hippo hifi bloat vs. total bithead

[speedball]

Hey all,

I've been looking for a cheapish portable combo usb dac/amp for use on the road. I've been really looking into the Total Bithead after having had the chance to hear one and reading overall good things about it here. (not to mention it definetly fits my "cheapish" criterion)

Yesterday, though, I came upon this:
http://www.hippohifi.com/products/bloat/bloat.html
It looks like a pretty similar product, and I dig the fact that you can pick your own opamp.

has anyone heard this little sucker?
How is it compared to the total bithead?

[facelvega]

bump to see if anyone has one of these yet from the review samples they were supposedly sending out.

[facelvega]

yet another bump in the hopes that someone has actually heard one of these around here.

[Lou Erickson]

This will cost more than the Total Bithead does once you upgrade it, and the TBH already has those upgrades.

Not to say this won't sound different or better, but an observation. I haven't got one. I've got a TBH. Perhaps unlike many, I prefer the plastic case for this application; I velcro it to the lid of a laptop, and wouldn't want to do that with the metal box.

But no, haven't heard it. I'm surprised it hasn't been a FOTM.

[facelvega]

Originally Posted by Lou Erickson

This will cost more than the Total Bithead does once you upgrade it, and the TBH already has those upgrades.

Not exactly. The key parts on the Bloat are actually much better than those on a Bithead as far as I can tell. The opa2107 is highly-regarded and costs roughly six times as much as the relatively uncommon OPA4743 of the Bithead. The Bloat's stock PCM1798 has better specs than the Bithead's PCM2702: e.g., 24 bit vs. 16 bit, 123dB dynamic range vs. 93, SNR 126dB vs. 96. Even the Bloat's USB receiver chip which in this case is just turning usb to spdif technically has better stats as a DAC than the Bithead's one-piece dac. The Bloat isn't using chips on the level of a Bithead, it's using ones on a level with a Corda Opera. (which has PCM2702>PCM1794) Obviously it doesn't have everything else that the Opera has, but it does seem to me that the Bloat is making a greater audiophile effort than are its competitors-- but of course that's just from parts listings, nobody here seems to have taken a look at the implementation yet.

The Bloat is also smaller and lighter than a Bithead or a Corda Move, or a Headphonia for that matter, mainly because it does away will all the bells and whistles: no analog in, no volume pot that I can see, no gain switches, no crossfeed, not even any batteries as far as I can tell. It's essentially just a basic external USB soundcard with very good parts and serious headphone amp section, not such a bad idea.

I'm thinking of getting one simply because I expect it will outperform a bithead and it's cheaper than the german options. Heck, if its dac performs as well as it could, then it's already a finer source than even the Move.

[Computerstud]

Anyone compare the bloat to Corda Move yet?

[Denver Max]

I saw this thing and considered it pretty cool too, but is there any realistic way that you could use it as a USB + Amp since it doesn't have volume control? Maybe a more substantial screw set is inside that will let you set gain and volume once and then keep it permanent like that?