Little Dot MK III VS Woo Audio 3

I bought my LD MKIV SE from a guy who also owned the WA3 (or at least compared them). He said the WA3 was a bit more musical but that they were comparable.

FWIW I compared the MKIII and MKIV SE at a meet and me and the other guy both agreed they are not that different. I didn't really listen that good to the differences but the other guy did and said that the MKIV SE was only slightly better in terms of resolution.

Seeing the huge difference in price the MKIII would be the sensible choice. The WA3 would be better but it's also a lot more expensive. If you however feel that money is well spent on a better amp, get the WA3. :-)

That's quite a strange collection of gear, can't say I love it, can't say I don't like it either. Bass-head much? 

I would really consider upgrading your source... unless you have a REALLY killer soundcard...

Xonar HDAV 1.3 is based on the PCB1796 DAC chip with LM4562 output stage, quite decent, but it's still just a sound card.  I'm all for sound cards, to a certain degree, but after a point, external DACs all the way.  I specifically like older DACs that used to be $1500 retail that now sell for ~ $350.

As for not wanting to pay shipping prices from China, just add it to the price of the product and look at what you're getting for the combined price.  Also, I don't know if audio manufacturers let you return items just because you don't like them...  For that, I'd consider just buying used, off the forum.

When entering Hi-fi audio, its important to leave PCI sound cards behind. The inside of a computer is an extremely electronically noisy environment, and that can mess with the digital audio signal that your dac is sending. That is one major reason why external DAC's are superior. Sure, some PCI cards offer shielding over their components, but its still not ideal.

I'd recommend going for used equipment. If you can find the Musical Fidelity V-DAC (MSRP = $300) used for your price point, that'd be a great place to start.

If your not down to go used (which is understandable for a wary first time hi-fi buyer) I'd recommend buying a portable DAC. NuForce uDac2 is great for the money. The E-mu 0404 also has a pretty good DAC, but its meant more for pro audio which means it will give you a generally flat frequency response. It may not be the last word in musicality, but it offers a plethora of input and output options for $200

All you need is a good USB 2.0 built-in port or expansion card on your computer. Then a NuForce Icon uDAC-2 DAC come with sole USB input for digital audio interface. The uDAC-2 DAC seems to has good built-in jitter reduction feature which is critical in minimizing distortion caused by timing inconsistency (biggest concern in transmission of digital audio data). Yes do not waste anymore money on expensive sound card with analog audio outputs no matter how good sound card vendors have stated in their marketing material. There is no way sound card can beat external DAC in term of sound quality, better still you can change your computer and operating system without affecting operation of external DAC (sound card needs proper driver to work).

In future when money permit for upgrade, find a good USB-to-SPDIF converter such as brands like HiFace, Audiophilleo to cut down jitter further and  to provide a good SPDIF coaxial port as better digital audio interface for better external DAC models than the NuForce Icon uDAC-2 (many good conventional DAC models do not have USB interface, or come with sub-standard USB interface).

By the way Little Dot MK3 and Woo Audio 3 are tube amplifiers which have quite different sound signature from solid-state amplifier such as Schiit Asgard. Which to use depends on your purpose, headphone and music genre. I have auditioned Asgard (solid-state) and Valhalla (tube) at the same store and decided to buy Valhalla for my HD600 headphone and music genres. Both amplifiers are from The Schiit company.