[1974]

I just wanted to leave my impressions regarding this amazing little headphone amp after recently dropping in on fellow head-fier and Brilliant Zen Audio owner Mike Mossey.

Mike has a partnership with K Works wizard Igor Kuznetsoff, who recently developed the pint sized powerhouse Bravissimo amp; a Bravo based design, though vastly improved.

For comparison, we put it up against two highly modified HiFiMan EF5 and Woo Audio 6SE amps; both of which have thousands of dollars worth of upgrades at the hands of Kuznetsoff. The headphones of choice were HE-500s.

First up, I picked a standard audiophile recording; Steely Dan's Aja. Straight off the bat I could tell the Bravissimo packed a serious punch. Nothing was lacking. Deep bass, crisp treble, and a lovely mid range that was a joy to listen to. I generally crank headphones up loud, and this proved to be a head bobbing / toe-tapping experience. The Bravissimo displayed a nice wide soundstage and plenty of PRAT. Just to mix it up, I asked Mike for something different, he delivered a compact disc of Bach organ pieces, and another of a trombone quartet! Lastly he gave me a superbly recorded Dave Grusin jazz album. As cliche as it sounds, you'd swear the musicians were playing in the same room with you when listening with this setup.

Summing up, the Bravissimo easily kept up with the modded WASE6 and EF5 every step of the way, even outshining them on the classical pieces. Plus it takes up way less desk real estate than either amp, which is a big thumbs up in my book. Another plus is how affordable this is, $800 with a full money back guarantee. Better still, it's only $700 at the upcoming Newport Beach audio show; a set price until the middle of June. Highly recommended!

http://brilliantzenaudio.com/headphone-amplifiers/k-works-bravissimo/

 

[bpeng]

Thanks for the review, Paul. For those curious, the price is much higher than a stock Bravo V2, but it reflects the labor and high-quality parts involved in the intricate reworking of this amp (nearly every component is replaced with a high-quality version), and fixing the quality problems in the stock Bravo (such as the wildly fluctuating plate voltages from amp to amp---buying a stock V2 is a crapshoot as far as what you are going to get). The parts in a stock Bravo are so cheap some of them won't last long, and are close to failure under the operating conditions.

 

[santacore]

I also had the chance to hear Mike's Bravisimmo recently. It's a small amp that you can easily hold in one hand, but has a mighty sound. I was impressed by it's dynamics and musicality. The noise floor seemed very low and it had plenty of power/drive for my Audeze LCD-3's. Although I didn't get too much listening time with it, I found it to be a fun little amp. Overall I agree with 1974's review, but at times I felt the amp was a little forward in the upper mid/low treble range for my taste.
 
If you're looking for a small desktop amp that can rock, check this guy out. I believe Mike will be at T.H.E. Show this coming week, so if you're there, check out Mike's booth for a listen.

 

[audiofrk]

DISCLAIMER: I AM QUITE NEW TO THE WORLD OF HIGH END AUDIO, THUS I AM NOT FAMILIAR WITH MANY HIGH END SET UPS. 
 
 
Recently I auditioned the 2014 Kworks line up, it currently consist of a dac/amp (nano max), amp (bravissimo), and an assortment of high quality cables (which were awesome).  So with the disclaimer in mind what did I think of the products honestly when I heard them I wasn’t all that impressed as I was hearing them.  The next day it dawned on me how GREAT the products truly are.
 
 
Bravissimo & nano max:
 Kworks is a one man company started by Igor Kuznetsoff with an emphasis in creating products that focuses on getting three principles right (1)ultra-low noise floor, (2)wide dynamic range, and great (3) extension.  The bravissimo is an aftermarket mod of the Bravo v2 amp.  The original goes for around $70 (at time of writing 8/5/14) on amazon.  The Bravissimo full retail price will be $800. WHHHHHAAAAAATTTTTT!!!!!! Yeah steep real steep.  Can a mod really make a $730 dollar difference? I don’t know never heard the original but the Bravissimo is definitely not snake oil. 
            
  So why wasn’t I impressed with as I was listening to them?  In the same meet that I auditioned the Kworks system I auditioned the lcd- 2, lcd-mk-2 , lcd-3, and hifiman he-500 all for the first time.  It wasn’t until the next day that I realized that I wasn’t impressed with the set up because I couldn’t find any short comings in the amp/dac combo and it didn’t feel worse than any other product I auditioned.  At the same meet there was a schitt Uber Bifrost feeding a Woo 6se, a PS audio digital link III feeding a little dot VI+, and a hugo.  I was hearing all of these great set ups for the first time.  So the next day I started to think about the event and I realized why I couldn’t pinpoint why I wasn’t wowed by  the kworks dac/amp combo to my ears (in the brief demo), the bravissimo + nano max combo was among peers.  Listening to the combo it didn’t feel inferior to the others they weren’t lacking bass, soundstage or anything else.  This combo that was the size of about 2 cigarette boxes high and 1 cigarette box long that originally cost about  $250 (prior to mods) left me with no want to switch to the much bigger, more power hungry, and more attractive looking competitors (seriously the woo 6se and the little dot VI+ are great looking hardware).
 

