[jamonbread]

Is easy to change battery and if yes are any better as an upgrade with bigger capacity available ?

Its easy to replace if you can find the right battery, the one inside the B4 has a plug connection. I found one on AliExpress that's 1000mAh 12v, it also has 12.6v on the label. It looks the same, but lacks the mini plug with just bare ended live and neutral wires coming from the battery. Its £27 for 2 with free global shipping, works out about £14 per battery. The label looks identical to the one my stock B4 battery
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100...1b6c-4d67-854d-b3de2e033414&priceBeautifyAB=0

Edit: The one I linked is the same 1000mAh capacity as the stock battery, getting a higher capacity could be tricky as the included battery is a fairly tight fit as it is, anything with a higher capacity would probably mean a larger overall size.

 

[Yobster69]

I thought the red light means its charging and green means its done, at least it works like that for me? When removing the amp form the charger, the LED on the charger plug turns from red to green, It's always green when nothing is attached to it and turns green when the amp is fully charged. My included charger came with a barrel adaptor off the seller.

You are absolutely correct of course, apologies, I’m at work so cannot actully try it and I got my red and greens messed up. I have edited my original post to reflect this.
Thank you

 

[rafaelo]

Its easy to replace if you can find the right battery, the one inside the B4 has a plug connection. I found one on AliExpress that's 1000mAh 12v, it also has 12.6v on the label. It looks the same, but lacks the mini plug with just bare ended live and neutral wires coming from the battery. Its £27 for 2 with free global shipping, works out about £14 per battery. The label looks identical to the one my stock B4 battery
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100...1b6c-4d67-854d-b3de2e033414&priceBeautifyAB=0

Edit: The one I linked is the same 1000mAh capacity as the stock battery, getting a higher capacity could be tricky as the included battery is a fairly tight fit as it is, anything with a higher capacity would probably mean a larger overall size.

That is great information in any case but this is almost half price of a new unit and some extra hassle. I believe that it did not manage to charge propwely yet otherwise is better to return or refund at the moment.

 

[rafaelo]

The trick seems to be that is should not be fully inserted. And not moved afterwards. Let's see if it is red for a couple of hours means that it might work at the end.

 

[jamonbread]

That is great information in any case but this is almost half price of a new unit and some extra hassle. I believe that it did not manage to charge propwely yet otherwise is better to return or refund at the moment.

You could ask the seller on Ali if he can sell you one battery for £14 as the listing is for two, but I'd contact the seller you purchased the amp off first, he might even be willing to send you a replacement battery without the hassle and cost of posting the amp back to China. Did you buy your B4 amp off AliExpress, or ebay?

I brought mine off an ebay seller called doukmall, and customer service was great, he sent me two replacement volume pots for free.

 

[rafaelo]

You could ask the seller on Ali if he can sell you one battery for £14 as the listing is for two, but I'd contact the seller you purchased the amp off first, he might even be willing to send you a replacement battery without the hassle and cost of posting the amp back to China. Did you buy your B4 amp off AliExpress, or ebay?

I brought mine off an ebay seller called doukmall, and customer service was great, he sent me two replacement volume pots for free.

4,5 plus hours of playing today (but in lower volumes, around 10 o clock) so the battery is probably fine. It helps when you charge the battery otherwise...suprise suprise ...does not play...

But charging is difficult I need to play with the barrel adaptor when I have time. I will upgrade the opamp when I feel more confident about the devise.

I bought mine from Amazon. Instead of battery replacement/upgrade I prefer to order a b5 one. My understanding is that B5 the battery keeps a lot longer, is slimmer design, less powerful and the opamp is not upgradable. Is that right?

Does anyone know how sound quality wise they are comparing?

 

[Yobster69]

4,5 plus hours of playing today (but in lower volumes, around 10 o clock) so the battery is probably fine. It helps when you charge the battery otherwise...suprise suprise ...does not play...

But charging is difficult I need to play with the barrel adaptor when I have time. I will upgrade the opamp when I feel more confident about the devise.

