Bravo Audio amps

[Uriel]

Just got me one of these:

Cost me just under £30 to get delivered from Hong Kong. Didn't get hit with any customs charges. It picks up some RF and EMI noise but found a quiet spot on my desk for it about half an hour ago and been grinning like an idiot ever since.

Quite a significant improvement in detail over my CMOY and AV amp on both my Goldring DR150s and NS1000s.

Just need to find me some sort of metal box to put it in to keep the interference down now...

 

[Uriel]

Well the caffiene ultra is a pretty decent solid state amp. Bear in mind that I'm coming from stuff that isn't as good.

It's both warmer and cleaner than my e5 or CMOY. Warmth retaining detail - which I like. Tubes can be swapped out.

The deal breaker is definitely the EMI / RF interference. Makes using near a PC, wi-fi or mobile phones a bit dodgy.

 

[Uriel]

It's from an auction seller called bravodeal4you.

 

[Uriel]

Uriel, are you using X-Fi with this?

Also, from my reading, I thought at this price point the tripath t-amps were the best buy amps. What are your thoughts?

I'm sort of using an X-Fi. Actualy doing the following X-Fi Prelude -> SPDIF -> Victor SU-DH1 -> Bravo amp. I'll get around to trying it without the victor at some point.

I don't know much about the t-amps but aren't they supposed to be designed for speakers, not headphones?

Edit:

Yeah, just found them for sale on eBay US. They're £50 plus shipping now, so sounds like you got in at the right time with your purchase. I'll stick with my RA1 clone.

I assume that's buy it now? I got mine in a no-reserve auction.

 

[Uriel]

What advantages are you getting by using xfi->amp->headphones as opposed to just xfi->headphones?

Curious to know as I'm new to this.

It depends on what headphones you are using. Hard to drive (usually high impedance but sometimes high current) headphones get an obvious boost. Some headphones just don't benefit much from an amp. If you don't feed them enough power they sound pretty poor. It can be manifested in different ways. My Goldring NS1000s in passive mode get all muddy and bass heavy if not amped properly. Sennehiser HD580s get rather bass light. A good amp won't rescue a really bad headphone though - just help good ones to reach their potential.

If your headphones won't go loud enough they get an obvious boost, but I rarely find that to be a problem.

Not all headphones benefit from amping. My iGrados seem to reach their full potential straight out of a soundcard or mp3 player. None of my amps seem to help them much and some even make them sound worse.

The good thing about this amp in comparison to my CMOY or FiiO is that it's very clear sounding and detailed even at low volume.

 

[Uriel]

I still have it but don't use it so much now. It was excellent with my DR150s but not as good as the FiiO e5 for driving NS1000s in passive mode. I've noticed some distortion with them with HD600s.

For the money I paid, it compares well sound wise with some other cheap amps.

There are a few major issues, however.

It picks up buzz from wi-fi and em/rf noise very easily. Build and component quality isn't great. My on-off switch died after a couple of months so I now plug/unplug from the mains. The phono in ports are getting loose and I don't think they'll take much more unplugging or replugging.

I've left mine unmodded and haven't tried tube rolling etc. They seem to have become a very popular platform for DIY upgrades.