced asking here: Could one try a simple 2-channel audio interface? Lots of them have headphone jacks and many are pretty cheap. Would that work?

If they offer no latency monitoring, then it would be okay. The problem is that they are not independently powered. The nice thing about having a portable headphone amp is that you can practice any place.

Make sure it has enough headroom to give you the bass response you want, and if you don't care how you look with them on your head, use open foam earpiece headphones, not earbuds, they are much safer.

I already had an audio interface but I didn't want have to be next to the computer or carry it around (laptop + audio interface + Stick + headphones is not so portable). That's why I bought a portable headphone amp. The ElectroHarmonix is great, just put it on your belt or pocket, connect it with a short cable to the Stick (pull the plug a little to get signal from both sides), plug your headphones and you're all set.

I've been able to practice more often since I got this thing. Before I had it I used the audio interface, but it was a bit more of a hassle to set up, since I can't have it plugged into the computer all the time.

Thanks for the replies. Nice sense of community here. Ive read the threads but am a bit slow at all this yet.

The stickup output is stereo, the Electro-harmonix has a mono input. Is there a headphone amp that will receive both inputs, or do i need to go thru some kind of foot pedal or other device (Art macro Mix) to output to mono and then into the headphone amp, or will a half inserted cable between the stickup and the Electro-harmonix do the trick?

The rockman bass ace appears to have an additional aux input. Anyone have experience with this product? I looked for the Rolls playmate that Greg mentioned in a thread, but it seems out of print. Im not even sure what constitutes an adequate headphone amp in terms of specs, aside from a good headphone.

Sorry for the density. Id really like to invest in the right device(s) for some quality apt dwelling tapping when im in the city.

I've been looking for such a unit lately. The best I have found seems to be a Rolls MX56c. Battery powered with an instrument level input among many others.
The specs are here http://www.rolls.com/product.php?pid=MX56c

The Manual is here http://www.rolls.com/pdf/M_MX56c.pdf