Before buying the HA4700 I had been considering both the Samson and ART 4 channel headphone amps, however I really wanted a headphone amp in a 19" rack format which would give me the versatility I needed to mix inputs. The HA4700 is just that and at an affordable price too.

I've been very impressed with the quality and versatility of this headphone amp. The sound is clean and free from any hum/ hiss/ interference as you would expect, so I regularly use it in the studio for when I want to monitor through headphones. I find it useful for being able to switch between mono and stereo mixes at the push of a button and also for allowing other people to listen at the same time through headphones. The ‘Aux in’ on each channel is great for plugging a mic into so that I can talk to whoever’s in the vocal booth between takes.

In a live situation the HA4700 is invaluable for me and my 3 band mates to monitor the output from our laptop (which I plug into the ‘Main Left’ input) along with a click track (into the ‘Main Right’ input). Each of us can set our own individual level, mono/stereo mix, EQ and it’s easy to use on a dark stage because the buttons
all light up when pressed and each channel has an output level display. Once you’ve got your Left and Right main inputs sorted you can even add additional instruments to the monitor mix- for example I can add a synthesizer to my own monitor mix (using the 'Aux in' jack socket on my channel) and then use the 'Aux/Main balance' knob to control the ratio of laptop+click to synth that I hear. When there are more than 4 musicians who need to hear the mix there are another 8 headphone outputs on the back so it supports up to 12 sets of headphones in total.

I’ve owned other Behringer products in the past that I have been a little disappointed with (e.g. Virtualizer Pro) and I can understand why they have a bit of a reputation for scrimping on quality because their products are so cheap compared to the competition. However, I have to say that -for my purposes- I can’t find a fault with this product. The HA4700 is a quality piece of gear and very versatile- it can be used in many different technical set-ups besides the ones that I’ve described. More importantly perhaps it achieves all this at a fraction of the price of other 19” headphone amps without compromising on quality.