Audiophiles, please weigh in...

Bronco

Bronco

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Good evening gentlemen. Today's category is portable (i.e. battery powered) headphone amplifiers. The contenders are as follows:

In this corner HeadRoom's Total BitHead amp:

http://www.headphone.com/products/headphone-amps/the-mobile-line/headroom-total-bithead.php

And in the opposite corner we have Ray Samuels Emmeline Hornet:

http://www.raysamuelsaudio.com/products/hornet

Please tell me which of the two above you would prefer. The amp will be used to connect a pair of Shure SE530 earphones to the ubiquitous Apple iPod or iPhone, and will be playing mostly contemporary and classic rock selections uploaded using Apple's Lossless encoding format. I won't be hooking these amps up to a computer, so the BitHead's USB/computer compatibility won't really qualify as an advantage. The Hornet is certainly the sexier of the two, but that alone is not worth a 100% price increase over the BitHead. Is there a performance difference that can justify the price increase?
 
Bronco said:
Good evening gentlemen. Today's category is portable (i.e. battery powered) headphone amplifiers. The contenders are as follows:

In this corner HeadRoom's Total BitHead amp:

http://www.headphone.com/products/headphone-amps/the-mobile-line/headroom-total-bithead.php

And in the opposite corner we have Ray Samuels Emmeline Hornet:

http://www.raysamuelsaudio.com/products/hornet

Please tell me which of the two above you would prefer. The amp will be used to connect a pair of Shure SE530 earphones to the ubiquitous Apple iPod or iPhone, and will be playing mostly contemporary and classic rock selections uploaded using Apple's Lossless encoding format. I won't be hooking these amps up to a computer, so the BitHead's USB/computer compatibility won't really qualify as an advantage. The Hornet is certainly the sexier of the two, but that alone is not worth a 100% price increase over the BitHead. Is there a performance difference that can justify the price increase?
Click to expand...

I have and love the Total Bithead....the people that work there are committed to customer service, and although bulky and "not sexy" the thing works like a charm....I am running Shure SE210's with a Shuffle.

Have developed some nasty tinnitus within the last 18 months, so my discerning ear is not what it once was....too many punk rock/metal shows without earplugs in my misspent youth, alas.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
I'd get the Hornet, but I wonder why you aren't looking at the Tomahawk. The Tomahawk is for IEMs.

Mr. Samuals stuff has great quality. Wasn't too impressed with the Bithead.

I use Practical Devices XM4 (an amp I recommend as a first such product), mSeed Spirit, or a Headphonia Lyrix amps with flac via Iaudio 7 players. HD25 headphones, as IEMs are not viable for me.
 
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orthogonal1 said:
I'd get the Hornet, but I wonder why you aren't looking at the Tomahawk. The Tomahawk is for IEMs.
Click to expand...

Appreciate the input. I was looking at the Hornet because it's not too much more than the Tomahawk money wise, not very much bigger size wise, and, of course, with the three position gain switch has the flexibility to power any type of headphone.
 
There is that.

I'm assuming you've spent some time lurking at posts at http://www.head-fi.org/forums/index.php

If not, there is a lot of info to be had there. Lurking there is why I have the mSeed (sounds pretty good, better with age), as well as the Headphonia Pro (usually used at home with the HD25 or Allessandro MS1 phones - the MS1's for classical, opera type music).

I'm probaby behind the times, though, on the audio front.
 
I DO need the USB interface with the TotalBitHead....as I run my computer I- Tunes through my Yamaha R7 receiver into B&W 686 speakers....not the greatest audiophile experience by a longshot....but it still sounds pretty nice.

Is there another package like the TB that you can recommend as superior, because I could not find that much out there when I looked about 2 years ago.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
Superior is subjective and I never really looked into the portable amps with the USB feature. The feature is a relative recent area of development. Here are some I recall and there are others. Portable amp companies come and go, it appears, similar to new knife companies. Meier and Ray Samuals are well respected.

Meier has the Corda2Move -http://www.meier-audio.homepage.t-online.de/amplifiers.htm

Ray Samuals has the Predator - http://raysamuelsaudio.com/products/predator

Practical devices has the XM5 - http://www.practicaldevices.com/xm5_pictures.htm

Leckerton has the UHA-3 - http://www.leckertonaudio.com/

Some people have had issues with Headphonia, but others like them - http://headstage.com/Lyrix-Amps:::1001.html?XTCsid=ad81ec68f2851c8a421ce2e9797777b6
 
Ortho, that Practical Devices XM-5 unit certainly looks nice on their website. But looks, of course, tells us exactly zero about how they sound. I take it from your remarks, that they haven't quite earned or established the pedigree that is enjoyed by Meier or Samuels.

