Bottlehead Headphone Amplifiers

CGabriel · Jul 24, 2015

We had Dan Smalle of Bottlehead over to listen to his latest creation. This is a beautiful 845 based headphone amp. We also tested several other models. It is very interesting that different types of headphones react so radically different to different type of headphone amps. I don't really think that you can judge the performance of either the headphone or the headphone amp without trying them with a wide variety of products. It was very educational to say the least.

Bruce B · Jul 24, 2015

It's almost as if you have to pair the amps to the headphones. The Abyss only sounds good to me with either the Cavalli Liquid Gold or the big Woo Audio mono's. The Stax 009 only sounds good to me with the BHSE amp. Change the headphones and you need to change the amp!

CGabriel · Jul 24, 2015

Bruce B said:
It's almost as if you have to pair the amps to the headphones. The Abyss only sounds good to me with either the Cavalli Liquid Gold or the big Woo Audio mono's. The Stax 009 only sounds good to me with the BHSE amp. Change the headphones and you need to change the amp!

Yeah, Bruce it was a little shocking to me how much different each headphone sounds with each headphone amp. The differences are quite radical and way more so than the differences between amps and speakers. I think many people assume that headphones are more of a reference standard for accurate music reproduction but that is clearly not the case. It also brings up issues in the mastering process if the engineer is using headphones in the process. Bruce, do you rely on headphones or do you have a reference monitor speaker system that you use. Or a bit of both?

Thanks,

Caelin

Bruce B · Jul 24, 2015

CGabriel said:
Yeah, Bruce it was a little shocking to me how much different each headphone sounds with each headphone amp. The differences are quite radical and way more so than the differences between amps and speakers. I think many people assume that headphones are more of a reference standard for accurate music reproduction but that is clearly not the case. It also brings up issues in the mastering process if the engineer is using headphones in the process. Bruce, do you rely on headphones or do you have a reference monitor speaker system that you use. Or a bit of both?

Thanks,

Caelin

My reference monitors are the Wilson Alexia's. I also use a pair of Focal Professional monitors for a second opinion. I use headphones in my restoration/archive work. I need them to hear deeply into the music for any anomalies.

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Bottlehead Headphone Amplifiers

CGabriel

Industry Expert

Bruce B

WBF Founding Member, Pro Audio Production Member

CGabriel

Industry Expert

Bruce B

WBF Founding Member, Pro Audio Production Member

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