Behringer Powerplay Pro HA4400

I discovered this headphone amplifier/splitter in the American Music Supply catalog and fell in love with the specs. The price at the time was $119.99, and that was $50 less than any other product that could even come close to the features. A few weeks ago, they dropped the price to $89.99, and I just couldn't resist the urge and ordered immediately. It was backordered and took a month to come, but it was well worth the wait...

First of all, no other headphone amplifier even comes close to the features offered in this unit. It has 4 channels worth of controls, and each channel has three outputs giving you a total of 12 channels of amplification. There are stereo, gold-plated 1/4" and XLR inputs and outputs, with a main insert that mutes the master inputs and feeds the insert signal to all four channels. Each channel also has an auxiliary input that you can mix individually with the master input, for click track purposes or just to individualize the mix for each channel. Each channel also has the capability of listening in stereo or mono mode with the push of a button, with the capability to mute out either the left or right input independently. When you mute out either side in mono mode, the unit automatically routes the other signal to both sides. And the signal is HOT. no scrimpng on the quality of the amplifiers in this thing. All in all, this unit blows away the competition in price, features, and even the overall concept. Behringer has a habit of putting useful ideas into practice with all of their gear, and this unit is no exception.

The only thing I think this unit could use is a master auxiliary input. As is, you have to have 4 seperate cables if you want to insert the same signal into all of the channels. Really though, when you consider that no other unit even has an aux in, this isn't that big of a concession to make.

It's quite ruggedly built, and the pots are really solid. They won't come off with a little tug or even a good bashing like other products. The fittings all seem really snug and the power cord is nice and long. Oh, and there are nice metering LED's for both the master input and each channel's output.

Great unit. A definite must have for any studio, or for anyone who does hardwired in ear monitoring. You can get two of these for the price of one of the cheapest competition models, and you'll have at least 4-6 times as many outputs. If you don't have one, get two or three, and then send me a Christmas present to thank me...

This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com

I got this headphone amp a couple years ago. I just wanted something simple to pump up the headphone levels I could get. My drummer was having a hard time hearing his headphone mix above his drums, and my sound card just didn't provide enough power to get it above the drums. So I picked this thing up, and to that end, it works great. It's not without its problems though. It definitely changes the sound of whatever you put through it, and not in a good way. Everything sounds kind of tinny and somehow fake on the other side of this amp. I am pretty sure they use low quality power amps that are very noisy. The signal you get on the other side has a much higher noise floor than what goes into it. Apart from this, it is conveniently sized at 1 rack unit, and has individual volume and mute controls for each of the 4 headphone channels it gives you. Though the signal is kind of dirty, you can get it very loud. In my case, that's really all I was looking for, so I let the signal degradation slide. The amp also gets very hot, so you'll want to give it an open space on either side in your rack for it be able to cool off without damaging other nearby racked equipment. It has worked very reliably, and none of the parts have worn out on me since I've had it. This is probably one of the cheapest 4 channel headphone amps you can buy, and if you are not really concerned with pristine audio quality for your monitoring and you just want loud headphones, it's a good value and will work well for you. If you want everything in your signal chain crystal clear at all times, this isn't the product for you. I would get it again, it works fine for me.