Headphones and Speakers at the same time? (1 Viewer)

[ripley24]

This is probably a noob question, but here it is anyway...

I'm trying to set up an existing home theater system so that you can plug in headphones (for the hard of hearing person in the family) without having the speakers cut out for everyone else. We have a Sony home theater receiver powering the speakers.

What is the best way to do this? I'm thinking a splitter (and adapter) will be involved somehow, but I'm not sure how to do this so that it works for all inputs (cable box, dvd, etc).


Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[JohnRice]

There is no splitter or adapter to do this. You just need a receiver which doesn't turn off the speakers when headphones are plugged in. There are dozens if not hundreds of models with this capability. If the one you have now turns off the speakers when headphones are plugged in, there is no way to make it NOT do that.

Alternatively, you can have a headphone amp hooked up to a tape loop, which will give you dual volume controls. Whether or not you can do that will depend again on the receiver. Headphone amps aren't a very common item, but you can find them if you look.

 

[ripley24]

sorry, another probably stupid question...

what is a tape loop?

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Well, in "olden days" a tape loop was the stereo in/out connections for a tape recorder of some kind. Receivers don't have them anymore, but any source connection with both "ins" and "outs" (like for a VCR or DVD recoder) will work. Actually, all you need is the "outs," which would feed a separate headphone amp. And you actually don't need a specific headphone amp. Any old receiver you can find for cheap will work. Pay a visit to your local pawn shop or garage sale.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[ripley24]

So I would plug this headphone amp (or old receiver) into the some unused "outs" of a source on the receiver? Wouldn't this only work if the main receiver was on that source? (which would make it not play sound from all sources?)


And assuming this would work, what would the extra headphone amp/receiver be doing here? What if I just plugged in an RCA to headphone jack adapter into the "outs" on the back? Wouldn't the main receiver amplify the headphones enough? Or am I missing something stupid here?


And assuming this wouldn't work, is there any other way to make it work short of a new receiver that anyone could think of?


Thanks again for all the help.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

It will work, as long as you have those "outs" jacks. To perhaps contradict John a bit, I don't think many receivers these days will operate the headphones and speakers at the same time, but I could be wrong about that. Probably your best bet for finding that feature, short of auditioning everything in the store yourself, is to look for one with front-panel "Speakers A/Speakers B" switches.

However (and I'll bet you haven't considered this), even if you have the capability to use both headphones and speakers at the same time with the receiver, there is only one volume control. With the separate headphone amp, the headphone volume can be adjusted independently from the main speakers. And tone control, too, if you use a second receiver for the headphone amp.

Bottom line, its the best way to go.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[ripley24]

Thanks for all the information.


Since I have no spare receiver sitting around anywhere, can anyone recommend a good/fairly cheap headphone amp?

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[ripley24]

So before I go out and find a cheap old receiver, can someone tell me if this (probably crappy) receiver has the outputs I need? I'm not really seeing where I'd plug in here.


It's a Sony STR-K740P. Picture of back


Thanks again. You guys are great.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Yup, your MD/Tape and Video 1 sections both have audio outputs. You're in business!

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[ripley24]

Am I only going to get sound from those outputs when the receiver is on one of those sources? (video 1 or MD/Tape) Or are those outs always active?

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Those jacks will output sound from whatever source component you've selected on the main receiver. The only caveat is that you must have the source connected via analog connections. So, say if you have your DVD player connected via digital optical or coax only, you'll have to add the analog connections as well (i.e., red/white jacks).

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[JohnRice]

I hadn't thought of just getting a stereo receiver to use as a headphone amp. A large, but cheap solution. also, Wayne is probably right about the speakers shutting off. I've been living in a house for 15 years and haven't used headphones in that time, so I just haven't paid attention to that function.

As an alternative to a receiver, if you find a pre-amp or integrated amp, that will work too. You only actually need a pre-amp.

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Ditto to what John said - a pre-amp will be much smaller than a receiver (but most likely harder to find dirt cheap).

Another idea might me a mini-stereo. Back in the 80s and 90s a few companies sold miniature component systems with a small integrated amp, tuner and maybe CD player. You might be able to eBay something like that for cheap. Must make sure it has tone controls and a headphone jack.

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[ripley24]

Would something like this work?

FiiO E3 3.5mm Earphone Volume Booster Power Amplifier

review


I know it doesn't have a volume control, but there isn't really room for a full sized amp in the stereo cabinet. Would plugging in headphones with a volume control work using something like this?

edit: here's one with a volume control

 

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Don't see why not. Nice find!

Regards,
Wayne A. Pflughaupt

 

[JohnRice]

Yeah, that will do the trick. You'll need a 3.5mm to RCA stereo adapter cable, which is available almost anywhere such as Radio Shack, Target, Wal-Mart and so on. You might also want a USB/AC adapter so you can easily charge it up. Meritline.com typically has them for only a few dollars.

 

[rfholland]

Hope this question is not too late for this 1.5 year old thread. I have the same situation described by Ripley24, namely I want to use a headphone output from my receiver but do not want the speakers to cut out. The manual for the Sony receiver I have states: "An audio signal input to the HDMI IN jack is output through the speaker terminals, HDMI TV out jack, and PHONES jack. It is not output through any other audio outs. Since the PHONES out cuts off the speakers, and the HDMI TV out is... well, destined for the TV, that leaves the speaker terminals. Is there any way to pick up the speaker output (perhaps from an unused output like the side speakers) and feed it into, say, a FiiO E5 amp? Thanks for your help.