Aleph-X with less than 500mA total bias

[jwb]

So ... I have this medium-sized heatsink lounging about not doing anything. I think it would be fun to make a new headphone amplifier from the Aleph-X. I would use one output device per side, and I'm thinking that each device would be biased with about 125mA current. This would deliver 2W per channel into the 32-Ohm impedance of my Grado 'phones, which should be sufficient ear-bleeding power, and the heat dissipation would not be any concern, even with two channels and one heatsink.

But the question is, how will the amp sound with so little bias?

I'm presently using a push-pull headphone amp with a lot of bad caps in the signal train, and I wouldn't mind dumping it for something new.

 

[Nelson Pass]

I haven't done this, but it should be fine into headphones.