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JeffTadashi « Great rack-sized headphone amp! »
Published on 06/19/12 at 22:14The Behringer Powerplay Pro-XL HA4700 is a 4 channel, high powered headphone mixer and distribution amplifier. It features a stereo 1/4" input on the front, 1/4" and xlr left and right inputs on the back, 1/4" and xlr left and right outputs, and connections for headphones (in 1/4 stereo form) on both the front and the back of the unit. There are four independent headphone amplifiers here, although you can certainly hook up multiple headphones to the same amp, which allows this unit to be used with 12 headphones, or 12 destinations. Each headphone amp channel also has an aux in, which allows you to independly mix in a second signal for a specific headphone channel. This is great if a certain user wants a certain instrument louder in their headphone mix. Notably, I used the aux feature to mix in my vocals louder in my headphone mix.
There is a master level input control, but I find for most sources, you can max this knob, without any clipping on the input. There is a nice meter on the input that shows if the signal is clipping. This same meter exists for all 4 amp channels as well. At times I find that the headphone amp doesn't get loud enough (mostly for drum applications), and I have to force it to clip in order to get loud enough. This is a big worrying, and I feel like I may be damaging the headphones.
Each channel also has independing bass and treble controls, to help tailor the sound to a specific set of headphones, or to a specific user. I generally do not have to fiddle with these settings, but turning treble down when putting guitars though the headphone mix can be very useful, as guitar tones can be very piercing.
Overall, the HA4700 is a versataile headphone amplifier that is suitable for studios, live bands, and for personal use. It's affordable and solid.
There is a master level input control, but I find for most sources, you can max this knob, without any clipping on the input. There is a nice meter on the input that shows if the signal is clipping. This same meter exists for all 4 amp channels as well. At times I find that the headphone amp doesn't get loud enough (mostly for drum applications), and I have to force it to clip in order to get loud enough. This is a big worrying, and I feel like I may be damaging the headphones.
Each channel also has independing bass and treble controls, to help tailor the sound to a specific set of headphones, or to a specific user. I generally do not have to fiddle with these settings, but turning treble down when putting guitars though the headphone mix can be very useful, as guitar tones can be very piercing.
Overall, the HA4700 is a versataile headphone amplifier that is suitable for studios, live bands, and for personal use. It's affordable and solid.