True Headphone AMP?


It never really occurred to me but all the Headphone Amps I've seen are really headphone integrated amps, meaning with volume and sometimes source selection.

Has or does anyone make a true headphone amp that you simply attach to your preamps outputs?

Any reason this couldn't be done?

Given that I am heavily invested in my Pre and love it, seems kind of silly to use a headphone amp off the tape output that wouldn't use my pre amp for all the things it does right.
nikturner920
My girlfriend walked in and caught me on my computer hanging out in a room full of HEADPHONE ENTHUSIASTS! Or, "hey Bob...are you forgetting to iron your tunic or are you a headphone enthusiast?"
Or "a priest a cowboy and a headphone enthusiast go into a bar"....
There are a number of headphones still in production that can be run directly off a speaker amp. HiFiMan's line of orthodynamics, for example. Do a search on Head-Fi and you'll find some very experienced members who prefer this approach to a dedicated headphone amp. No need for an attenuator beyond the volume pot and some common sense.

05-10-11: Bjb_nva
There are a number of headphones still in production that can be run directly off a speaker amp.
I've been in this hobby for decades and can say I never seen, or heard of a pair of headphones made to hookup directly to a power amps speaker outputs. Would you provide us a link to a pair. Would they compete against regular good mid-price headphones like the Sennheiser HD-600? Thanks.
At head-fi.org there is a 246 page thread with 3,677 posts about the Hifiman HE-6 which most there agree sounds best with a speaker amp from the speaker outs. A number of vendors are making pigtail adaptors for this. I myself recently purchased a vintage sansui au-717 just to drive an HE-6, a fantastic sounding headphone.