Total Bithead 2006
Mar 20, 2006 at 8:10 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 28
Bones13

Bones13

Headphoneus Supremus
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Well, not sure what is going to happen with the HF-1 frenzy, the site is still down and out.

On the other hand, I just recieved the new Total BitHead from Headroom. I had ordered awhile back, when the old line had a 2-4 week wait. For a change, I was in luck and the new unit was shipped to me. Not only did I get the new model, it was cheaper than the old model. Thank you Tyll
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There is the new "gain" switch under the battery cover. This should be great as I do plan to listen to both my IEMs with an iPod while traveling, and the 580s via a laptop for vacations.

No time, nor AA batteries here at the office. Will post impressions in a day or so.
 
Mar 20, 2006 at 9:03 PM Post #2 of 28
Congratulations. I was just reading Old Pa's review of the preproduction Bithead and it sounds like Headroom has made some very nice revisions to the amp.

Looking forward to your impressions.
 
Mar 21, 2006 at 3:45 PM Post #4 of 28
Quote:

Originally Posted by Bones13
On the other hand, I just recieved the new Total BitHead from Headroom. I had ordered awhile back, when the old line had a 2-4 week wait. For a change, I was in luck and the new unit was shipped to me. Not only did I get the new model, it was cheaper than the old model. Thank you Tyll
580smile.gif



Lucky...
eek.gif


Congrats on the new toy. I'm looking to get one of these too so I'll be waiting for your review.
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Mar 21, 2006 at 4:24 PM Post #5 of 28
Found some batteries and spent some time with it last night/this morning.

1) Drives the Shure E4c just fine on low gain
2) Drives the Senn 650 remarkably well on high gain, it could go higher than I am comfortable listening to.

Of course it was a bit less clear than the raptor and desktop setup, but I am quite happy with the sound. I found the sound from the iPod to be a lot better balanced once I turned off the bass booster EQ setting ). Using battery, out of the headphone jack of the iPod, I found a clear improvement over the iPod itself. Improvements that have been discussed before - better bass, and better balance of the sound low to high. I am pleased enough that if I got nothing else out of this amp I would be more than satisfied. I did try out the crossfeed, and it is still not as noticeable (or good) as the one on my desktop unit.

USB trial. I tried the USB hookup to my Sony Viao Laptop, as that is the unit I would be using it with. Currently I am playing with Foobar2000 vr. 0.9. There is no ASIO yet for 0.9, and I can not even find KS on it yet. So I was playing it thru the Generic USB sound pathway.

1) I feel that, at least with the power from the laptop, that the sound is better when running off battery. Perhaps a better energized USB hub will work better, and I plan to try that. I have my music on a USB hard disk, and with the BitHead hooked up, both the USB ports are full, and are powering both units. I want to be able to put a mouse on there, so I am one port short.
2) The unit just sounded "dimmer" than on battery, although I could get the volume up to unpleasant levels, both the the IEM and the 650.

Now I hope rig some sort of bitperfect output - either find KS for 0.9, or fall back on 0.83 with ASIO4all. As well, I want to try it on a better powered USB jack.

I also hope to try one of the line out sources for the iPod, to see if I can tell a difference.

All said and done, this is a great unit, well thought out, and it sounds great. That it can run an IEM or the Senn 650 just as well is a job well done.
 
Mar 21, 2006 at 4:33 PM Post #6 of 28
Thanks for the review.

Is there any hiss at all with the E4Cs with no source playing?

I have SuperFi5Pros, and my only complaint is that they are so efficient, most sources/amps makes them hiss.

Thanks,
George
 
Mar 21, 2006 at 5:39 PM Post #7 of 28
I just checked that for you, and I could just detect a very very slight hiss that would go up with increasing the volume.

Being 47, and doing many noisy things during my life before hearing protection was invented, I had not noticed this right off. I was just able to detect it though, when I looked for that specifically. The noise was so low volume even at max unit volume, that it will never be detectable when any music is on.
 
Mar 21, 2006 at 7:18 PM Post #9 of 28
Quote:

Now I hope rig some sort of bitperfect output - either find KS for 0.9, or fall back on 0.83 with ASIO4all.


Here, try the combo for us please
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Mar 21, 2006 at 8:58 PM Post #10 of 28
Thanks for pointing out the interesting news at Headroom.


I'm attracted by the revised Total Airhead. Out of curiosity, does anyone know exactly what op-amps are in, if they're the same LM6134's as in the previous version?
 
Mar 21, 2006 at 9:19 PM Post #11 of 28
Quote:

Originally Posted by Bones13
All said and done, this is a great unit, well thought out, and it sounds great. That it can run an IEM or the Senn 650 just as well is a job well done.


Sure is nice when a new piece of kit shows up and works.
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Had you heard the earlier Total BitHead at all? I'm still shocked HeadRoom didn't change model designations with such an improvement. Do you think Foobar 2000 0.9 is a significant improvement?
 
Mar 21, 2006 at 10:13 PM Post #13 of 28
During lunch I did manage to rustle up the KS add on for Foobar 0.9. After it gave me an initial warning message about being experimental and error prone and such, it proceded to just plain not work.

With KS added to the components folder, KS via the USB Codec was a choice in the output preferences. Try as I might, I could not get any sound to go thru that output method, although there was some noticeable static in the system.

On the other hand, I think the battery on my laptop had finished charging, and the sound out during the regular USB Codec was better than it was yesterday, perhaps some burn in effect, but I think it was improved voltage at the USB port. It sounded great with the IEM and 650s.

Getting to like it more and more, its not as good as my expensive rig, but it will be a worthy travel companion, either with an ipod or the laptop.

As for 0.9 Foobar2000 - I cannot recommend it to anyone who is using 0.83 with ASIO bitperfect output. Not sure that it is ANY better than the scads of other programs for music playing via the windows sound driver, or USB Codec. I will be waiting for a stable ASIO add on for 0.9 before leaving the 0.83 version. In the meantime, I need to get 0.83, and ASIO add on, put onto my laptop with ASIO4all, and do some playing with that. In the past, I felt that the ipod/IEM sound was better than the sound out from the laptop, and it has not been used for music listening before.
 
Mar 22, 2006 at 7:58 PM Post #14 of 28
Quote:

Originally Posted by TheSloth
AD8397.


Really? Can you confirm?
 
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