ART HeadTAP Passive Headphone Tap 2 Outputs for Monitor Amplifier Lines

ART HEADTAP: Headphone Monitoring From a Speaker Line

The ART HeadTAP is a passive two-output headphone tap that takes a monitor amplifier or PA speaker line and turns it into headphone monitoring, with a 100 ohm input impedance and no power supply of any kind. Internal resistors drop the amplifier's speaker-level output down to something headphones can handle, while simultaneously presenting the amplifier with a load it can drive safely rather than an open circuit. Because the whole design is resistive, there is nothing to switch on, nothing to charge and nothing that can fail mid-set. This is a deliberately simple accessory, and the published specification is correspondingly short: what it does is described here at the depth the manufacturer actually documents.

Two Outputs, Dual Parallel Inputs and Daisy-Chaining

Two 1/4 in stereo headphone jacks sit alongside two parallel 1/4 in input jacks, and the parallel wiring is what makes the unit useful beyond a single performer. Signal arriving at one input is presented unchanged at the other, so a second tap plugs into the first and a third into the second, spreading headphone monitoring down a line of performers from one amplifier channel. That same parallel jack can instead carry on to a floor wedge, letting one send feed both a speaker and a set of headphones at the same time. A four-piece band on a cramped club stage can wire the whole monitoring system with speaker cable they already own.

Level Control, Mono Switching and Amplifier Compatibility

A headphone level control and a mono/stereo switch are the only two controls on the unit, and between them they cover the two situations a tap actually meets. Most stage monitor sends are mono, and the mono setting places that single feed in both ears instead of leaving one side silent; the stereo setting is there for the occasions when a genuine two-channel amplifier is driving the line. Published amplifier power handling is 20 to 50 W maximum, which defines the size of monitor amplifier the tap is designed to sit on. Guitarists, keyboard players and backing vocalists on small stages use it to trade a floor wedge for headphones without asking the engineer for another output.

Where a Passive Tap Beats a Powered Headphone Amplifier

Pickup gigs, festival changeovers and houses of worship with no space at the front of the platform are the everyday homes for this accessory, because it removes the need for a spare power outlet and a spare console send. A powered headphone amplifier requires both, plus a line-level feed run back from the desk, whereas the tap works from the speaker cable that is already on stage. For a depping musician who arrives an hour before downbeat, that difference is the difference between hearing yourself and not. It is a small box that quietly removes a monitoring problem rather than adding a feature to argue about.