[mcnoiserdc]

Quote:

I did briefly listen to both with the HD600 (stock cable) and D4 DAC.  The MKIII I thought had a little more spacious and natural soundstage, had more bass and lower mids, and was a little warmer and maybe even more laid back overall.  The differences between the two were slight and not huge, and may be more impacted by tubes than anything else (the MKIII has stock power tubes and M8100 drivers, the bravo had a GE Great Britain (short tube mullard) 12AU7).  The bravo has way more power even with the MKIII at max gain, but the MKIII has absolutely no problem driving the HD600 way beyond what your ears (and probably the drivers) can take too.
 
Probably the most noticeable difference to spot was the bass, which had more quantity on the MKIII, but they really are pretty close sounding overall.  I don't know how good you are with listening critically or whatever, but at first listen, they do sound pretty similar (not a night/day in your face difference in my opinion).  I had to A/B a bit to really start to notice the differences.  Maybe I don't have golden ears, or maybe I suck at listening critically, or maybe they really are just that close?  I'm not sure.
 
Really, I thought both sounded very good.  I might imagine that some people would prefer the bravo and some would prefer the MKIII - that is, they both sound very good to my ears, but I'm not sure one or the other is "better", just different.  My preference was the MKIII, but not by a alot.  I think this says more about the bravo than the MKIII anyway.  If you already own the bravo, I think it's a tough decision whether or not to get the MKIII.  The MKIII definitely looks much better / cleaner / more professional, and is better put together, and IMO does sound a little better too.  But the bravo has insane power output, is kind of cool to look at as well, is very cheap, and sounds surprisingly good in my opinion.
 
I don't know if that helps, but there ya go

 
I kind of wanted to given another listening session before saying much because I didn't listen very long to make those conclusions.  I'll try to listen again this weekend and I'll let you know if any of my opinions change.

Thank you. yes I believe that the difference is where you say as my bass is low too, every headphone I have (cheap ones) has more bass than my hd600.
Everyone talks about soundstage but on mine it seems small

 

[Avro_Arrow]

I'll be very interested to hear your opinion after you do the mods. The Bias cap mod alone will tighten up your bass and improve your sound stage...maybe even more
than a tube swap.
By the way, thanks for the feedback about the channel imbalance...I kind of suspected it was from the low quality tube, I'll be looking to upgrade it next.
I have some 100 ohm gate resistor to swap in, they are supposed to improve the high end with IRF510. The IRF630 sounds better with higher gate resistor
so I wound not bother to swap them if you stay with the original MOSFETs.
 
Quote:

I did briefly listen to both with the HD600 (stock cable) and D4 DAC.  The MKIII I thought had a little more spacious and natural soundstage, had more bass and lower mids, and was a little warmer and maybe even more laid back overall.  The differences between the two were slight and not huge, and may be more impacted by tubes than anything else (the MKIII has stock power tubes and M8100 drivers, the bravo had a GE Great Britain (short tube mullard) 12AU7).  The bravo has way more power even with the MKIII at max gain, but the MKIII has absolutely no problem driving the HD600 way beyond what your ears (and probably the drivers) can take too.
 
Probably the most noticeable difference to spot was the bass, which had more quantity on the MKIII, but they really are pretty close sounding overall.  I don't know how good you are with listening critically or whatever, but at first listen, they do sound pretty similar (not a night/day in-your-face difference in my opinion).  I had to A/B a bit to really start to notice the differences.  Maybe I don't have golden ears, or maybe I suck at listening critically, or maybe they really are just that close?  I'm not sure.
 
Really, I thought both sounded very good.  I might imagine that some people would prefer the bravo and some would prefer the MKIII - that is, they both sound very good to my ears, but I'm not sure one or the other is "better", just different.  My preference was the MKIII, but not by a alot.  I think this says more about the bravo than the MKIII anyway.  If you already own the bravo, I think it's a tough decision whether or not to get the MKIII.  The MKIII definitely looks much better / cleaner / more professional, and is better put together, and IMO does sound a little better too.  But the bravo has insane power output, is kind of cool to look at as well, is very cheap, and sounds surprisingly good in my opinion.
 
I don't know if that helps, but there ya go

 
I kind of wanted to given another listening session before saying much because I didn't listen very long to make those conclusions.  I'll try to listen again this weekend and I'll let you know if any of my opinions change.