 

Specifically the Bravissimo;

    All the headphones I tried  (the lcd family and various he-500s) none sounded bad on the bravissimo.  I didn’t think much about it as I listened to them, this was another fact that hit me the next day. There I was listening to some of the hardest to drive headphones  from an amp that’s smaller than just about every cheeseburger in my top ten list cheeseburger list yet I had no qualms about the sound,  I compared the he-500s out of the Bravissimo vs the woo 6se and didn’t find that much difference (Disclaimer I listened to different songs on the different amps due to this being a meet and not a review, the Woo’s were helped by the fact that I was listening to music I liked better but by how much is unclear.)  Comparing the lcd -2 mk2 balanced out of the little dot VI to the single ended lcd-2 from the bravissimo listening to Atoms for Peace I didn’t notice any loss in bass or differences in the mids out of the bravissimo.  Overall I was very impressed with this amp and if you’re in the market for no compromise amp that leaves plenty of desk space you should check it out.  Brilliant Zen audio is the western dealer of Kworks products and regularly attend head–fi meet ups so getting a ears on should be easy.

 
 

 

[bpeng]

Thanks for the review. For those curious about the price of the Bravissimo, which is much higher than a stock Bravo V2, nearly every component is replaced with a high-quality version and there are a lot of techniques done on it that require skillful application by hand (such as the use of ERS [RFI-absorption] paper). The stock Bravo is inexpensive and it is a truly cheap amp, with wildly fluctuating plate voltages and components used close to their failure points.
 
You mentioned the full retail price of the Bravo ($800) but note that during the LA show tomorrow and for a limited time following the show the price will be only $590. This is good for anyone ordering an amp (you don't have to be at the show).
 
You mentioned the three factors -- low noise floor, dynamics, and extension. I need to clarify one thing. You are probably referring to this page here: http://brilliantzenaudio.com/more-information-2/white-papers/signature-sound/ The only thing I need to add is that all of these factors are in the service of, for lack of a better term, "musical involvement." That's actually the number one principle--everything else is about how to achieve that.
 
Also, you mentioned that the components are small. They aren't small for the sake of being small, or for being extra convenient. Igor's philosophy is to find simple circuits that have a lot of potential when they are executed right. It just so happens that such circuits are usually very small. However, you can get a lot of power from small amps.. the Bravissimo has several watts, thanks to the MOSFET output stage.
 
Mike

 

[johncarm]

I wasn't at the mini-meet on July 26, but I got the opportunity to hear all of Mike's K Works stuff the next day, and I was interested in the comparison between the Bravissimo and the Schiit Mjolnir which Mike had on hand. The headphone was the LCD-3, using a balanced cable with the Mjolnir and an adapter to single-ended connection with the Bravissimo. Just by being balanced the Mjolnir had an inherent advantage. But the Bravissimo really blew away the Mjolnir, especially in as Mike says "musical involvement." The Mjolnir was sterile by comparison and I don't think of it as a sterile amp. 
 
The Bravissimo just had a sense of drawing me into the music, like everything had "musical motion"--I think a large part of this was the dynamics, both micro- and macro.
 
Mike explained that the idea of balanced is kind of a mania right now, as though it were the most important factor, when in reality things like basic circuit design and component quality are far more important. 
 
The regular price of the Bravissimo is $800 but you can get it for much less than that, less than the Mjolnir too, right now. I don't know how long the special will last but see the website for details. http://brilliantzenaudio.com

 

[Gilly87]

The Bravissimo really was impressive. I've heard the LCD-2 sound worse out of amps double the price and literally 10 times the size. The bass and soundstage were seriously impressive for something so small.

 

[bpeng]

  The Bravissimo really was impressive. I've heard the LCD-2 sound worse out of amps double the price and literally 10 times the size. The bass and soundstage were seriously impressive for something so small.

Thanks. Bass and soundstage are often a function of the power supply, and the Bravissimo has several K Works techniques that enhance the power supply's ability to deliver quick transients and steady power. One of those is using carefully chosen bypass capacitors on the main power supply cap. Another one is using RFI-absorption ERS paper, which believe it or not improves bass quite a bit. And finally there are a few proprietary tricks.
 
People often think of bass as a function of the low frequencies or the ultimate power handling. However, there's another way to look at this. It's not really "the bass" alone we want to sound good, but it is "bass instruments" we want to sound good. And bass instruments have harmonic energy across the entire spectrum. So the ability to make a bass instrument sound good, including giving it slam, crisp leading edges, and good pitch delineation, is a function of accurately portraying the relationship among high harmonics (which in a bass fundamental frequency are very close together, requiring a lot of detail rendering).
 
Mike

 

[Gilly87]

Awesome. Glad someone knows what they're doing! It's far and away the best amp compared to anything even close to its size. That iFi was pretty amazing too...very good stuff man.