Hooking headphone amp up to 896HD?

[Watchtower]

I've been searching for an answer to this but I just keep getting more confused. I have an 896HD and need a headphone amp. The headphone amp I am looking at is the ART Headamp 6 Pro. The Headamp has balanced main inputs and balanced main thrus. I have no other gear besides a preamp. How should I hook this thing up?

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I read somewhere that I need to hook the headphone amp up to the 1 & 2 outputs of the 896HD. Is this correct?

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

[mikehalloran]

It depends on that Direct Input. If it will handle a headphone out like most headphone amps, than you can hook it up that way. Otherwise you would use line outs 1/2 to your R/L inputs.

[Watchtower]

It depends on that Direct Input. If it will handle a headphone out like most headphone amps, than you can hook it up that way. Otherwise you would use line outs 1/2 to your R/L inputs.

By direct input are you referring to the main thrus?

[mikehalloran]

I am looking at the picture of the unit. On the front is a 1/4" jack titled Direct Input. I would think this will take the headphone output from any source - but I wouldn't know for certain without looking at a user manual or other documentation.

If not, it would be the only dedicated headphone amp I know of that could not take such an input.

[Watchtower]

I am looking at the picture of the unit. On the front is a 1/4" jack titled Direct Input. I would think this will take the headphone output from any source - but I wouldn't know for certain without looking at a user manual or other documentation.

If not, it would be the only dedicated headphone amp I know of that could not take such an input.

That seems like a last resort hook up. Wouldn't the proper way be to use the balanced ins on the back of the headamp?

I tried hooking it up that way via the 1 & 2 outputs of the 896HD and got no sound or levels. Just to check that the headamp was working I unplugged my monitors and plugged the the headamp directly into the monitor outs of the 896 and got sound.

Still trying to figure this out.

[mikehalloran]

Hooking up a headphone amp to the headphone out jack of your device is one of the ways they are designed to work. Really. The surprising thing is that your input is labelled Direct In.

It is not a "last resort".

Yes, you can take balanced line outs and go into the R/L inputs in the back - for long cable runs, that is preferable but many of us do it the other way - it is convenient and many such devices sound very good.

Even my Behringer gets the job done well. I am not a fan of their gear and it's the only piece I own but I never have to print a 'phone mix so the nuances don't bother me at all. You can see by their labeling that their Direct Ins are designed for headphone feeds.

[Watchtower]

The balanced ins in the back should work correct? I don't want a wire running down the front of my rack anyway. I would still say it's a last resort.

In any event, I got it to work the way I want. I needed to press the volume button on the Motu to change it to analog out. It was on ADAT IN.

I ran into another problem once I got a signal and it took me a while to figure it out. In order to use outputs 7 & 8 for a headphone mix, I need to set the output of this mix in logic to outs 9 & 10. This goes for all outputs. So if I want to use outs 5 & 6 I need to set the headphone mix outs in Logic to 7 & 8.

Anyone with experience with Logic know why it's doing this?