[R Giskard]

Quote:

motorized or unmotorized pots are noisey and cause sound quality issues and wear out ... i really dislike them. this wouldnt be a great way to add a remote function for volume.
digitally controlled (by rotary  encoder) relay-controlled resistor-based attenuators can be made to offer 0.5db steps easily with a small number of relays, and these systems adapt well to remotes.
im integrating one into a balanced preamp im building for myself from one of passlabs designs.
 
im not even sure it would cost much more than a top quality motor-pot. the required components are cheap, but i realise they are labour intensive to design and build - which escalates price rapidly.. it would make sense if the bha was actually designed to have preamp functionality, but the pre-outs are in no mans land.. where it seems they have limited use.
 
the bha "preamp feature" is somewhat misleading ive found....
the gain of the amp is too high for preamp use and theres no switch to ground/mute the pre-outs in headphone use, or vice-versa. it needs a lower gain setting (like around 5 to 10 db gain) for preamp use and for use with sensitive headphones.
the volume knob is operated at the lowest end where theres a lot of channel imbalance and volume attenuation is overly sharp.
the bha volume control is ...not good
 
i was looking forward to using my bha as a preamp too until i received mine and realized this pre-out feature wasnt ideal/well thought out... a few small design mods would make it functional, but for some reason bryston doesnt seem interested in doing so today.. so i started building my own preamp... which ive discovered isnt half as difficult (provided a good design is available( as id previously thought.

 
Relay volume controls are great if executed properly but unfortunately, most of them aren't. The resistors have to be matched within very close tolerance of resistance and they must be good quality otherwise every benefit of such a system would be nullified quickly. 
 
I have found these systems to be unreliable sometimes, especially if they are placed near sources of direct heat dissipation. So they won't work that well in tube amplifiers for example. I doubt Bryston will ever implement this because they've worked with taper atternuators for years and they do get it right amd it lasts. 

 

[FormosaWest]

Cheers Murray!
good  find.  something like this might be necessary.
if bryston produces a second gen bha i'll e first in line.
it sounds so goood.

 

[mbllbm]

Is the BHA-1 considered a good choice for use with the DENON AH-D7100?

 

[MacedonianHero]

Quote:

Is the BHA-1 considered a good choice for use with the DENON AH-D7100?

Bright amp + VERY bright headphones doesn't equal a great combo IMO.

 

[Maxvla]

I don't truly consider the BHA-1 a bright amp, it is just aggressive and thus carries a lot of energy with its sound.

 

[James Tanner]

The only thing 'bright' about the BHA headphone amp are the people who purchase it!  

 
james

 

[s4s4s4]

Quote:

The only thing 'bright' about the BHA headphone amp are the people who purchase it!  

 
james

 
yes indeed, very true.

 

[preproman]

Quote:

The only thing 'bright' about the BHA headphone amp are the people who purchase it!  

 
james

 
 
 
Touché

 

[mbllbm]

Which of beyerdynamic version will be the best of the Bryston dt770/dt880/dt990?

 

[MacedonianHero]

Quote:

I don't truly consider the BHA-1 a bright amp, it is just aggressive and thus carries a lot of energy with its sound.

 
Quote:

The only thing 'bright' about the BHA headphone amp are the people who purchase it!  

 
james

Sorry, to my ears...the amp is on the bright side. 

 
I would put the V200 on the darker side and the GS-X bang on neutral. 

 

[preproman]

Quote:

 
Sorry, to my ears...the amp is on the bright side. 

 
I would put the V200 on the darker side and the GS-X bang on neutral. 

 
Peter,
 
What you think about the Mojo - bright side as well?  

 

[dleblanc343]

Well the mjolnir is just as bright, if not brigther than the BHA-1 after having owned both side by side.

 

[MacedonianHero]

Quote:

 
Peter,
 
What you think about the Mojo - bright side as well?  

 
Quote:

Well the mjolnir is just as bright, if not brigther than the BHA-1 after having owned both side by side.

I would say they are about the same in that regard.

 

[preproman]

Yeah - I was going to say they are just about stand ends for each other.  Using the balanced outputs of the BHA-1 that is..

 

[preproman]

Quote:

Well the mjolnir is just as bright, if not brigther than the BHA-1 after having owned both side by side.

 
 
Looks like you kept the Mojo over the BHA-1 - why?