Few things can completely change the way you listen to music like a tube amplifier. Bravo Audio has created a small, yet powerful, and minimalistic headphone amplifier in the V2.
Being an audiophile is considered a luxury hobby, with headphones easily reaching the 5 digit range, amplifiers going even higher, and the whole host of other “necessities” to be considered an audiophile being out of the price range of most average consumers, audophilia is left to the stupidly excessive. But what about those of us who love music with a passion and want to listen to music louder and crisper, but don’t have an absurd amount of money to drop?
In comes Bravo Audio V2 to the rescue! Sitting at a pretty price range of around $50, almost anyone with the slightest hint or desire to try out a tube amplifier should be looking towards the V2. It is small, easily fitting on my desk next to my laptop. It’s open design is very modern, and while it was most likely done in an effort to alleviate overheating, looks very cool. The slight blue glow from the tube looks like something out of a sci-fi high tech movie, and people are stunned by it every time.
Sound wise, it’s simply outstanding. With more power running into your headphones, music comes alive. Instruments separate and you can hear different locations of instruments within the music. Bass is bigger, treble is cleaner, and the mids feather out the two much better to create an impressively more concise musical experience. While streaming music or playing MP3s is great, to really get every ounce of quality out of your amp, look to find and download lossless music. Specifically .flac
I do not have a DAC just yet, but I still want the best quality I can get out of my laptop, so I use a 3.5mm to RCA input cable into the amp, which I feel fills out the sound much better than simply a 3.5mm to 3.5mm dual audio jack cable. There is a slight and constant hiss in the background, usually during pauses within the music, it completely disappears when nothing plays for a second or two, and is mostly inaudible during the music. I feel this is more of an issue with the sound card and signal transfer through that 3.5mm to RCA cable than it is as a result of the amplifier itself. Thus, I refuse to take away a star just yet, if I get the DAC and see that the hiss is still audible, then I might decide to drop it one star.
Another very slight negative is the tube itself, it’s cheap and so is the sound it produces. It’s not terrible, and as I described earlier, it definitely does an amazing job of separating music and making it much cleaner, and for most will do just well. I expected the tube to not be the greatest from how low the price of the entire unit is. But if you just spent money on something as excessive as a tube amplifier just to listen to music, “just well” is not good enough. The tube amp is great, don’t get me wrong, but when I switched the tube to the Genalex Gold Lion 12AU7 Tube, WOW! Simply eargasmtastic.
Bottom Line:————————————–Don’t have enough money for an amplifier that’s more expensive? Buy this one and you definitely won’t be disappointed!
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