[Brian Kinney]

I recently purchased a Bithead and when running it from my MacBook I'm having a hard time noticing a increase in sound quality through my HD 595's as opposed to running them straight out of the headphone jack. I also tried them through my head phone out on my ipod with the Ety's and again can't notice a difference in sound with the amplifier as opposed to without it. I do have a line out dock coming soon so maybe that will make a difference. I'm wondering if maybe I should try a Ray Samuels SR 71 instead possibly? I also have a set of AKG K701's coming soon as well, I will have to try it with them as well. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've been testing it with lossless files as well.

 

[warpdriver]

One salesguy I liked at a high end audio store once said to me regarding the high end audio cables: "If you don't hear a difference, then there is no difference".

One thing to note about headphone amps is that they usually provide subtle differences that may or may not be obvious to everybody. Some people can pick out the subtleties more readily than others, but in general, buying an amp produces an marginal, say 5%, improvement over what's already there if the original amp already meets most of the basic electrical requirements to drive the headphones to adequate volume. As one gets more experienced with listening, differences in equipment can have a more profound effect.

Having heard the SR-71, I'm not sure that it's going to provide a huge improvement over the Bithead. I think the Bithead is quite a nice sweet spot in budget amps, and spending more is only going to buy you a incremental improvement that still may not be obvious. It may be throwing good money at a problem that doesn't exist.

So if you really don't find the differences staggering enough or even audible at all, return that Bithead to Headroom. But I suggest you do give it some time and listen carefully to some good recordings. Listen for more subtle differences like the detail, instrument placement, the naturalness of the way instruments sound. If you still don't hear a difference, then there is no difference.

 

[Zeratul]

You aren't alone. It's nice to see someone who's honest about what they hear instead of claiming miracles to justify their purchaces. My amp isn't quite as expensive as yours, but I find it hard to distinguish the difference as well. I even built a little DIY hub that I can plug an amped and unamped source into and switch between them instantly. After using it, I notice that the sound is slightly brighter with the amp, but I suspect that it's simply colouration, nothing that a little treble EQ can't replicate. The funny thing is that this difference is very subtle, and only easily recognizable after a good 15 minutes of listening. How ANYONE can claim a world of difference with a budget amp is beyond me. I guess that when you're using sub-$200 components the gains aren't very noticable.

 

[cclragnarok]

You are using the Bithead DAC with your computer right? With a computer headphone out, I think the source upgrade may be more important than the amp.

Let it burn in for a while before you decide to keep it or not. Psycological or not, it can't hurt to burn them in. I liked the 2006 Total Bithead with the HD595, but that was after burn in.

Actually, is your Bithead the new 2006 Total Bithead?

Either way, you might want to get something better if you have the K701 coming.

 

[Sammich]

Does the macbook have a pretty good soundcard? I've been considering the Bithead for my hd595s too, but I have a crappy onboard soundcard at work so I thought it might be worth it. If the macbook has a bad soundcard too, I might want to question that purchase.

 

[iluvcans]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Kinney I recently purchased a Bithead and when running it from my MacBook I'm having a hard time noticing a increase in sound quality through my HD 595's as opposed to running them straight out of the headphone jack. I also tried them through my head phone out on my ipod with the Ety's and again can't notice a difference in sound with the amplifier as opposed to without it. I do have a line out dock coming soon so maybe that will make a difference. I'm wondering if maybe I should try a Ray Samuels SR 71 instead possibly? I also have a set of AKG K701's coming soon as well, I will have to try it with them as well. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've been testing it with lossless files as well.

you should go with your gut feeling here. personally, i have the er4p and airhead (2006 version)-- but i also have an "s" attachment-- that converts them to the er4s and this combo sounds a lot more refined than the er4p. i use this setup as my primary rig, although i have owned gear that costs 20 times as much in the past. also-- if you listen for long periods of time-- the hroom amp with be considerably less fatiguing than any cheap headphone output-- of any source.. for me-- it's worth the price of the amp-- as i listen for several hours a week.

 

[Brian Kinney]

Well part of the reason I chose the Total Bithead was because of the DAC built in which replaces your sound card. I really have no idea what the sound card in the MacBook is like, I doubt it's great though.

Yes I just ordered it so it is the 2006 edition.

You're thinking I might need a better amp for the K701's? Any suggestions?

I'll have to really do a close comparison tonight and see if I can come up with anything.

 

[warpdriver]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brian Kinney You're thinking I might need a better amp for the K701's? Any suggestions?

Honestly, I think the Bithead is good enough that you should be able to hear a difference between the soundcard and the Macbook. Use lossless files, and very well recorded music.

 

[sxr71]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zeratul You aren't alone. It's nice to see someone who's honest about what they hear instead of claiming miracles to justify their purchaces. My amp isn't quite as expensive as yours, but I find it hard to distinguish the difference as well. I even built a little DIY hub that I can plug an amped and unamped source into and switch between them instantly. After using it, I notice that the sound is slightly brighter with the amp, but I suspect that it's simply colouration, nothing that a little treble EQ can't replicate. The funny thing is that this difference is very subtle, and only easily recognizable after a good 15 minutes of listening. How ANYONE can claim a world of difference with a budget amp is beyond me. I guess that when you're using sub-$200 components the gains aren't very noticable.

Some of the sub-$200 amps are very good, the Xin Supermini comes to mind immediately.


Also, I know this has been said here before, it is very hard to determine differences in amps by doing an instant switch because you start to listen for differences using what I feel is a part of your brain that isn't sensitive to the subtleties of music that really make it sound real and engage you in a emotional way.


You need to listen to an entire song with one amp and then with the other and then you will hear the differences.

 

[Brian Kinney]

I see, I'll try listening to well recorded lossless tracks tonight and see how this goes. So an upgrading to a SR 71 won't make much of a noticable difference then?