If you are going to spend say….£600, would you get a headphone amp and a stereo amp (to drive floor Stander’s, mordaunt shorts), or is there a stereo amp with a decent headphone output?

9 month old on the verge of mobile causing a bit of hi-fi shuffling and floor Stander’s either ‘go away’ for a few years or I need a new amp for the bedroom.

I’m not really understanding what you are asking. Having been through having a child, you need to be careful with hi-fi equipment for a few months while you teach them to leave. There is no way I’d be without music for years! In a few years time your little one will be bopping along to the music.

Have you headphones already? Is your current amp broken? What format is your music. Is the amp in the bedroom supposed to be a distraction so you don’t get in this mess again?

If I had to do without my hi-fi for a few months I’d get something like a Chord mojo and use my headphones. But I’d not be spending unless I really had to.

I’ve currently got a 5.1 setup in the lounge, avianno 6 floor standers as the front pair, alumni satellites as rears, alumni central and an active sub. with LO about to be mobile both myslelf and partner think it wise to shift the floor standers out the way. No problem, I still have the original front pair of alumni speakers on the wall and cabled up. However rather than stick the aviannos in the loft I’m thinking i’ll put them in the main bedroom where LO won’t be playing often, and buy an amp.

Now to complicate, I bought some good beyerdynmic headphones a year or more ago and had thoght of getting a headphone amp in due course (since the headphone output on most speaker amps is mediocre at best). However now I’m thinking of a speaker set up in the main bedroom I’m pondering if any amps are known for a reasonable headphone output as well as speaker output, in which case it wold be something for me to trial and possibly not go with a headphone amp as well.

hope that makes sense. So, are any speaker amps known for also having a semi decent headphone output, or are they really all a bit poor at that?

Got to say that I am kind of failing to understand what the rela problem is here. There are a number of headphone amps that are there to just drive headphones for people who will only listen to theor music on headphones. What are you meaning by a decent headphone output? My experience is that most amps are pretty decent at it. Having said that, I am a tiny bit excited about the upcoming Cyrus One amp which looks like it might be a decent little cracker and coming in at a very competitive price. And it is supposed to have both a decent speaker output and headphone output. Potentially quite a bargain at around £700

My mate has some expensive B&W surround speakers, all of the tweeters domes have been pushed in by his little one – not a happy chappy

Ff he’s got steady hands and a bottle of ferrofluid he can change the domes himself.

I sat my two girls down at 2.5 and demonstrated to them what happens when you touch a speaker. The closer your hand gets, the louder the speaker gets until you are mere inches away and your ears start to bleed.

I am very concerned about the safety of the speakers children and get very upset when this happens.

I think I’ve been lucky: two sets of floorstanders (sitting room + upstairs) plus two decent sized TVs and a hot stove (natch) and once told she has never been near any of them.

This is a regular debate in the hifi world (maybe less so since it’s increasingly the preserve of bearded baby-boomers who don’t have young kids) – lots work on the “don’t touch!” principle to train their children.

And, when they’re learning to walk they ought not to be on their own anyway….

Bikingcatastrophe, that’s not what I’ve read. I haven’t gone out and tried any so I may be wrong, but have always read in amp reviews that the headphone jack output is just an afterthought, a waste of space on many, and doesn’t have the ability to drive good headphones to anyhting like their best, and that’s on the speaker amp reviews….obviously any articles about headphone amps make it clear you ‘HAVE’ to have a separate/specific headphone amp for good cans….but they would. However, since speaker amps are designed for driving speakers that is where the money goes and that is right to do. So to me it seems reasonable to expect the headphone output to struggle …or at least to not give the most it can and show the cans in the best light, its a rarely used part of most units after all. As much as I’d love a set of thermionic tubes glowing beautifully in a 1960s sifi style and driving my cans to perfection, if I spend money on that I spend less on an amp for the speakers, so I’m wondering how true the reported ‘headphone jack carpness’ in speaker amps really is/if it is universal.

Thanks for the cyrus one tip though. I’ve heard and liked cyrus stuff before.

There’s a lot to be said for keeping the original front grill/cover/whatever you call it, to prevent little fingers poking the tweeter domes in, or shoving eggy soldiers into the front port.
There does seem to be a tendency to not have grills on higher price speakers, which might be a mistake.
Of course, with large floor-standers, there always the possibility of a little one just knocking or pulling a speaker over, causing damage to one or both; large amounts of blutac under a stand-mounted speaker can really help, but a large floor-stander doesn’t have that option.

have the grills on count, never noticed any difference with them off so i kept them. they have good spikes into the carpet but it is knocking them over and cable pulling that worries us

The big question is – if you’ve survived for years without a high-end hi-fi in your bedroom, do you really need one now, just because you temporarily have a pair of “spare” speakers?

You obviously have more money than me 🙂

Check out the Beresford Capella headphone amp. Its meant to be really good for the money. I’ve got one of his DAC’s (MK1 Caiman) and its a superstar.

hebden…no…I probably have less….I’ve spent it all 😕

porlus….IF i was still in the market for a cans amp that would be something to check out, ta. Although, if it doesn’t look like below…..

Not a problem on the headphone amp. Would love it if the Capella looked like that one. But its only £159 so no valves.