AKG HP4E 4-channel Headphone Amplifier Reviews

I needed a monitor system for my home recording studio. The most headphones in use at the same time that I needed was 4. My sales engineer Alan Gribble recommended the AKG HP4E headphone amp which was at a reasonable price. The unit is working great and the quality of sound reproduced from the unit is excellent. It is exactly what I needed. Thanks Alan for the suggestion.

Awesome accessory for adding additional headphones! Love it!

This is exactly right for any band with a home studio set up. I have a Tascam DP-008EX digital 8 track recorder and adding the AKG HP4E made it all come together. The price is right and the quality is worth twice that. Customer service is top self, plus the wisdom of Alex, thanks mate.

Nice to have both 1/4 and 1/8th inputs for headphones. I set this up with my line outs on my Apollo x8p and it's great to have a seperate cue mix for the client. And they can control their own hp volume. Only thing that I had to figure out is that my Apollo line outs were configured to +4db which was clipping this AKG headphone amp super hard, so I switched them to -10db which fixed it. Just wanted to pass that info on! Super solid unit. I also got a mic stand tray that it sits on!

I have 2 really inexpensive headphone amps that are noisy and some of the channels stopped working after a year or two.
When the older one finally died, I bought the AKG and it's a major upgrade in quality of the sound and the unit seems very well made.

I use the headphone amplifier for live streaming; one input from the livestream computer feed and the other input from my digital board. This allows me to monitor the actual steaming content and switch to the board to tweak individual channels or DCAs without changing headphones. Great purchase. And of course, Sweetwater and Chris Neyman is a great customer service man with a passion for his job and his customers. Thank you, Chris!

Exactly what I was looking for, great sound, good volume range, low noise at high volumes. Nice addition to my studio, especially recording.

Picked this up because I had to track a small group in a small space and only had an apollo twin at the time. Was able to run the second monitor mix to this this guy and it worked like a charm.

Bass player for over 50 yrs - I use this as a stereo amplifier for my Rickenbacker 4003 bass guitar. I do all of my playing through headphones, so needed a quality amplifier that outputs in stereo. The reason for 5 stars is the sound - pure analog heaven. My bass goes into a Sansamp VT (left and right out with y cable) and then to the AKG HP4E amp, then a small mixer. The AKG brings my bass up just enough and gives it a nice weight and warmth.
It's built solid, has the convenience of 1/8" and 1/4" headphone outs and an a-b switch. There is no EQ on it, so color your bass or guitar with whatever pedals you like. What this box does well is amplify your instrument properly - in stereo, making it easy to get a great analog sound from your instrument. And you can use the outputs straight into your PC soundcard. Nice product.

Perfect 4 channel headphone amp for small home studio. I am a Pro Tools / 2X2 M Audio Interface user and am taking advantage of using a small mixer feeding the 2X2 M Audio Interface into Pro Tools. The A / B switching feature on the AKG HP4E 4-Ch Headphone Amplifier is perfect for listening to Sources from the small mixer or the 2 sources from the 2X2 M Audio Interface. Just a flip of the A/B switch.

Great investment and use it everyday!

I just purchased this little power house and for testing I patched in to my Tascam Pocket studio. First thing you notice when unpacking is the high quality, all-steel construction. All controls, in's-out's, and channel selection are simple and logical. The sonic quality? It is OFF the chain! Crystal clear and absolutely silent with ALL the volume any home or professional recordist would ever need! I have AKG headphones and microphones purchased some 30 odd years ago that are still in use today. My confidence in AKG gear is unparalleled. The AKG HP4E far exceeded my expectations.

Very heavy duty high quality headphone amp!
Clean sound, great price!

