Since the Krell has neither a headphone jack nor a speaker ON/OFF switch you will need a headphone amp, preferably one with a unity gain pass-through so you can place it in circuit between your source and the Krell and listen to the cans without the sound going to the speakers. I would recommend something like the Channel Islands VHP-1 or VHP-2 as a good, reasonably priced (approx $349) altervative.

Good luck!

Agreed.

However I would put the headphone amp on the tape outs rather than in-line with the source. This keeps the signal chain simpler and the Krell will pass on all source signals very nicely to the headphone amp.

From a pure SQ perspective I would agree. The two disadvantages I see with that approach are (a) it won't mute the speakers (b) it means the Krell must be switched on as well. The advantage is that if you have multiple sources you can use the Krell for source selection.

One will not need to mute the speakers as the rec out will remain at line level even with the volume control turned to zero. The speakers will thus not be playing but the headphone amp will get a full signal.

I was also thinking, as you point out, that the Krell can then be used to switch sources so that any input can easily be sent to the headphone amp.

You are right however that the Krell will always need to be turned on as well.

One other option is to split the output of a CD player, for example, and send one set of outputs directly to the headphone amp and the other to the Krell. CDP's will not have any problem driving both inputs even if they are simultaneously active. Then one can listen to CD's without turning on the Krell.

We can make anything complicated, yes?

Quote:
One will not need to mute the speakers as the rec out will remain at line level even with the volume control turned to zero.

Ah! The old volume-control-turned-to-zero trick eh? Never thought of that!