[RLL1]

James,

Considering the heat generated by the BHA-1, do you see a problem stacking another component on top of it.

Thanks
Rick

[James Tanner]

James,

Considering the heat generated by the BHA-1, do you see a problem stacking another component on top of it.

Thanks
Rick

I would say as long as the unit on top is not generating a lot of heat you are OK.  The whole chassis acts as a heat sinc so it is best to allow some airflow around it.

james

[RLL1]

I would say as long as the unit on top is not generating a lot of heat you are OK.  The whole chassis acts as a heat sinc so it is best to allow some airflow around it.

james

Thanks James.

Rick

[grsimmon]

OK- from Engineering:

Unbalanced - 2 Ohms

Balanced 4 Ohms

james

It would be great if this could be published with the other specs on the Bryston website for the BHA-1.  I had previously looked there for the output impedence information and couldn't find any. 

[Marius]

HD-800 arrived today, enjoying to the limit right now. Hope the BHA1 will come next week, and multiply this experience...





Cheers.
Marius

[bobNL]

Hi Marius,

Seem to remember seeing one of your playlists on this forum, that indicated you are fond of music from the renissance period.
This seems ideally suited for the BHA-1 / HD800 combo. Have played a few Bach Cantatas that completely blew me away.

Hope the BHA will arrive soon.

Cheers,
Bob

[Marius]

Hi Bob,
Thanks, and yes, one of the first i tried was the latest Tallis Scholars hires download. Sounds wonderful indeed, though a completely different experience compared to playing over the speakers it is. Soundstage is big, but not in front. More in the head....(seems kinda logical )  Always feel more to 'myself' with headphones. Guess that also one of the main reasons to like it, a bit of a recluse....

Playing on my bp26, first thing to notice is that it lacks some juice for the hd800 to really come to life, the BHA1 is needed indeed. Comparable to playing the ESL's before the Bp26/28's, and them coming to after after that decision.

What i hadn't noticed before, is that the balance knob of the bp26 has definite stops before reaching the outer limits of turning. you can hear the channels kick in, instead of evenly coming up/going down to 0. I hadn't noticed that before on my ESL's. Apparently the HD800 are even better monitors?

3d thing i tried, because I never heard any significant difference, was playing the bcd1 over its own XLR out or connected to the BDA1 XLR out: again, there's no difference at all to my ears. Both sound as marvelous as they do.

So, as you can imagine, i'm looking forward to the BHA-1's arrival next week!

Thanks, and if you have some listening tips for the recluse, please let us know?

Marius

ps which Bach recording did you listen to? I am very fond of the Gardiner recordings on Soli Deo Gloria. Which reminds me of the next testcase for the hd800: Simon Prestons recordings of Bach organ music. Amazingly good recordings (organs are notoriously difficult to record in their Church ambiance) and beautiful performances. that is to top the sheer joy of Bach's music, both subdued and virtuoso.

Hi Marius,

Seem to remember seeing one of your playlists on this forum, that indicated you are fond of music from the renissance period.
This seems ideally suited for the BHA-1 / HD800 combo. Have played a few Bach Cantatas that completely blew me away.

Hope the BHA will arrive soon.

Cheers,
Bob

[bobNL]

Hi Marius,

Am a fan of Harmonia Mundi, for their talanted performers and the great recordings. At this time I mostly listen to CD rips through the BDP. Would be great to have access to the high-res recordings at HDtracks,but have not tried to get at them yet. They have a number of Harmonia Mundi recordings on there and I am certain they sound even better. As you know regular access is prohibited at this time.

The recording I heard was:



Great music, well performed, consumed through the more than excelent BDP-BDA-BHA-HD800 pipeline, leading to sheer bliss!

Cheers,
Bob

[Marius]

O yes, I agree, HM have a lot of great recordings in their catalogue, as a matter of fact, yesterday the latest recording in Rene Jacobs's Mozart Opera cycle was delivered: La Finta Giardiniera, http://www.harmoniamundi.com/#/albums?view=playlists&id=1851

I know the Collegium Vocale and Herreweghe well, Ive played in Gent for 17 years.

What do you mean with HD tracks being prohibited? I dl'ed a new recording 2 days ago....?
Marius

Hi Marius,

Am a fan of Harmonia Mundi, for their talanted performers and the great recordings. At this time I mostly listen to CD rips through the BDP. Would be great to have access to the high-res recordings at HDtracks,but have not tried to get at them yet. They have a number of Harmonia Mundi recordings on there and I am certain they sound even better. As you know regular access is prohibited at this time.

