Anybody seen this amp before?A really interessting amp! Very powerful! BX2?

[W1ll1eTheP1mp]

Hello. After my search for a headphone amp for my M1060( people claim that M1060 and others planars love power and i doesnt have a powerful amp) and future headphones ive came across this interessting unit!

The BX 2 ( LessFox audio)? Holy macaroni this unit house some real power to be quite portable! Has anyone here heard about it? Its quite expensive but it would fit my needs perfectly cause of the massive power and being portable. Then i can choose portable/desktop.

Has anyone tried it or know anything about it? Its available on DH gate and AliExpress.

Thanks!

 

[bunkbail]

Weird that it has lower SNR at higher volumes. Also, Class-A in a portable device? That's pretty rad.

 

[solderdude]

Not very weird. The potmeter is used (also ?) as a gain control so the higher the volume (gain) the worse the S/N ratio.
This is actually beneficial when using sensitive headphones as noise gets lower at lower volume.

Seems a nice design, $ 700.- is a lot of money for a portable amp. High output power. WAAAAYYY too high for the M1060 which is 110dB/V
So 4V out = 122dB peak = 0.3W in 50 Ohm.

It is probably only class-A for the first few tens of mW, when it would really be class A (for 32 Ohm max output power) the output stages would be dissipating 30W, given its size and shape you would not be able to hold it within a few minutes and a fully charged battery would last less than 1 hour.
Nah... it is marketting talk.

Still, looks to be a nice design.

 

[W1ll1eTheP1mp]

Ye

Not very weird. The potmeter is used (also ?) as a gain control so the higher the volume (gain) the worse the S/N ratio.
This is actually beneficial when using sensitive headphones as noise gets lower at lower volume.

Seems a nice design, $ 700.- is a lot of money for a portable amp. High output power. WAAAAYYY too high for the M1060 which is 110dB/V
So 4V out = 122dB peak = 0.3W in 50 Ohm.

It is probably only class-A for the first few tens of mW, when it would really be class A (for 32 Ohm max output power) the output stages would be dissipating 30W, given its size and shape you would not be able to hold it within a few minutes and a fully charged battery would last less than 1 hour.
Nah... it is marketting talk.

Still, looks to be a nice design.

Yeah,it is probably i little overkill! Very expensive, but would be fun to see something like this got measured! If just the price would be halfed and that it was possible to get it in the used market.

I am still kind of confused about planars and the power they need. IDK if a amp actually benefits me when i got the V40? From a batterydraining perspective it would off course.

Ive started to question my need for a portable amp since the v40 drives everything i own to high enough volume anyway. I am probably better of with an powerbank/portable charger with the V40 on the go and a O2 something desktop amp at home? I will get my IE800 anyday now and people even mean that they dont shine before you get an amp for it. But from the specs it is really sensitive? Hmm.. Headgear+ amps starts to confuse me more and more.

 

[solderdude]

The real issue is that people making the 'needs huge power' claims have no real idea how it works.
The fact that some drivers can handle a few Watt by design doesn't mean you actually need it to listen to it even at impressive levels.

Yes, when the HE-5 and HE-6 came out these indeed required quite a lot of voltage. For this reason they did not work well on a phone.
Myth born...
Nowadays voltage efficiency is about as high as dynamics, the impedance could be a bit lower.

With normal usage most headphones operate on 1mW to 10mW. Only when you want impressive levels and turn up the bass to make it even more impressive (which works very well with planars) you will need more than a phone, dongle or DAP can supply.

It is not an issue for an amp to have a lot of headroom. In most cases it won't hurt to have a lot of headroom.
That doesn't mean you will ever use that available power but many people think they do.

Watts ? Hell no unless you want to listen to it at ear damaging levels (130dB + peaks).


When someone wants it measured they should send one to Amir and have a bit of patience to get it back.

 

[Jimbob54]

It's a very expensive handwarmer that may or may not be a decent headphone amp. Doubt it's portable in the pocket sense of the word though. Looks similar in size to xduuo 5?

 

[W1ll1eTheP1mp]

The real issue is that people making the 'needs huge power' claims have no real idea how it works.
The fact that some drivers can handle a few Watt by design doesn't mean you actually need it to listen to it even at impressive levels.

Yes, when the HE-5 and HE-6 came out these indeed required quite a lot of voltage. For this reason they did not work well on a phone.
Myth born...
Nowadays voltage efficiency is about as high as dynamics, the impedance could be a bit lower.

With normal usage most headphones operate on 1mW to 10mW. Only when you want impressive levels and turn up the bass to make it even more impressive (which works very well with planars) you will need more than a phone, dongle or DAP can supply.

