Little Dot MK III vs. Darkvoice 336SE vs. Fubar III

I've owned both the Little Dot MKIII and the Darkvoice 336i (same internals as the SE), and I preferred the DV. The Little Dot was more neutral and transparent, but I like my music to be warm.

If you'd like the amp to be best out of the box, then the LD is better, but after tube rolling, I enjoyed my DV more.

The Fubar 3 may offer the greatest upgrade, though, as it is a DAC/Amp combo, so you could upgrade both your source and your amp in one fell swoop.

I don't know-- I moved from the Fubar III to the Little Dot and the difference was incredible. I don't think the DAC part of the upgrade is nearly as significant as the difference in the amp sound. Though to be fair I continued to use the Fubar as a DAC for quite a while with the Little Dot MK III, until I got a PS Audio Digital Link III.

The Darkvoice is a hell of an amp for the money. Add the fact that it uses readily available tubes and you have a winner.

Use the search function for the Darkvoice 336i tube rolling thread.

I heard the FubarIII with his supplier and found the unit boring and non exciting. Lack dynamic and punch, lack body in voices ... it's barely better than internal soundcard ... forgot that.

I heard the LDII++ and LDIII ... was million miles away to the FBIII in the good direction.

If you look something small ... my friend who got the FBIII+supplier got a refund a buyed the RSA Predator instead and was much better.

It's still not perfect (too bright, not warm enough) but the dynamic is very good and it's very small. Battery life is incredible ...

Are the tubes for the MK3 more expensive than the tubes for the Darkvoice?

No, they're about the same for the cheap ones. They can both get pretty expensive, but the tubes for the Darkvoice can be much more expensive if you want the "holy grail" tubes.

The fubar isn't in the same league as the other two and it won't match up with your phones as well as the other two. There are lots of people in both the DV and the LD camps, but I think that most would agree that you can't go wrong with either.

^Yep.

Don't forget about hybrid amps. I don't have any to recommend, but someone here will.

I love the way my LD MkIII mates with my HD650s.

They're about the same, though I think the MkIII tubes are more readily available, but when you find them the cost is about the same for both if you're looking for just regular tubes. Of course 'rare' ones will cost more but that's the way it goes with tubes.

The audio-gd C2C is popular but it costs about $330 + shipping.

I have the 336SE, its sound is pretty decent but all preamp tubes besides the stock one hum. It is horrible. I know there are mods to fix it, but I'm no electrician and so I'd rather not. I've tried tung-sol, sovtek, and electro-harmonix preamp tubes and they all hum like crazy, and I don't have the money to keep testing these freaking things.

Maybe go MarkIII, unless you like things seriously tubey. Stuff like Bob Dylan sounds real good on the DV, but more electronic stuff sounds too fluffy.

God, I really want the audio-gd, if anyone wants to trade with me, they can have this tubey nightmare...