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Since most of my bands/projects with other people have stalled quite a bit lately I've been less in actual practice spaces/rehearsal rooms where there's actual amps.. I do have a Vox AC4TV at home which is nice, but tend to stay more at my girlfriend's place then my own at the moment. However, I still feel it'd be nice to be able to geek out with pedals once in a while. So to the actual question:

For playing at home, with headphones, what are you guys using?

That OBNE headphone amp looks like what I could be after. Like that the small size, two headphone jacks etc, but I've not seen a lot on it. Anyone using this? What other options are there? Is the Neunaber Iconoclast the same kind of thing?
It'd be cool to be able to record the jams via the thing into garageband or whatever too, but that's not too important. Mainly want something that makes it possible to jam/drone/riff/experiment with pedals without destroying myself, any equipment or letting anyone without headphones hear it.
Something that fits on a pedal board or in the side pocket of the soft case would be ideal. Yeah, yeah,you get it. Suggestions?

I have yet to hear someone content with the OBNE headphone amp. Though I haven't used it myself. But the general gist I've heard is that it is too clean so it doesn't feel like a guitar amp.

Get someone to build you the EAE collaboration w/ Nerd Knuckle Effects open source one. Preamp + Cab Sim + Headphone Driver in a box. Built to better show off pedals at trade shows.

I ditched my OBNE in favor of just using the headphone out of my Mesa F100. Sounds way better with gain pedals (its own gain channel leaves something to be desired in regards to good dirty sounds).

I use a Vox AmPlug AC30 for this. Cheap and works ok.

How about a little Blackstar Fly 3. Has headphone output if it's too loud (I've brought one to a buddies house and it kept up with a Fender Champ). Sounds good with pedals including dirt. Feels funny running a thousand dollars of pedals through a $60 amp but whatever.

And it's battery powered so you can take it and play on the porch or wherever.

It's my little throw around amp for traveling and when the kids are asleep. If it broke I would 100% replace it.

I'm partial to the Atomic Amplifire, which has multiple amp models that work well with dirtboxes and a stereo fx loop. The only drawbacks are that the Amplifire boosts the bajeesus out of unwanted noise with certain gear and is fickle with power supplies. It may also be too large given your specifications.

The Zoom MS-50G may be worth considering as as much more simple, compact, and affordable option if you don't need an effects loop. I previously owned the Zoom G5, which has the same algorithms and at least 2 amp sims that take pedals well.

Many years ago I used 2 Behringer GDI21s into an equally cheap Behringer mixer for total analog headphone pedal toanz, which was a noisy but affordable solution.

I've got a Line6 Pocket Pod Express, they're discontinued now but come up cheap on eBay. 1/4" and 3.5mm outputs, a few fairly generic amp models (clean Fender, Vox AC30, Marshall etc) and effects and about the size of a pedal. I swear by mine!

I love love love my Neunaber Iconoclast, so much that I basically ditched my main amp for it.

vidret wrote:

Inconuucl wrote:I love love love my Neunaber Iconoclast, so much that I basically ditched my main amp for it.

good to know, there was a bit of hate on the reverb demo.

Understandable, as out of the box it comes with a really flat EQ setting. I have mine set to match a standard fender profiles and it's great. As for headphone use there's a togglaeble/configurable stereo simulator on it, which removes the "lack of space" that most headphone amps have. It's not going to get you blooz level sag and tube bullshitbuzzwordsoup; however It will get you a fantastic clean solid-state pedal platform, which is what I look for in an amp anyways. I do plan to have someone build me one of those nifty L5 Preamp* pedals to add behind the iconoclast, so I don't have to ever buy an amp again.

* https://aionelectronics.com/project/l5-preamp/

I'm kind of in the same boat since my band only practices like once a month, if that, so most of my playing the past couple years has been through some variation of a headphone rig. I won't bore you with the variety of things I've tried and disregarded, but right now I've settled on guitar/bass > pedals > Peavey USB mixer with an AMT O2 in the effects loop, using the speaker sim output. That way I can adjust the EQ on the mixer channel to taste and mess with the input gain levels as needed based on pickups or what have you. It's not perfect or amazing but it works. I've considered grabbing a different AMT pedal in that series (the O2 is supposedly Orange, the F2 is Fender, etc.) to see if it makes a difference but I'm pleased enough with this arrangement for now.

That's probably a bigger/less travel-friendly solution than you want, but it provides the option to record to Garageband, which I do using this set-up.

Thanks for all the answers/suggestions guys!

ognoy wrote:I use a Vox AmPlug AC30 for this. Cheap and works ok.

How much Ac30 does this actually sound? Curious cause Ac30 happens to be my main amp.
I've got a JCM800 too but I rarely use many pedals with that...

_r_ wrote:I've got a Line6 Pocket Pod Express, they're discontinued now but come up cheap on eBay. 1/4" and 3.5mm outputs, a few fairly generic amp models (clean Fender, Vox AC30, Marshall etc) and effects and about the size of a pedal. I swear by mine!

Cool. Basically the same question here as for ognoy, but I guess overall I wanna know if the ampsims are any good. Whaddya think?

The Pocket Pod Express sounds like shit tbh. The portability is the main attraction there xD

PanicProne wrote:Thanks for all the answers/suggestions guys!

ognoy wrote:I use a Vox AmPlug AC30 for this. Cheap and works ok.

How much Ac30 does this actually sound? Curious cause Ac30 happens to be my main amp.
I've got a JCM800 too but I rarely use many pedals with that...

Haven't played real AC30s enough to say really, but at least with a little breakup dialed in it sounds like what I think of as "Vox-ish".

Micro terror headphone out is pretty decent as long as you don't push it super hard. Doesn't do loud clean, but how loud do you really need headphones to be?

This thread revived my interest in the Iconoclast, especially re the stereo space stuff. The DSM omnicabsim is also insanely good and I couldn't recommend it more.