The recording I heard was:



Great music, well performed, consumed through the more than excelent BDP-BDA-BHA-HD800 pipeline, leading to sheer bliss!

Cheers,
Bob

[bobNL]

Hi Marius,

HDtracks does not allow payment with my (european) creditcard. Am currently in the US and tried again from a US IP-address, no such luck.
I know paypal payment might be better, but have not tried that yet, to busy listening to my new gear and ripping a few thousand CD's.

You said you played in Gent, wow, what instrument do you play?

Bob

[Marius]

this might wonder away from the topic, but to be quick: yes i always pay with my Paypal, works fine.

I play(ed) timpani and percussion at www.vlaamseopera.be up to 2006. And I feel for you in the ripping process.... been there, done that, still going strong.....

Cheers,
Marius

Hi Marius,

HDtracks does not allow payment with my (european) creditcard. Am currently in the US and tried again from a US IP-address, no such luck.
I know paypal payment might be better, but have not tried that yet, to busy listening to my new gear and ripping a few thousand CD's.

You said you played in Gent, wow, what instrument do you play?

Bob

[bobNL]

TNX

And to return to the toppic, after this slight detour:
Hope your Bryston headphone amplifier arrives soon   

Cheers,
Bob

[James Tanner]

From: brnallen
Sent: November-05-12
To: James Tanner
Subject: RE: Headphone amplifier

Hi James,

Just letting you know that I was able to pick the unit up from Audio-One last Friday .... thanks for the quick shipping!!!

After listening to them for only a few minutes I put my Trafomatic up for sale. It was really no contest. They sound fantastic with all the headphones I have on hand and I cannot wait to hear them balanced with my Fostex th900 when it gets back from modding.

Bryston really has done a great job with this product; nice to see a Canadian company showing others how it should be done.

Congratulations!

Brian

[Marius]

It did this evening! Had to leave immediately unfortunately 

Was able to set it up, connected to the 'to tape' out of the bp26, and will test tonight I hope. James, thanks a lot for this great service.

Also, a separate package was delivered, with a tailor made cable I asked for, but was too late to throw into the box. Bryston, thank you  what a great company you have James. You neednt, but you did anyhow, amazing, how's that for a customer faced business model.

Again,
Thanks, Marius

TNX

And to return to the toppic, after this slight detour:
Hope your Bryston headphone amplifier arrives soon   

Cheers,
Bob

[bobNL]

Such agony! 

Let us know what your thoughts are when you can spend more time in headphone heaven.

Cheers,
Bob

[Vipers]

Hi Marius,

How are you getting on with your HD800's and BHA-1?

I got my HD800's through yesterday and I have to say when I was demoing headphones last year I demoed several pairs including the HD800’s at a reasonably local hifi shop, at the time I really wasn’t impressed with the HD800’s and ended up buying some Grado's, but after spending some time with them earlier I have now realised that it wasn’t the HD800’s that were at fault but in fact the shop I went to had the headphones but didn’t have a headphone amp to do them justice, which is criminal really, it was like I was listening to a different Headphone when using the Bryston BHA-1 to drive them, I can now see what all the fuss is about with the HD800's, extremely comfortable as well.

I’ve got them running round the clock on our Bryston BHA-1 at the moment to run them in to get them sounding their best, can't wait to get a few hours on them to hear what they really are capable of.

[Marius]

Hi Paul,

Gee, wish I had had more time this week, in fact only had the opportunity to hook them up really. Haven't got my balanced cable yet, and playing through the tape in rca's now. Will try balanced soon. the BHA1 certainly has the juice I found lacking in my initial listening on the BP26. I agree on the comfort you mention, but haven't tested a complete Ring yet.....

And, to be honest, I still have to get adjusted to headphone listening, I feel it is a completely different experience all together. The space and soundstage is excellent, as is the frequency response from deep down to up there in the highs. Tallis Scholars soprano;s don't distort, even in high volumes. Something even my ESL had trouble with.

I do feel the upper frequencies tend to take the stage, and believe some xtra playing-time is needed for complete balance to be able to judge. And that is something I never experienced before.

Which gain-setting do you use? James, if you read this, is it better for noise-levels or other aspects, to use the low gain and crank it up a bit, or just use the hi-gain. Hd800 feels comfortable with both I guess, and i like the extra 'room' the low-gain gives me adjusting the volume. And how would this change with the balanced-outs? Will I have to turn the BHA-1 down again for the same volume- level?

