Despite appearances, you don’t have to shell out a small fortune for a high-performance headphone amplifier. Producers of some of the most affordable tube amps around, Bravo Audio packs an absurd amount of power into its products for the price tags Read More
Sounds a lot better, liver, and warmer than plugging straight into my phones headphone jack. Especially with great closed back headphones. full frequency response is good.
I have owned a Bravo V2 since April 2014, and I use it almost daily, driven directly from my Surface Pro. Sometimes, I use a Dragonfly as a DAC in the chain, but I do not notice much of an improvement with that addition. I replaced the tube with a Genalex Gold Lion in March 2017, and I am very happy with the result. (I had tried an Electro-Harmonix in 2015, but I did not like it as much.) I use it with all kinds of headphones, both open (e.g., HD6XX, HE400i, Beyerdynamic DT880-250) and closed (e.g., Beyerdynamic DT250-250, Denon AH-D1200, CAL!), and I have never felt the need for more power. The pairing with the CAL! at low volume is especially good (euphonic) for low-quality streaming audio. The only issue is that at low volumes, there is a noticeable channel imbalance, and therefore you need to lower the volume on your source if you like to listen at low volume, especially with sensitive headphones. I recommend the Bravo V2 strongly.
Great tube sound. Warms up mid range as vocals and guitars tend to sing really well. Running a USB DAC from the computer into the amp and playing Spotify or Tidal Master tracks through. Some of my more sensitive headphones don't need to be pushed with this amp otherwise there can be some distortion/noise. The power hungry headphones (like the newly received HD6xx) work pretty well.