 

[pj_rage]

Quote:

Thank you. yes I believe that the difference is where you say as my bass is low too, every headphone I have (cheap ones) has more bass than my hd600.
Everyone talks about soundstage but on mine it seems small

A lot of cheap headphones have a lot of bass but it sounds terrible.  I wouldn't expect a significant improvement in the sheer amount of bass with the MKIII, but for me it was fuller with a little more impact.  It won't be nearly as dramatic as switching to bassy headphones.  With regard to soundstage, I never found the HD600 to have a particularly large sound stage in the first place.  The MKIII, to my ears, did open it up a bit, but it's still not as big as something like the AKG 701/702.


 
Quote:

I'll be very interested to hear your opinion after you do the mods. The Bias cap mod alone will tighten up your bass and improve your sound stage...maybe even more
than a tube swap.
By the way, thanks for the feedback about the channel imbalance...I kind of suspected it was from the low quality tube, I'll be looking to upgrade it next.
I have some 100 ohm gate resistor to swap in, they are supposed to improve the high end with IRF510. The IRF630 sounds better with higher gate resistor
so I wound not bother to swap them if you stay with the original MOSFETs.
 

 

Yeah I'll definitely let you know after I upgrade the parts.  I basically went over to mouser and ordered everything you listed (except changed the part number on the mosfet to be the through hole part, not the surface mount part, and changed one of the WIMA caps to the 10% tolerance instead of 5% as the 5% were out of stock until mid june).  I did order the IRF510 mosfets.  I don't think I ordered lower resistance gate resistors, but I do have 100 ohm resistors here, so I'll consider swapping them as well.  Let me know what you think when you swap them, if it's worth it or not with the IRF510s.

 

[mastercon12]

These probably wouldn't run the dt 990/600 very well, right?

 

[pj_rage]

Quote:

These probably wouldn't run the dt 990/600 very well, right?

I don't have those headphones, but I think this amp does a fine job with the DT880/600s and actually sounds pretty darn good.  Especially for the price.  If you're worried about power, don't be.  You'll blow your ear drums or the drivers before it runs out of power, even on the 600 ohm beyers.

 

[schawo]

It drives the K240/600s very good. I cann't turn the knob over 50%.

 

[yilmazcan]

Hi, everybody. I am new here and headphone amplifier world

I just received my bravo. I need your opinion about:

• [size=10pt]As you know there are 2 triodes in the amp. Both burning a light but one is brighter than the other.[/size]
• [size=10pt]While playing,(In case using RCA input) when you unplug one channel  I hear a[/size] creaking sound in the free channel instead of a silence.

are these problems or normal.
 
Thank you for any response...

 

[HiGHFLYiN9]

I'm looking forward to getting my hands on one of these, they sound like a blast to tweak

 

[levlhed]

I ended up winning a V2 - 12AU7 for all of $31 delivered.  Still weeks away from receiving it of course.  Will be driving DT990/600.
I've gone through this thread and taken note of all the mods and experiences.  Cool stuff.

 

[Judge Buff]

I've got the mother lode of Indeed/Bravo info, pm me for details... Easy bias info, etc. I'm only 1/3 through one thread, but these guys are into these little amps as heavy as we are apparently. This may not be a revelation to most of you, but it was to me as I haven't been there in a long time. I haven't gotten far enough to know if they are modding heavily as the early pics look to be stock.
 
I'd post the url, but I didn't know if hf would get po'd and ban me. Lecky's countrymen seem to be the most involved in the forum...
 
 
^ @levlhed So it was you who got it for $31! Yeah, I'm looking at bidding trends for all of these amps...

 

[levlhed]

Yes!  Just the other night after I stumbled upon this thread:

Winning bid:	US $14.51
Shipping:	$16.00

 
Kinda silly cheap, you know?  I will PM for a link.
 
Do you think a wiki for Bravo/Indeed mods would be useful?  Would anyone use it?

 

[Avro_Arrow]

There gets to be a point where if you mod the amp any further you might as well just design a new amp...Hummmm

 

[levlhed]

Yes, I can see that.  I don't intend to mod really, but it's always nice to learn what is possible.....just in case.  (I don't own a proper soldering iron yet!)
I think I'll be OK with rolling a NOS tube in and probably getting a linear regulated power supply for starters.
 
I do have a Phenix G3-T7 on the way as well.

 

[LiqTenExp]

i just won one of these for $15.51 hah.
 
Is there a post in this thread that covers the replacement tube options with this amp?  I have been reading through it and haven't seen a post that kind of compiles the tube options out there.  There are just individuals with individual results.  I was wondering if there is a general consensus as to what are the top few tube choices everyone has agreed upon as far as a replacement tube.

 

[azncookiecutter]

Scored a pair of tubes (Mullard and Bugle Boy) for around $25 shipped off eBay, should be fun to see the differences between it and the stock China-made tube.