Hope to be back this week with more listening-hours.

Cheers,
Marius

Hi Marius,

How are you getting on with your HD800's and BHA-1?

I got my HD800's through yesterday and I have to say when I was demoing headphones last year I demoed several pairs including the HD800’s at a reasonably local hifi shop, at the time I really wasn’t impressed with the HD800’s and ended up buying some Grado's, but after spending some time with them earlier I have now realised that it wasn’t the HD800’s that were at fault but in fact the shop I went to had the headphones but didn’t have a headphone amp to do them justice, which is criminal really, it was like I was listening to a different Headphone when using the Bryston BHA-1 to drive them, I can now see what all the fuss is about with the HD800's, extremely comfortable as well.

I’ve got them running round the clock on our Bryston BHA-1 at the moment to run them in to get them sounding their best, can't wait to get a few hours on them to hear what they really are capable of.

[mkaiser]

Hi Marius,
You will get a different experience with headphones because the sound is not altered by room acoustics the way loudspeakers are, you will get a more honest representation of the music you are listening to. Also remember Sennheiser's HD800 driver's are angled and are the largest of any other headphone available and that will give you a larger soundstage and more fuller presentation. The only knock on the HD800 is the tipped upper frequencies which do not seem to bother me yet and i've owned them for 2 yrs already.
Glad you are enjoying them with Bryston's BHA1 - a very neutral and transparent combination indeed and with time gets better.

Mark

[James Tanner]

Hi Paul,

Gee, wish I had had more time this week, in fact only had the opportunity to hook them up really. Haven't got my balanced cable yet, and playing through the tape in rca's now. Will try balanced soon. the BHA1 certainly has the juice I found lacking in my initial listening on the BP26. I agree on the comfort you mention, but haven't tested a complete Ring yet.....

And, to be honest, I still have to get adjusted to headphone listening, I feel it is a completely different experience all together. The space and soundstage is excellent, as is the frequency response from deep down to up there in the highs. Tallis Scholars soprano;s don't distort, even in high volumes. Something even my ESL had trouble with.

I do feel the upper frequencies tend to take the stage, and believe some xtra playing-time is needed for complete balance to be able to judge. And that is something I never experienced before.

Which gain-setting do you use? James, if you read this, is it better for noise-levels or other aspects, to use the low gain and crank it up a bit, or just use the hi-gain. Hd800 feels comfortable with both I guess, and i like the extra 'room' the low-gain gives me adjusting the volume. And how would this change with the balanced-outs? Will I have to turn the BHA-1 down again for the same volume- level?

Hope to be back this week with more listening-hours.

Cheers,
Marius

Hi Marius

It really depends on the efficiency of the headphones but other than the HE6 phones I typically use the lower gain setting.

I now have 6 pairs of different phones - and that's from a guy that never listened to headphones prior to the BHA 

James

[Marius]

ok here goes: taking James's words into account about gain setting , i tried both balanced and unbalanced connection between the BDA1 and the BP26 respectively. (Can't have both balanced at the same time because of lack of double outs or passthrough....)

the difference is remarkable: the air, the ambiance, the whole soundstage, when connected Balanced, the BHA1 and the HD800 really sing, I would describe it best as 'life'. Being there. Have tried meticulously to adjust the volume level to see if it was not just that, but must come to the conclusion Balanced is the way to go. (and I still haven't even got my balanced headphone cable). O boy, what a luscious couple this makes. Mellow, sparkling, full-bodied and honest. You can almost see, feel and 'touch' the musicians. It's all there! 

Which of course poses the feared and dreaded dilemma: I (we) need the balanced connection in normal (speaker) setup too, for all the same reasons .... James, though the tape-in connection on the bp26 is a viable option for the BHA1, Balanced really is the way to go. ( To save the Balanced out  for the Bha1, i tried the unbalanced out on the BDA1 too, but that still leads to the same conclusion...)

Couldn't you make some kind of small switchbox that concurs with Bryston demands and specifics, and allows for switching (not splitting) a balanced signal into different (BHA1 and BP26 in my case for now, but ymmv) amps?
Then your customers could enjoy both worlds of music-playing walhalla.

Cheers, and fingers crossed,

Marius

Will experiment further, especially considering that the BHA1/hd800 might be a much more revealaing combo than the BP26/ESl. Thus emphasizing the difference between Balanced/Unbalanced, which would be a reason to use the Balanced connection for the BHA1 for now and leave the Bp26 with the unbalanced?