Headphone Amplifier

Joesh

Hey,
I have a Bush television which has no headphone socket on it.There are sockets for speakers though and I've been told that I can use a headphone amplifier to be able to use my headphones through these-is this possible??
Joe

blorg

If the sockets are 'line level' phono outputs, yes, this should be possible - if they are powered outputs that you would wire speakers directly into, then no.

Kali

Unless you've got a pair of headphones that warrant the purchase of a headphone amp then just have a look around for an [rca/phono->3.5mm jack] convertor... will do the job nicely.

Joesh

Every shop I tried maintained that there was no other way than an amplifier.
They seem to be too expensive though so I'd like to try the converter.
With the [rca/phono->3.5mm jack] convertor,is it as simple as plugging it into the TV and the headphones into it,how cheap is this?.

Kali

A convertor should cost no more than about €5/8 at the very max I'd say.. ring Peats or check their website... if no luck their contact Maplins.

I don't know what shops you've been going into to get such crappy advice but as far as headphone amplifiers go theres only two shops in Ireland that sell them and prices would range from €200 upwards (for home use that is.. there are plenty of shops selling studio-style headphone amps).

Joesh

Just want to make sure a [rca/phono->3.5mm jack] convertor is exactly what I need- here are more details:

Headphones:Philips Cordless IR stereo Headphone hc200 which has a 3.5mm plug.

Tv:here are some pics from the manual-





It does not seem to mention the size of the speaker sockets though.
Thanks for your help,
Joe

Kali

Ahh they are marked as Audio-In... which means they are used for connecting video cameras/VCRs etc. into the TV... I couldn't say if they'd function as Audio-Out connections... its possible, but not very likely.

Joesh

I emailed bush last week to ask if I can use external speakers with it as I thought I could find a set of speakers with a headphone socket like my computer has.If it can connect to speakers surely it can connect to headphones?.

blorg

The ones at the _back_ seem to be phono line-level outputs. The red and white are right and left respectively. You can use a simple wire adapter as Kali suggests (you may also need a gender inverter for the 3.5mm jack - most of these cables will do 2xphono to a 3.5mm _jack_ rather than _socket_ which is what you will need to plug your headphones into - ask in Peats or Maplin.) The problem with this, however, is that you will not be able to change the volume on the headphones at all (if I recall correctly line level does not turn out terribly loud on headphones).

You may actually be OK however if you are using cordless headphones as these all tend to have a volume control built in to them. Worth a try.

You should be able to get a headphone amp cheaper than €200, if you are not looking for an ultra-hifi piece of kit. For example, many PC speaker add-ons will also include a powered headphone socket - you can plug the PC speakers into the TV with the adapter Kali suggests and then plug the headphones into that (and adjust volume as required). I'd try the €5 cable option first and see how this goes with your cordless headphones.

Phono to 3.5mm jack

3.5mm gender inverter (socket-socket) - this goes on the end of the lead above converting the plug to a socket so you can plug in your headphones

Edit: Maplin may be slightly cheaper if they do a reasonable conversion from GBP:

3.5mm coupler

phono to 3.5mm