C&C BH Portable Headphone Amp (80 Hours from a Single Charge!) [Buyer Review] | Page 104 | Headphone Reviews and Discussion - Head-Fi.org

kova4a · Mar 27, 2013 at 7:10 PM

Quote:

gintaras said:
Today in late evening had not much to do and remembering some past conversations I decided to try higher quality silver LOD from iTouch 4 into BH and my EB50. I recall some people were claiming iTouch sounds better than C3 with BH... What can I say? Nothing like this IMO. While iTouch sounds surely better with amp via good LOD cable i find it sounding more digital, lacking air and articulation dynamics, essentially no matter how much time I spend on listening iTouch just does not come ahead, stage is flat and compressed, timbre lacks richness while much falls into lower registers in bass and overall presentation becomes pretty boring despite fairly good detailing. iTouch simply cannot produce analogue-like sound no matter, i tried two more amps including Digizoid and another amp I received now, but neither could force iTouch to sound analogue. Mind this iTouch is an Ok player and delivers good sound when amped but... this not anywhere close to audiophile world unless you use older moded or rockboxed versions of iPod classic.

So far so are my findings. And to counteract arguments about Apple bashing and bias I have to tell that except for iPod my home is fully Mac equipped with five computers, three iPhones and some smaller stuff... Plus I personally know director of Apple for Europe... So if iPods could sound really good I would have bought them in no time.

Well, as far as my statement about the BH, I personally never commented on sound signature and digital or analog sounding. I just said and still stand by my words that the BH is really showing its power and technical potential through a real line-out and not the relatively weak headphone-out on the C3. The C3 on it's own is mid-centric, smooth and relatively airy sounding with good timbre. The BH through the line-out of an ipod will sound like it sounds - dry and on the cold side. So, tour above statement should belong more in the C3 thread for praising its merits but the fact that you don't like your itouch with the BH or other amps doesn't disprove my point that the BH is a lot better performer through a line-out. It's dead silent all the way up to 95% on the volume pot even on high gain. It can drive headphones on low gain and 7 o'clock on the volume pot, which are barely driven on high gain and the volume maxed when it's paired with the C3 and can go way way higher in volume without starting to clip and distort. It's nice that you like your C3+BH but I'm just stating what the BH can actually do when powered properly.

marko93101 · Mar 27, 2013 at 7:22 PM

Friend loaned me some 25s, sweet mother of the divine lord. Refuse to take the 25s off till I'm going. Will definitely be buying 25s when the finances are available. Still loving this amp. E5/6 gathering dust somewhere.

Gintaras · Mar 27, 2013 at 7:26 PM

Kova, please stop drinking, i never meant you in that post, this was about another forum where someone told he found BH better sounding with iTouch vs. c3... That made me curious and so I borrowed iTouch if my daughter to test this again as I thought might be I was not well enough last time testing this combo. As a matter of fact another listen and trying three different amps did not manage to convince me.

I also remember you have Galaxy and not iPod, so why bother?

mpawluk91 · Mar 27, 2013 at 7:27 PM

I thought the sennheiser hd 439 would be a good combo with the bh but not really. I've come to terms with the fact that the bh is perfect on low gain with 50 ohm cans. 32 ohms is a little on the iffy side

Gintaras · Mar 27, 2013 at 7:28 PM

marko93101 said:
Friend loaned me some 25s, sweet mother of the divine lord. Refuse to take the 25s off till I'm going. Will definitely be buying 25s when the finances are available. Still loving this amp. E5/6 gathering dust somewhere.

What 25s means? Sorry for double post.

imackler · Mar 27, 2013 at 7:44 PM

Quote:

gintaras said:
What 25s means? Sorry for double post.

HD25-1ii, I bet.

mpawluk91 · Mar 27, 2013 at 7:46 PM

imackler said:
HD25-1ii, I bet.

I might get one of those I hear they're great for metal

marko93101 · Mar 27, 2013 at 7:51 PM

Quote:

gintaras said:
What 25s means? Sorry for double post.

Quote:

imackler said:
HD25-1ii, I bet.

Quote:

mpawluk91 said:
I might get one of those I hear they're great for metal

Sorry for not being clearer, imackler hit the nail on the head.

mpawluk91, not sure if Metallica is your jam, but listened to The Black Album yesterday and sat in silence and awe for the duration. The Unforgiven blew me away. Also, if you like Thin Lizzy, the 25s are fantastic!

kova4a · Mar 27, 2013 at 7:51 PM

Quote:

gintaras said:
Kova, please stop drinking, i never meant you in that post, this was about another forum where someone told he found BH better sounding with iTouch vs. c3... That made me curious and so I borrowed iTouch if my daughter to test this again as I thought might be I was not well enough last time testing this combo. As a matter of fact another listen and trying three different amps did not manage to convince me.

I also remember you have Galaxy and not iPod, so why bother?

Because I tried it with an ipod nano 3rd gen and it sounded a lot better. Might be because it lie the older apples has a wolfson DAC which is warmer and smoother but honestly just because you don't like the itouch with the BH and your headphones doesn't mean that someone who probably has harder to drive headphones or just different sounding ones can't find the combo better sounding. I'm pretty sure that as far as power handling and clipping goes the BH fed through the itouch's line-out will be better. As far as the sound signature - now that's a personal preference but I think an ipod will benefit more form a warm and smooth amp not the BH. And I don't mean the digizoid as it's just a bass eq on a wire and even the E11 destroys it overall

edit: and yeah, I'm drinking but that only improves the sound quality

Gintaras · Mar 27, 2013 at 8:22 PM

Kova, whatever you wish because argument for the sake of argument does not fly.

Mind this Digizoid was put in for fun, not serious listen.

Listen session was done with BH and one new amp costing closer to 200$, do not want say more about this right now before testing it more but that sounded well enough to make my daughter snap it.

I also will have Tralucent T1 on the way next week so will report back when have it.

But if you want I can try iPod vs. Rwak100 just to make you happy :-D

kova4a · Mar 27, 2013 at 8:30 PM

Quote:

gintaras said:
Kova, whatever you wish because argument for the sake of argument does not fly.

Mind this Digizoid was put in for fun, not serious listen.

Listen session was done with BH and one new amp costing closer to 200$, do not want say more about this right now before testing it more but that sounded well enough to make my daughter snap it.

I also will have Tralucent T1 on the way next week so will report back when have it.

But if you want I can try iPod vs. Rwak100 just to make you happy :-D

LOL I just like to mess with your comments to work you up and make you start explaining yourself. Honestly how much something costs doesn't matter. As you know I don't use apple products as any sort of rig and I don't defend them. It's just that this is the BH thread and I'm giving my unbiased opinion. I'm not hating on the C3 - it's been my portable DAP for quite some time even before on the previous C3 thread we managed to convince H20 to get one. I like The BH - I've used it on my pc for the past 2 weeks without a break 14 hours a day. I just don't find their synergy when put together anything special and the BH just can't show its true power. That's all.

Dark Helmet · Mar 27, 2013 at 9:09 PM

kova4a said:
LOL I just like to mess with your comments to work you up and make you start explaining yourself. Honestly how much something costs doesn't matter. As you know I don't use apple products as any sort of rig and I don't defend them. It's just that this is the BH thread and I'm giving my unbiased opinion. I'm not hating on the C3 - it's been my portable DAP for quite some time even before on the previous C3 thread we managed to convince H20 to get one. I like The BH - I've used it on my pc for the past 2 weeks without a break 14 hours a day. I just don't find their synergy when put together anything special and the BH just can't show its true power. That's all.

Kova do you have an amp that you found to have more synergy with the BH? I bought the Colorfly due to all of the positive reviews and found my rockboxed iPod video to be a pain in the butt. I will try the C3 and BH pairing and see how that goes for me first.

kova4a · Mar 27, 2013 at 9:55 PM

Quote:

dark helmet said:
Kova do you have an amp that you found to have more synergy with the BH? I bought the Colorfly due to all of the positive reviews and found my rockboxed iPod video to be a pain in the butt. I will try the C3 and BH pairing and see how that goes for me first.

Well, I like it a lot more with both the E11 and Fred_fred_2004’s 3 Channels Headphone Amp. The later is actually awesome sounding for a cMoy and is very musical but I don't know why ClieOS doesn't state battery life in his reviews as it lasted like 5 hours, which is totally unacceptable for me for portable use and I don't know if it was an issue with the battery of this unit or it's just like that but I got it for a friend, so it's not my problem. The BH is awesome for his battery life and the fact that it can be charged while used (not that it needs it with those 90 hours of life) but I'll have to go with the E11 it's also very small and is smoother and has a way better bass boost if you need it - one thing you won't ever see on my BH is turn the LF switch on. H20 was complaining about its clarity but out of a neurtal source with line-out the E11 is pretty neutral with a touch of warmth while the BH is more on the cold side with drier presentation that makes it push more detail but that doesn't make it neutral. The BH is the better amp on battery life, powering harder to drive headphones and pretty good bass control (without the LF switch on) at high volume levels but just isn't the best synergy-wise with the C3 and pretty much anything I tried when used from the headphone-out.

Dark Helmet · Mar 27, 2013 at 11:40 PM

Quote:

kova4a said:
Well, I like it a lot more with both the E11 and Fred_fred_2004’s 3 Channels Headphone Amp. The later is actually awesome sounding for a cMoy and is very musical but I don't know why ClieOS doesn't state battery life in his reviews as it lasted like 5 hours, which is totally unacceptable for me for portable use and I don't know if it was an issue with the battery of this unit or it's just like that but I got it for a friend, so it's not my problem. The BH is awesome for his battery life and the fact that it can be charged while used (not that it needs it with those 90 hours of life) but I'll have to go with the E11 it's also very small and is smoother and has a way better bass boost if you need it - one thing you won't ever see on my BH is turn the LF switch on. H20 was complaining about its clarity but out of a neurtal source with line-out the E11 is pretty neutral with a touch of warmth while the BH is more on the cold side with drier presentation that makes it push more detail but that doesn't make it neutral. The BH is the better amp on battery life, powering harder to drive headphones and pretty good bass control (without the LF switch on) at high volume levels but just isn't the best synergy-wise with the C3 and pretty much anything I tried when used from the headphone-out.

Food for thought. Thanks.

mpawluk91 · Mar 28, 2013 at 12:37 AM

marko93101 said:
Sorry for not being clearer, imackler hit the nail on the head.

mpawluk91, not sure if Metallica is your jam, but listened to The Black Album yesterday and sat in silence and awe for the duration. The Unforgiven blew me away. Also, if you like Thin Lizzy, the 25s are fantastic!

Yeah man I can do some Metallica for sure, also you definitely gotta listen to nirvana - MTV unplugged in New York

That whole album sounds downright amazing on the bh!!! With this particular album I definitely turn the sf switch on my friend

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