Can I drive additional headphones from a Monitor Out of my audiointerface without damaging them?

Question

I have a Yamaha AG06 audio mixer / audiointerface connected to my PC.

Currently, I only use the Headphone out 6.35mm headphone out to drive my 250 Ohm headphones.

Now, I want to drive an additonal set of headphones. (Basically two people sitting in front of the PC being able to hear the same audio.)

I know that the Yamaha has an additional 3.5mm headphone out yet when I connect to this, the 6.35mm headphone output is disabled. I also want to be able to control each headphones volume independently from one anther.

I know that I could buy an additional headphone amp mixer, but before I do that I want to know if it was safe to drive another pair of headphones through the monitor out. My idea is to get an Y-Cable 2 x 6.35mm to 1x3.5mm and to connect the monitor out outputs to the input of another pair of headphones, which are 32 Ohm.

That way I assume I could control one headphones via the Headphone volume knob, and the other via the monitor volume knob.

I am afraid to damage my headphones so I am wondering if there is any danger in connecting the pair of headphones to the monitor out that way? Is there any potential of damaging them esp. when they are low impedance headphones through the monitor out?

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Answer 1

Your headphones should be safe plugged into the monitor sockets but you're unlikely to hear much. The monitor sockets are intended to feed an amplifier or amplified speakers with a medium input impedance. Α 10 kΩ load is suggested. It's not particularly critical but 32 Ω is too low. You'll need to add a headphone amplifier between the monitor outputs and your headphones. There are plenty available online.