Headphones?

S

Steven Goldstein

New Member
Total guitar gear noob here. I'm considering whether or not buying a Fractal AXE FX 2 based on one thing: will I get the full potential of the sound through just the unit and (good) headphones? Do I still need a power amp for the unit if I plan on just using headphones?
 
Steven Goldstein said:
Total guitar gear noob here. I'm considering whether or not buying a Fractal AXE FX 2 based on one thing: will I get the full potential of the sound through just the unit and (good) headphones? Do I still need a power amp for the unit if I plan on just using headphones?
Click to expand...
You don't have to have a power amp. Good headphones will work just fine all by themselves. 90% of my noodling is done with headphones (so as not to get divorced)
 
a power amp is not necessary to use the axe-fx. the power amp would only power a real guitar cab, which you aren't using.

headphones only will work great.
 
I use my AFX II through headphones only. I do use an outboard headphone amp to drive them because of their impedance level. Sounds great to me.
 
I prefer open headphones so I can play along with my stereo! Check out the open back Grado's from Crutchfield!
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I'm very happy to hear that I don't need to buy a power amp! So here's another question.. Is there any good way to play music through my headphones as well as the guitar? I've seen connectors but have researched that they suffer major quality loss to the audio.
 
Steven Goldstein said:
Thanks for the replies guys. I'm very happy to hear that I don't need to buy a power amp! So here's another question.. Is there any good way to play music through my headphones as well as the guitar? I've seen connectors but have researched that they suffer major quality loss to the audio.
Click to expand...
Do you have a PC ?
Set up the Axe as your output device and you can jam along
 
Steven Goldstein said:
I've seen connectors but have researched that they suffer major quality loss to the audio.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure what kind of connectors would cause major quality loss? What are you referring to? Regardless, the USB connection works as suggested above.
 
Steven Goldstein said:
will I get the full potential of the sound through just the unit and (good) headphones?
Click to expand...
You'll never get the full potential of any guitar amplification device without some room volume. That interaction between the guitar and speaker is part of the equation. But you can still get wonderful results using just headphones.


Steven Goldstein said:
Do I still need a power amp for the unit if I plan on just using headphones?
Click to expand...
Nope.
 
I can play through headphones desktop speakers or powered pa speakers. And jam to guitarbackingtracks.com or ezdrummer at the same time.
 
I use a cheesy very inexpensive ART powered mixer for headphones and ipod for <$80. More than enough gain for both; using the AXEFX headphone out into 1/4 splitters and similar for ipod with 1/8" into 1/4" splitter. I/2 rack size that sits on a rack shelf. If your mixer needs are larger, skip this product and look at a line mixer from other brands, but for my needs it works great.

With 80 ohm headphones (much less 200 or 650), I don't get enough gain from the AXE, so a little bump in gain from the little amp helps a lot.


art_acpm.jpg

ART PowerMIX III
3-Channel Stereo Mixer with Individual Pan and Level
 
Last edited:
∞Fractals said:
I use a cheesy very inexpensive ART powered mixer for headphones and ipod for <$80. More than enough gain for both; using the AXEFX headphone out into 1/4 splitters and similar for ipod with 1/8" into 1/4" splitter. I/2 rack size that sits on a rack shelf. If your mixer needs are larger, skip this product and look at a line mixer from other brands, but for my needs it works great.

With 80 ohm headphones (much less 200 or 650), I don't get enough gain from the AXE, so a little bump in gain from the little amp helps a lot.


art_acpm.jpg

ART PowerMIX III
3-Channel Stereo Mixer with Individual Pan and Level
Click to expand...
Why is that cheesy?
 
Maybe i'm doing something wrong but using my AT m60x's everything sounds very thin and digitally compared to running it through my cab. I get some difference should be there but it's a large difference.
 
Chris@AxeFxTutorials said:
Why is that cheesy?
Click to expand...

Many of the product reviews complain that you cannot get perfect volume "off" or complaints of channel bleed, but it works perfectly for my needs.

Not the best mixer (noise floor, channel isolation, etc.) but I don't want more channels and don't need it to be 100% "no signal" when turned down. Heck, I haven't even noticed these issues but again, I wouldn't care - it's single use for me (mixing AXE FX and iPod into headphones (has 2 headphone outs) :).

I've owned many mixers (like many here) and this is just small tool for a singular purpose that it does well for me. Perhaps I should not have called it "cheesy" ... but some think that being cheesy is being cool.

Funniest_Memes_it-ain-t-easy-being-cheesy_13173.jpeg


BTW - there is an AXEFX behind the couch in his rack ,,,
 
Last edited:
guitarhero23 said:
Maybe i'm doing something wrong but using my AT m60x's everything sounds very thin and digitally compared to running it through my cab. I get some difference should be there but it's a large difference.
Click to expand...

Are your cab sims on? Not bypassed in the preset?
 
I don't even have a FRFR setup and play exclusively through headphones. I run my AxeFX into a Sapphire Pro 40 audio interface output into a Presonus headphone distribution amp. I have several different monitors hooked up to those outputs, but also have a channel dedicated to my Shure studio headphones.

I don't miss the "in the room" thing at all. All recordings played back through various studio monitors sound great. If I were to be playing live again I'd probably invest in a Matrix and some CLR's, but for home studio stuff...nah. Headphones and my monitors get the job done perfectly.
 
I play almost exclusively through my headphones, Focal spirit pro. But before I bought those, I had a pair of Seinheiser hd280 and those truly sucked! I use to hate monitoring my axe fx through them and I tought I simply didn't like playing through headphones, but I was wrong! A good pair of headphones makes all the difference versus an average one. Those HD280 are not flat at all, there is an obvious annoying peak around 1k and highs are harsh! If you want to take full advantage of the power of the Axe fx, you must invest a bit more on a quality headphone set!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom