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Head-Fier
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2004
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Hi Twisteve, have you tried the following?
1) Connect USB input of BitHead to USB port on your PC – make sure BitHead is recognized by your PC
2) Connect Audio Line Input of BitHead to Line Out jack of your PC sound card
3) Connect HD555 to any Headphone Jack of BitHead (use 1/4”-to-1/8” adapter as needed)
4) BitHead’s Power Selector Switch should be OFF
5) Play some music on your PC – do you get sound through the headphones?
6) Then try playing a PC game utilizing EAX – do you get EAX effects?
USB connection usually does 2 things: provides power and diverts digital audio data from PC sound card to the BitHead. However, if you plug into the BitHead’s Line Input Jack, audio data will be cut off from the USB connection. As a result, the BitHead stops being an external sound card + amplifier, and becomes just an amplifier drawing power from your PC via USB connection.
Now, if it’s the Line Out of your PC sound card that’s connected to the Audio Line Input of your BitHead, you get the EAX processing of your PC sound card + the superior amplification of the BitHead. Plugged in this way, the BitHead works just like an AirHead. You’ll probably get pretty good music reproduction this way as well.
But for more critical music listening, you can switch from your PC sound card to the BitHead sound card section by unplugging from the BitHead’s Audio Line Input – the USB connection into the BitHead will now supply audio data as well as power to the BitHead. Sending PC audio data to the BitHead has a few advantages:
- BitHead sound card section is probably better than your internal PC sound card – better sound processing
- audio data is processed away from the electrically noisy interior of your PC box – cleaner signal
- BitHead has its’ own onboard power regulators – isolates audio signal from PC power noise
The BitHead is an all-in-one package that gives you a range of choices:
1) Gaming – provides cleaner and more powerful amplification (for nice headphones) than straight out of your internal PC sound card could, which preserves EAX effects while adding better amplification
2) Music Listening – the same better amplification as above, with the option of probably better sound processing via the sound card part of the BitHead. And you have the option of switching back and forth if you find that certain music sounds better through one or the other.
3) Portable Players – provides cleaner and more powerful amplification than a portable player’s built-in amplifier
4) Notebook PC’s – provides the same Gaming and Music Listening advantages as above
5) Crossfeed (“Audio Image Processor” - works with all of the above configurations) – a subtle altering of soundspace and tone to approximate the experience of listening to loudspeakers in a room. PC music playback software can sometimes do crossfeed processing, but I don’t think any portable players do. Usage of crossfeed processing is a matter of personal taste – you can turn this on or off via the Processor Switch.
6) Additional Headphone Jack – you can share music with a friend, compare 2 headphones side-by-side, or even connect a little PC speaker system, using the 2nd jack
AirHead vs. BitHead comes down to:
- do you want the option of bypassing your PC sound card for sound processing? if yes, get BitHead
- on the other hand, if you think your PC sound card sounds good enough, get AirHead and save $50
Or, you could go all-out with separate components (guesstimated prices):
- one really great sound card for gaming ($100)
- one really great sound card for music reproduction ($200)
- A/C-powered desktop headphone amplifier/solid state ($1000)
- battery-powered portable amplifier ($400)
- nice headphones for gaming ($200)
- really nice headphones for music listening ($500)
- different-sounding really nice headphones for music listening ($500)
That would be $2900 total – your BitHead + HD555 package is less than 1/10th of that, and the AirHead package even less. The HD555 is a pretty decent headphone, and a good entry point into the world of nice headphones - you should be able to get a good one from HeadRoom returns.
[forum-posting music: Beethoven - Symph 7 & 8]
[edit: proofread]
1) Connect USB input of BitHead to USB port on your PC – make sure BitHead is recognized by your PC
2) Connect Audio Line Input of BitHead to Line Out jack of your PC sound card
3) Connect HD555 to any Headphone Jack of BitHead (use 1/4”-to-1/8” adapter as needed)
4) BitHead’s Power Selector Switch should be OFF
5) Play some music on your PC – do you get sound through the headphones?
6) Then try playing a PC game utilizing EAX – do you get EAX effects?
USB connection usually does 2 things: provides power and diverts digital audio data from PC sound card to the BitHead. However, if you plug into the BitHead’s Line Input Jack, audio data will be cut off from the USB connection. As a result, the BitHead stops being an external sound card + amplifier, and becomes just an amplifier drawing power from your PC via USB connection.
Now, if it’s the Line Out of your PC sound card that’s connected to the Audio Line Input of your BitHead, you get the EAX processing of your PC sound card + the superior amplification of the BitHead. Plugged in this way, the BitHead works just like an AirHead. You’ll probably get pretty good music reproduction this way as well.
But for more critical music listening, you can switch from your PC sound card to the BitHead sound card section by unplugging from the BitHead’s Audio Line Input – the USB connection into the BitHead will now supply audio data as well as power to the BitHead. Sending PC audio data to the BitHead has a few advantages:
- BitHead sound card section is probably better than your internal PC sound card – better sound processing
- audio data is processed away from the electrically noisy interior of your PC box – cleaner signal
- BitHead has its’ own onboard power regulators – isolates audio signal from PC power noise
The BitHead is an all-in-one package that gives you a range of choices:
1) Gaming – provides cleaner and more powerful amplification (for nice headphones) than straight out of your internal PC sound card could, which preserves EAX effects while adding better amplification
2) Music Listening – the same better amplification as above, with the option of probably better sound processing via the sound card part of the BitHead. And you have the option of switching back and forth if you find that certain music sounds better through one or the other.
3) Portable Players – provides cleaner and more powerful amplification than a portable player’s built-in amplifier
4) Notebook PC’s – provides the same Gaming and Music Listening advantages as above
5) Crossfeed (“Audio Image Processor” - works with all of the above configurations) – a subtle altering of soundspace and tone to approximate the experience of listening to loudspeakers in a room. PC music playback software can sometimes do crossfeed processing, but I don’t think any portable players do. Usage of crossfeed processing is a matter of personal taste – you can turn this on or off via the Processor Switch.
6) Additional Headphone Jack – you can share music with a friend, compare 2 headphones side-by-side, or even connect a little PC speaker system, using the 2nd jack
AirHead vs. BitHead comes down to:
- do you want the option of bypassing your PC sound card for sound processing? if yes, get BitHead
- on the other hand, if you think your PC sound card sounds good enough, get AirHead and save $50
Or, you could go all-out with separate components (guesstimated prices):
- one really great sound card for gaming ($100)
- one really great sound card for music reproduction ($200)
- A/C-powered desktop headphone amplifier/solid state ($1000)
- battery-powered portable amplifier ($400)
- nice headphones for gaming ($200)
- really nice headphones for music listening ($500)
- different-sounding really nice headphones for music listening ($500)
That would be $2900 total – your BitHead + HD555 package is less than 1/10th of that, and the AirHead package even less. The HD555 is a pretty decent headphone, and a good entry point into the world of nice headphones - you should be able to get a good one from HeadRoom returns.
[forum-posting music: Beethoven - Symph 7 & 8]
[edit: proofread]