It is not an issue for an amp to have a lot of headroom. In most cases it won't hurt to have a lot of headroom.
That doesn't mean you will ever use that available power but many people think they do.

Watts ? Hell no unless you want to listen to it at ear damaging levels (130dB + peaks).


When someone wants it measured they should send one to Amir and have a bit of patience to get it back.

Aha,now im getting a little smarter. So basically the whole "planar's need alot of wattage" thing is basically a myth derivated from those two ineffective Hifiman 'phones? So as long i can achieve a satisfying listening volume on my device(V40) without distortion/clipping, mission is accomplished? Cause i cant listen to the M1060 at max volume on V40! Thats harmful! Atleast to my ears.

I dont want to fall of any of those audio/ hi-fi myths like cables etc.Placebo can be a powerful thing!

So the conclusion for my case is that an amp will not be benefitial when my V40 drive them on a satisfying listening volume? I havent wven messed with bassboost /eq yet.

 

[Jimbob54]

Aha,now im getting a little smarter. So basically the whole "planar's need alot of wattage" thing is basically a myth derivated from those two ineffective Hifiman 'phones? So as long i can achieve a satisfying listening volume on my device(V40) without distortion/clipping, mission is accomplished? Cause i cant listen to the M1060 at max volume on V40! Thats harmful! Atleast to my ears.

I dont want to fall of any of those audio/ hi-fi myths like cables etc.Placebo can be a powerful thing!

So the conclusion for my case is that an amp will not be benefitial when my V40 drive them on a satisfying listening volume? I havent wven messed with bassboost /eq yet.

If it sounds good, isnt distorting due to overdriving the amp, correct. Unless you are going to get a guaranteed return (amazon etc) on an amp just for curiosity, I really wouldnt spend money.

 

[W1ll1eTheP1mp]

If it sounds good, isnt distorting due to overdriving the amp, correct. Unless you are going to get a guaranteed return (amazon etc) on an amp just for curiosity, I really wouldnt spend money.

Then im not gonna buy an amp if that is true. I dont know anyone either and the closest shop is about 150km from me, so it isnt easy to try. Return on Amazon would be very expensive cause of shipping +tax+ add fee`s.

 

[tifune]

With normal usage most headphones operate on 1mW to 10mW. Only when you want impressive levels and turn up the bass to make it even more impressive (which works very well with planars) you will need more than a phone, dongle or DAP can supply.

Sorry to revive this old thread; I stumbled on it by trying to find a reliable portable solution capable of 500mW @ 32ohm. but seeing this comment, it makes me wonder, is there an accurate way to gauge how much power I actually need when taking into account bass increase? It seems sensitivity is often spec'd at 1kHz; how could I translate that to my use case, which is +5dB on a 105Hz shelf on DCA Stealth? I was using the "500mW at 32ohm" suggestion based on hearsay in some other forum (i forget where) claiming it was Dan's recommendation, combined with the fact that my E1DA (340mW @ 32ohm spec) simply can't handle both the volume and bass adjustment i'm looking for.

iFi Signature can do it, but calling that "portable" is a bit of a stretch in my mind. Diablo claims it can do it, but I've tried & returned 5 different units now and all of them trip some kind of overload or protection circuit in 'turbo' mode with volume around 70% when running on battery. I had to plug them into wall socket to get them to power back on. An Amazon reviewer noted the same, claiming there was some design issue with many of the Diablo's produced but didn't give a reliable source ("youtube"). If I were comfortable with a 10% THD spec, I guess XD05 series could almost do it, except I tried it out and this is extremely audible:

Temporarily I settled on BTR5 (LDAC) into a xCAN, which is a bit hokey and for some reason still doesn't sound as good to me as the iFi Signature. that one could possibly be placebo (price + wires are "better")

Similarly, I find my Sony IER-Z1R's bass response is much better with my E1DA than my BTR5, which is very difficult to believe looking solely at spec sheets. Again i'm not opposed to the answer being 'placebo' but it'd be nice to have some data to reconcile

 

[solderdude]

Calculations say that if you want to reach 115dB at 50Hz (1kHz will be around 100dB and with +5dB bass boost would be 95dB SPL which is quite loud you would need an amp that can provide 0.3W in 32ohm AND 0.6W in 16ohm (DCA = 23 ohm)
To reach impressive levels you will need 6V = 2W in 16ohm.

 

[tifune]

Calculations say that if you want to reach 115dB at 50Hz (1kHz will be around 100dB and with +5dB bass boost would be 95dB SPL which is quite loud you would need an amp that can provide 0.3W in 32ohm AND 0.6W in 16ohm (DCA = 23 ohm)
To reach impressive levels you will need 6V = 2W in 16ohm.

are you aware of any portable solution that can do it? i'm all tapped out on ideas