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HeadRoom BitHeads

post #1 of 22
11/23/03 at 7:05pm
Thread Starter 
Anyone heard one these yet, very interesting concept here.

Scott
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post #2 of 22
11/23/03 at 7:11pm
I don't think it's available yet...I'm very interested too.
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post #3 of 22
11/23/03 at 7:15pm
Thread Starter 
D'Oh I didn't notice the "Coming Soon" part. Still a good idea....I saw someone build a similar idea, they put a sonica in a enclosure with a META42.

Scott
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post #4 of 22
11/24/03 at 11:23am
In the DIY world, aos's Sostenuto preceded the Bithead by, what, a year or two? It's a single circuit with a Jung multiloop amp preceded by a dedicated DAC. aos is working on a successor, which will sit in front of the PPA. No USB support planned, but USB to S/PDIF converters aren't difficult to build. And, lots of PC sound cards have S/PDIF out.
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post #5 of 22
11/24/03 at 11:26am
Any infos about when it will be ready? Will the design still be the same of the Sostenuto (not huge but with a battery pack to deal with)?
I already commented this in another thread: I prefer some larger devices but with integrated battery compartments. I don't see the sense of reducing portable's size and then say "you have this battery pack if you want to use it on the way". Because when I use it at home dimensions are not a problem, and on the go I don't like having to deal with 2 separate devices attached with cables.
That's why I like the XP7...my only complaint is that if you want to use it with a power supply you have to stick to the proprietary one (I'm sure it's of very high quality...Ray is well known for this...but expensive considering the use I would make of it) instead of a normal one (or is there an adapter?).
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post #6 of 22
11/24/03 at 11:57am
The Sostenuto-2 (if that's what it will be called) could use the PPA battery board, which recharges inside the amp. Yes, it does make for a rather large package, borderline portable.
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post #7 of 22
11/24/03 at 12:03pm
I'm not sure if I understood from what I saw in the picture...is this board intended to be mounted in the amp's chassis? If yes...very interesting! I especially like the fact that you can recharge the batteries without having to remove them. I think this would be new in the headphones amps arena...?
Will the Sostenuto 2 require such a power to justify the use of so many batteries?
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post #8 of 22
11/24/03 at 12:12pm
Quote:
is this board intended to be mounted in the amp's chassis?
Yes.

Quote:
I think this would be new in the headphones amps arena...?
I don't know of any other amps that have such a sophisticated charging circuit. There have been other DIY'd amps with simple trickle chargers and such.

Quote:
Will the Sostenuto 2 require such a power to justify the use of so many batteries?
The many batteries are there for voltage, not "power", and it's needed for the analog stage so it can put out low-distortion audio. The DAC will end up using regulators to drop the voltage to digital-compatible levels.
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post #9 of 22
11/24/03 at 12:14pm
Is there already a PPA amp based on this concept?
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post #10 of 22
11/24/03 at 12:57pm
No, it's a daughterboard that aos is working on. I gather he has working samples, but knowing aos he will be tweaking it for some time to come.

It isn't even really tied to the PPA. It could go inside any other DIY amp. The PPA just happens to be the amp that aos is working with when designing his board. The plan is to put it in the same case, so his board layout will probably have some affordances specifically for PPAs.
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post #11 of 22
11/24/03 at 1:44pm
Quote:
Originally posted by Rizumu
I don't think it's available yet...I'm very interested too.

Bitheads are expected to be available around mid December...
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post #12 of 22
11/25/03 at 1:41am
I've heard the bithead.

It's a good concept, and I was pleasantly surprised by the fidelity of the sound, considering it's USB audio to begin with.

Most USB audio devices (namely, macintosh bulk speakers) have been pretty horrible.

The bithead will imho help jumpstart this type of new audio.

I don't know if it compares in fidelity to playing straight from the audio jack with, say, the new 2003 Airhead, but it's pretty good.

The sound was a bit noisy at higher volumes (REALLY LOUD), but what I heard was an earlier test model (just the PCB with some preliminary design steps).

The amp powered the HD600 to satisfying levels without much background noise or harshness, which was surprising.

I won't talk about the design at all. Let's just say it looked like a solidly built PCB. Headroom is famed for their build quality and reasonable designs.

Cheers,
Geek
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post #13 of 22
11/25/03 at 3:38am
The op amp should be different...Burr Brown in the Total Bithead, National Semiconductor in the Total Airhead. Otherwise they should be identical...



I don't know if it compares in fidelity to playing straight from the audio jack with, say, the new 2003 Airhead, but it's pretty good.
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post #14 of 22
11/25/03 at 3:41am
One thing to note with the bithead is this:

It's supposedly only a 16b soundcard.
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post #15 of 22
11/25/03 at 3:43am
Oh yeah, I forgot to say one other thing that sounds rather interesting about it.

It seems that it has a nifty feature. The drivers are built into the soundcard so it can actually upload the drivers to your computer without using any discs or anything. It's essentially just 'plug and play.'

There was a thread in the headroom forums of head-fi a bit ago that I found while trying to dig up info on the little, let me see if I can find it...
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