Headphone amplifiers for guitarists: updated 26/2/2010

For compact ultra quiet home practice or the lightest road trip it is hard to beat a headphone amplifier for your guitar.  Some of the better ones have built in effects and some are recorders as well.  Here is a collection of headphone amps. See also travel amplifiers for small footprint loud boxes and travel guitars - some of which include speakers or headphone amps..

See also small valve amps | Pedal Power Supplies | Pedal Boards

The Arion Hot Watt II Headphone Amp combines a built-in stereo circuit and effects to create a concert hall sound space. Includes an excellent-quality amp with lightweight high-efficiency headphones in the Hot Watt II. Plus Metal Master sound, chorus, echo, and distortion. Volume is infinitely variable with one-touch control. Exclusive drive control allows the Hot Watt II's metal and overdrive sounds to be set for mellow, raspy, or anywhere in between. Output jack allows you to play the Hot Watt II effects through any amp. Hi-fi jack lets you play along with radio, records, or tapes. Batteries operate over 30 hours at maximum consumption. Use with Arion AC adapter or compatible with following power adapters:Boss PSA-120 or Line 6 Tone DC-1.

BOSS Micro BR

Ultra portable, only slightly larger than an iPod
4-track playback, 32 V-Tracks
Loads and plays MP3 files
Multi-effects onboard; dedicated guitar input
Time-Stretch and Center Cancel features (including MP3 files)
293 rhythm patterns
Built-in tuner and microphone
USB port for data transfer
SD Card slot for recording media, 128MB card included

Also superceded? Boss HA5 Play Bus

Cafe Walter

HA-1A Headphone Practice Amp. The HA-1A is not designed to make you sound good. Instead, it is designed to tell you the truth about how you sound. If your fingers make squeaky noises on the strings when you move, if your E string is twice as loud as your D, if your intonation is lousy - the HA-1A will tell you.  There are no tone controls, effects loop, enhance knobs.

Dean Stack in a Box

Features:

Stereo Headphone Amp
Speaker Simulator
Includes Clean, Overdrive & Distortion
Sounds Like a Stack
Perfect for Practice
Fits in Your Case
Hooks Up to Most Stereos

Harmony Central link to an article on making a headphone amp from an old Walkman

JamPlug by DVForge

From Mac accessory maker DVForge, advertizes itself as the world's smallest guitar amp. Small battery powered amp that plugs into most  electric guitars. Fits easily into the palm of your hand. The JamPlug plugs directly into a standard 1/4 inch guitar jack, so no need to have an extra lead cable. Then in turn, the included headphones plug directly into the AAA battery powered JamPlug.

Korg Pandora

The Korg Pandora has been around for quite a while and comes in many forms including a ministudio.

There is a large range of Line 6 amp modellers with the pocket express a compact started version.

found on ebay.

Volume and tone control
1/8" auxillary line in
1/4" signal line out
1/8" headphone line out
Flat-normal-bright EQ

High / Mid / Low + contour Middle shift EQ to retouch the tone.
Volume and Attenuation adjustments / Pre-amplifier connection.
Built-in Amplifier Simulator. Balanced/Unbalanced Direct Output
High quality headphone output. Tough-built metal enclosure with metal stomp switch
Size: 5 1/4 " H x 3 3/4" W x 1 1/2" D Weight: 1 lb 5 0z

Pocket Rockit

The world's smallest full-featured guitar amp.

The C Tech V2 Pocket Rockit Headphone Amplifier captures the tonal heritage of 50 years of guitar amp design. It combines analog and digital signal processing to reproduce classic tube amp tones. A proprietary DSP engine provides awesome digital effects such as reverb, delay, chorus, and flange, while an analog front end generates classic amp emulation tones.

 

Rockman (by Dunlop)

The Rockman® Ace line lets you hear your instrument's dynamic range and clarity to inspire you to "pick up your guitar and play". These high-quality, low-priced headphone amps offer built in compression, volume control and auxiliary stereo input/output. You can even route the output to a mixer for recording! The Metal Ace adds more distortion bite to the sound of the Guitar Ace.

Tascam MP GT1

Based on the award-winning CD-GT1mkII, this mobile guitar trainer can store up to 240 songs. Guitar parts can be slowed down without changing the pitch, looped or eliminated.  Songs can be pitched up or down to match the tuning of your guitar.

The guitar input gives you multi-effects, including a guitar canceller. A tuner, metronome, and rechargeable battery are built-in.

The MP-GT1 uses a high-speed USB connection to load up MP3s and charge the built-in battery.

Vox range of Amplugs

Power supply: two AAA batteries
Battery life: with alkaline batteries: approximately 15 hours (with zinc-carbon batteries: approximately 5 hours.)
Dimensions (W x D x H): 86 x 80 x 31 (mm), 3.39" x 3.15" x 1.22"
Weight: 40g / 1.41oz (not including batteries)
Included items: two AAA zinc-carbon batteries

Waves iGTR

The Waves iGTR Headphone Amp is a pocket-sized and power-packed personal guitar effects processor that delivers the real sound of guitar amps and effects, anytime, anyplace. Strap it on, plug in your guitar, and you're ready to rock. Hook up headphones or to a power amp and speakers and unleash the power of iGTR: Cutting-edge guitar tones-from cool clean sounds to scorching distortion-at your fingertips.

Plug your mp3 player into Waves iGTR to play along with your favorite tunes, or chain together 2 iGTRs to jam with friends-any time of the day or night, without waking the neighbors!
 

Zoom MRS8 Recorder

This is my practice amplifier at home.  It is relatively robust, I can read the display, the controls are pretty easy to manage and unlike some of the smaller platforms are not too 'iddy biddy'. The fact that it is a compact recording studio is simply a bonus.  I combine this with 'open back' headphones.

See also travel amplifiers for small footprint loud boxes and travel guitars - some of which have speakers or headphone amps on board.

See also small valve amps | Pedal Power Supplies | Pedal Boards