Little Dot LD2 Review - Page 6

No worries Svperstar.

Take your time

Gonna get mine in a week or so as well. hehe.

I've spent a few hours with my newly arrived LDII which the OP sent me. Initial impressions on my DT880's showed a big bass improvement. I think I understand now why tube's have been generally classified as "warm." I'll wait a while before I post any more impressions, I want to give the sound time to grow on me.

I just got my Little Dot 2

It is my first tube amp, in fact, my first headphone amp period. I purchased it with the hope of adding a little more life to MP3s off my iPod. You see, I got tired of having to sort through my collection of 500+ & growing CDs through my 300 discs player. You can see the obvious problem. So, I took a chance and ripped every CD that wasn't already (about 300) to MP3 320kbs/48,000 sample to get my music more organized and shrink my huge entertainment system. Anybody who says that a 128 or 192kbs MP3 is equal to CD quality has never heard a comparision between them through high quality headphones (high quality for me is AKG 271S, Shure E4c, UE Super Fis, and few more). At anyrate, I had hoped that the tube amp would improve the sound of the MP3's through my ipod, despite several things I read to the contrary. Read a few things that supported my idea too. At anyrate, the Little Dot 2 drastically improved the MP3s to the point I'm kicking myself for not getting the pre amp version. I did a blind test on my fellow audiophile with a 30mm Audio Technica between my Sony amp, the tube amp, and just the ipod. In three test, each time he identified the tube amp as having the best overall sound. The fact that it is not UL does concern me a little, but if you treat it like a burning cigarette, I think you'd be fine . My next thought/research will be finding better tubes, as it seems those can make or break the sound from a tube amp.

on the difference between SS and tube:

Myself and a friend did a test on my LD2 and his original master and both of us were amazed at how they sounded identical. Theres no way you'd tell the difference between them if they both were put behind a screen.

Just shows ya!

Fran

This is kinda strange but my experience has been quite different. I wonder if there are drastic variations in the quality control at little tube.

First off I have to say I'm so glad I bought this amp. Before I was listening to my 580's through either my computer output or my Rotel 1070 preamp headphone out. Rotel usually does a good job of putting in good headphone outs in their equipment. Before I got the LD11+, I definitely preferred the Rotel preamp over the computer output. But for some reason, I just had this feeling that I wasn't getting as much out of my headphones as possible.

Then I got the LDII+. At first it sounded fairly similar to the Rotel preamp but then after about 7 hours of burn in, the sound started to open up. I listened some more and from then on, the difference in sound is very noticeable between the LDII+ and the solid state Rotel. I prefer the LDII+!

I now have about 50-55 hours on the LDII+ and the sound still seems as though it is improving over burn-in time in smaller increments than before. Here is where I'm noticing the biggest difference between this tube amp compared to the solid state stuff I had heard with myh 580's before.

The bass is slightly woolier...is that a real word? Basically it has this ever so slightly fuzzy quality in comparison to the tight controlled bass of the Rotel. To me the midrange and highs have the biggest and most noticable improvement. The highs have this shimmering quality that was not as pronounced with the Rotel.

I have a fairly wide listening preference and have many different types of music represented in my collection. One thing that made it apparant that the LDII+ bettered my other equipment is that I can now hear how some of my cd's that sounded okay before now have noticeable recording quality issues.

For example, I have Iron Maiden: Somewhere in Time (the limited digipacks with the minituarized record type of sleeve for the cd). On my computer this sounded pretty good. Then with my Rotel I could tell this was okay quality recording from the 80's that wasn't as good as some other rock recordings I have. Now with the LDII+, this difference is even more apparant.

by the way, if someone finds a source for some alternate tubes for the LDII+ then please post a link and your impressions here. I got a spare set of tubes when I bought the amp but would definitely be willing to give some other ones a try.

What headphones are you using?

zowbombs..


HD650s and HD595s, but primarily HD650s

Fran

The Master amp has really good reviews, and it's interesting to note you found them similar with the HD650 (which I used to have).

So why isn't this review a "full featured review?"