Purchased this so that whenever I record with others, we've got more access to the sound from my Audient id22 instead of plugging headphones into the speakers. For id22 users, keep in mind, you may need to reboot the id22 if you're not getting any sound, after making sure all my connections were correct, I was still getting no sound, but all it took was a reboot, so watch out for that. As far as the sound goes, wow, this thing has loads of headroom! It gets plenty loud, it's really hard to believe that it can stay so clean, really helpful when tracking drums. The option to use standard 1/8" headphone or 1/4" headphones is awesome! No more looking for adapters for headphones! Sound quality is a lot more than I expected. At this price point for 4 channels, I was expecting some low quality sound, but nope, no loss of fidelity from the Audient. Incredible! It's good to know that I can count on this amp to provide quality sound to all outputs. What caught me by surprise was the back 4 inputs. It's 4 inputs! Absolutely awesome for more audio sources. One thing is I wish this had a power switch instead of turning it on and off (even though I leave it on all the time anyways.) I fully recommend this amp, like the box says, great for small and medium studio applications, great sound, great volume, a great addition to any studio really!

Exactly what I was looking for and a good price. Sturdy with no loss of fidelity. Small footprint makes it a winner for a small studio. Lotsa headroom for those who want to listen at high volume. Totall pro piece of gear.

This functions better than I expected, the only reason it doesn't get 5 stars is it weighs less than I was expecting. Very good little tabletop headphone amp.

Sturdy little unit with enough juice to push a set beyerdynamic DT 770 PRO 250 Ohm, a set of the same at 80 Ohm, and some Bose QC15.
The 1/4 and 3.5mm inputs are a fantastic addition that i've enjoyed with every use.
Duel source input is a game changer that sets this product above the rest at this price range. I have one set to my desktop audio and the other plugged into a Motu M4.

When I bought a pair of high impedance headphones, I needed a way to drive them. After speaking with the Sweetwater Sales Engineer this was recommended due to costs and my use case. It's perfect. Drives my new headphones well.

Sits under a monitor, is fairly small, and has the ability to switch between 2 inputs and 4 outputs. Recommendation was spot on and am very happy with the purchase.

I really like that it takes input from 2 sources. You can conceivably select between 2 mixes.
Take note. Inputs are MONO only so you'll need a stereo Y adapter if your source is TRS.

While there are better headphone amps out there, they are A LOT more expensive. That said, this amp is
FAR better than those $25 units and sounds GREAT with my Mackie MP-240 IE Monitors. This combo really fits the bill in my church band and cuts down on stage volume without emptying the offering plate. Great bang for the buck!

Solid build quality. Clean and loud.

This replaced a Samson unit which was noisy, cheap, and awkward. This is much, much better. Having two stereo inputs is nice. Balanced inputs are legit. A choice of 1/4" or mini outputs is handy. The flattened knobs are easy to adjust without really looking. And the metal case feels pretty beefy. Most importantly, the sound is clean and reasonably quiet. It's a solid piece of gear at the price.

The AKG headphone amplifier provides quality sound through my headphones. I can now play through my Fender Twin Reverb amplifier. Thanks again to Roq Martin for his help in selecting this product.

First of all, there is NO ON-OFF Switch for it. Shame on AKG. Also that is not disclosed in their description or in their SPECS. You'd think that a pricey unit like this, at $ compared to other units, would have one. I "assumed" it did, was of course wrong. SO to turn it on and off, you have to pull out the power cord. NOW, my problem was that the left channel cuts OUT, so there's no sound at all on that side. Even though it's intermittent, it should work correctly. Nothing against my Sales Rep or with the TS guy I talked to, but I now have to REPLACE it since my warranty is UP, even though my unit is only 2 1/2 yrs "young". And with all of this, expected it to work longer than that at that price. The result? AKG will never get me to purchase anything with their AKG label on it.

Why on earth would anyone make a headphone amp that required you to physically unplug it to turn it off? Who knows... but these guys did it and it is the stupidest thing I have seen in a while. If you plan on using this in a studio with multiple engineers and a patch bay who route in different ways with different levels it a recipe for blown headphones. It takes away the ultimate fail safe of turning the unit off so people are patching hot signal or sending crazy loud music to a unit that the last guy forgot to turn volume down on.

I wish I had known this before ordering but it never crossed my mind that a company like AKG would omit this basic function... so now I am out shipping. Hope this helps the next person not make the same mistake I did.

Probably great for a home studio where only one engineer or user is controlling the signal at all times.