Question about Little Dot MKIII Gain settings - Page 2

Could be a bad power tube. Is the hiss and splutter only on one channel ? I went through something similar way back when I first bought my MK III. It turned out to be a bad power tube. The amp should be dead quiet (unless the recording is noisy) at gain +10 with 650's. Swap the power tubes around...if the noise follows the swapped tube (from left to right channel or vice versa) the tube is toast. Another possibility is heavily oxidized pins on the tubes...that shouldn't produce the splutter though..

Make sure your feeding the MK III with a line level signal...if you overload the input you'll get all kinds of nasties reamplified making hiss and splutter extremely loud.

I think that covers it other than cable issues...

Peete.

Hi all,
I seem to have mixed my power cord in with a few others and cant decide what one goes with my little dot 3. Can someone help me identify it, markings, a picture, whatever to help. Thanks a million

Don't worry about it. The power cord is really cheap POS. Mine died on me (would not turn on). I used a power cord from one of my computers (that got fried by lightening) and it works much better.

Question, could I use the little dot 3 between my cd player and receiver to warm the sound a bit? On its lowest gain setting of course.

 

Ducktailjiver

anyone?

I wouldn't unless your receiver has the ability to split ( jumpers on the back panel that connect the preamp to amp sections) the preamp section from the power amp section (essentially making it appear like separates). The MK III output is a preamp function. If you want to warm the receiver add a tube based buffer in it's tape loop or in between the source and receiver. Using the MkIII in this way is double amping the source signal and will sound really bad no matter what gain level you set on the MK III.

 

Peete.

@Negatron. Wow - I've been tube rolling a bit on my LDMKIII and noticed gain settings had a LOT more to do with the sound than just headphone impedance. Your explanation brought it all into tight focus, thanks.

I've been playing with the LDMK3 and my Senn HD-600s and the gain settings. The funny thing is that each time I've changed the gain settings, the loudness stays pretty much the same. Meaning that I didn't need to adjust the pot settings after I've changed the gain. Usually that shouldn't be the case.....

 

The sound does change though, as if I go for higher gain, I get a tighter sound signature but sound a little more condensed. While if I lowered the gain, it gets a little more open sounding and less condensed. Has anyone else felt the same and any reasons why? The funny thing is that I didn't need to adjust the pot setting even though I've been changing the gains....

yes, the exact same experience here. I ended up matching gain settings to my headphone impendance which is high, so both switches in off position. Neither sounds better or worse, just different, got confused which one to use lol, thought would use switches like they were intended by the designer, off for high impedance phones and on for low impedance.

Also have a LD MK III with Sennheiser HD 650/AKG 702/Alessandro M1i and have done a lot of experimenting with the gain settings.

In the end Gain 5 works best for me because I like the sound of it.Each setting changes the sound from airy,not much bass,wide soundstage

to more focused,tight,narrow soundstage and more punch.Don't worry about impedance anymore!