I bought mine from Amazon. Instead of battery replacement/upgrade I prefer to order a b5 one. My understanding is that B5 the battery keeps a lot longer, is slimmer design, less powerful and the opamp is not upgradable. Is that right?

Does anyone know how sound quality wise they are comparing?

I considered it as well, but reports I have read are not good. Lots of hiss among other issues.
Do your research though, there are comments in this thread about the B5 and decide for yourself. I’m not trying to put you off, but personally I would swerve it.

 

[Sylaw]

hi.. i recently purchased a Sennheiser HD700. and i found it to be quite treble peaky. I was thinking of using a Little bear B4 and a fiio A3 together. is it a dumb idea? as in i will use my lg v10 as my dac and will feed that straight into the tube amp and that signal will route to the fiio a3 ( to clean up any distortion & make it a bit accurate - like a hybrid setup) and then plug the hd700s into the fiio a3. Are there any issues if i use these two amps parallely?

 

[frogmeat69]

hi.. i recently purchased a Sennheiser HD700. and i found it to be quite treble peaky. I was thinking of using a Little bear B4 and a fiio A3 together. is it a dumb idea? as in i will use my lg v10 as my dac and will feed that straight into the tube amp and that signal will route to the fiio a3 ( to clean up any distortion & make it a bit accurate - like a hybrid setup) and then plug the hd700s into the fiio a3. Are there any issues if i use these two amps parallely?

The Little Bear is a hybrid tube amp.

 

[Wiljen]

You might also check out the ModHouse mod for the HD700 - fully reversible and it smooths them out a bit. I have the mod on mine and think it helps.

 

[Sylaw]

The Little Bear is a hybrid tube amp.

You might also check out the ModHouse mod for the HD700 - fully reversible and it smooths them out a bit. I have the mod on mine and think it helps.

So you guys think running the fiio A3 and Little bear B4 together wont benefit the sound by any means?

 

[rafaelo]

So you guys think running the fiio A3 and Little bear B4 together wont benefit the sound by any means?

My little bear smooths the treble from my Meze 12 classics. But so does the xDSD.

It seems to me an overkill two amps on the row, the little bear amp seems more than enough .if you want more smoothness work and improve the DAC part. Ifi products sound so good not only because of the DAC but because of the asyncronous clock (or in Bluetooth mode the master clock at the end tries somehow to clean the signal and make the same effect).

Again the Meze classics 12 sounded sweet with only the xDSD, actually even warmer like a tube amp. Or you can use them together like shown in the photo. xDSD working in line out mode so DAC + preamp but you are focusing on the DAC part here.

However, I cannot offer you conclusions only suggestions because my little bear is not burned in properly yet and I did not change the opamp yet so I do not know the full potential yet.

So you have a couple of different ways to attack this problem. My HE4XX supposed to be bright but in my systems does not sound bright in a negative sence. Just sweet and lively.

Next step for me is to use the Radsone es100 with little bear. I am also looking forward to your valuable comments guys with the different opamps configurations. Any feedback will be appreciated.

 

[frogmeat69]

So you guys think running the fiio A3 and Little bear B4 together wont benefit the sound by any means?

You are just double amping, not sure how that would help, probably create more issues soundwise. Have you tried just the B4 with your phone and new HD700's yet? How was it to you?

 

[Wiljen]

So you guys think running the fiio A3 and Little bear B4 together wont benefit the sound by any means?

No, I don't think using both will help and there is a fundamental misunderstanding in your earlier statement. Putting another amp in the chain is not going to clean up or remove distortion, it simply is not possible. Once distortion is introduced into the signal, it would require a DSP to remove it again (while likely adding some other form of artifact). You would be better off using a different amplifier rather than 2 in a chain as using two devices just introduces the faults of both rather than removing the faults of either.

 

[Sylaw]

No, I don't think using both will help and there is a fundamental misunderstanding in your earlier statement. Putting another amp in the chain is not going to clean up or remove distortion, it simply is not possible. Once distortion is introduced into the signal, it would require a DSP to remove it again (while likely adding some other form of artifact). You would be better off using a different amplifier rather than 2 in a chain as using two devices just introduces the faults of both rather than removing the faults of either.

Understood....! thank you sir