I also find it interesting, in a humorous sort of way, the degree to which Ray Samuels absolutely refuses to incorporate any type of crossfeed capability into his portable amps. I gotta say though, the absence of such technology hasn't seemed to deter any of the major audio publications from giving the unit outstanding reviews.
 
Crossfeed is a give and take. Mr. Samuals has a valid point as to getting the full stereo affect. Give some of the Pink Floyd albums a listen with headphones on without crossfeed and with it.

I prefer my source to provide the feature. When I had a real home system and car system, I had preamps and other sound modifiers. Amplifiers just amplified. But, then, my two-channel, 50-watt home amps weighed in at about 50 lbs each. Audiofiles had it better in the 70-80's, we just didn't know what grot was to come. Back to point...

I find I like crossfeed when listening to older CDs that have not been remastered (remastering, BTW, has often ruined albums for me). I auditioned a Meier Move, but not long enough to really have an opinion (though I did like what I heard).

Practical Device's crossfeed in the X4 does affect volume (lower output) and sound. The Headphonia (also called Headstage) Lyrix Pro is more transparent, though I rarely use it.

I think the X5 should be a significant step up over the X4. The internals appear to indicate it has the potential to sound better. Sorta like some of Xin's stuff with a bit of Meier thrown in.

But, I'm set as to amps, so until an affordable I-Qube, Tomahawk (it can drive many full-size headphones - it's all in the impedence), or Meier comes along, I'll abstain from buying more.

BTW - My biggest pet peeve as to amps and players is the use of them darn special lithium batteries. For a little increase in size, standard cell size batteries could be used.
 
IIRC the Total Airhead has the same circuits as the Total Bithead minus the USB/computer stuff, so it should sound the same and is quite a bit cheaper at $99 vs $159.
 
orthogonal1 said:
But, I'm set as to amps, so until an affordable I-Qube, Tomahawk (it can drive many full-size headphones - it's all in the impedence), or Meier comes along, I'll abstain from buying more.
Click to expand...

That I-Qube does look nice. Amongst the audiophile set, how well does it fare in comparisons with the Samuels Hornet?

I'm also curious what your opinion is of the connector pictured below. I've read in a few reviews that high quality digital music files can suffer in playback when you connect through the headphone jack of an iPod (because the quality of the headphone amplifier in the iPod is mediocre at best). If I understand correctly, this type of connector bypasses the iPod's internal headphone amp. I suppose such a setup would more quickly deplete the batteries in your stand alone portable headphone amplifier, but I'm curious if the sound quality is significantly enhanced.
 

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The I-Qube supposedly sounds better. Whether I could hear the difference is conjecture at this point. As with knives, the issues are highly subjective and, as with knives, I just like trying different technologies. The I-Qube is different.

That is one of those expensive connectors that are given good reviews. There are cheaper alternatives, though the material of the wires may not be as high quality. Wire material as affects sound is another issue of great discussion.

I really can't help much when it comes to the Apple domain. I refuse to jump to the Apple cadence and simply won't buy one of their players despite the player's popularity. That is one reason I went with the Iaudio 7, as well as flac playing.

I do know many people say there is better quality to be garnered from the older Apple products by bypassing the headphone out - one group of modifiers would internally modify the disc-type players for better sound. I'm thinking "red" something or other as to these people. Whatever.

From what I gather, the bypass is simply the equivalent of a line-out. Whether a line out gives a better listening experience is up to the listener. Based upon the remarks I've read, apparrently the difference is significant.

Personally, I'd try listening to the player via the headphone out for a while, then buy one of the lower priced bypass connectors (at which time an amp will be required). If I felt there was a noticeable difference in sound improvment, then I'd up the ante to one of the Dragon products or such.

As can be seen from my amps, the Practical Devices XM4, mSeed Spirit, and Headphonia (Headstage) Lyrix are all ranked in the middle of most reviews, sometimes even lower :). Yet, subjectively, I am fine with them when used with the HD25 and MS1 headphones.
 
Thanks, ortho. Appreciate you being so generous with your knowledge. :)
 
906HORFIG1.jpg

10-200K freq response? :eek:
That is awesome
Will go great with some BTO or some Gerry Rafferty;)
I think anything above 25K the human ear can't hear? :confused:
I got a pretty nice USB tube MIC preamp
USB works great for audio PC interfaces

100 bucks difference huh?
You make the call
 
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