Mad Dude
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Mar 10, 2010
- Posts
- 523
- Likes
- 41
Hello Head-fiers,
I currently own a Little Dot MKIII, which is driving my K701s - and although the MKIII/K701 combo might not be an ideal match, I absolutely love the sound coming from it. However, I recently got a pair of Grado SR325is', and combining the MKIII with them leads to a somewhat mediocre result. I expected that, but I wanted to give the MKIII a chance... But now, I even prefer the awful headphone output of my speaker amp (Harman/Kardon HK680) to the Little Dot.
Now, I am looking for an amp to drive the Grados efficiently. I am aware of the fact that tube amps are in no way ideal to drive low-impendance cans such as the Grados. But I really don't want to miss the warm tube sound... a hybrid amp seems to be the way to go.
Since the Grados should not really be hard to drive and I want to keep the cost down (below $300), I think something cheap like the Little Dot 1+ or the Hifiman EF2 should be sufficient.
I am looking for something that brings out the aggressiveness of the Grados a bit (I have already read that the LD1+ does that nicely). Since I use them exclusively for Rock and Metal, I would not mind it if they sound harsh - I would actually like that.
Which amp would you recommend for me? Would either the LD 1+ or the EF2 be a good choice for the grados? Are there alternatives to consider?
Just to avoid misundestandings, I don't want to replace the MKIII, I would use the hybrid amp as an addition to it. My DAC Magic should arrive soon, which has two outputs, so I would be able to use two amps without having to mess around with the cables.
I currently own a Little Dot MKIII, which is driving my K701s - and although the MKIII/K701 combo might not be an ideal match, I absolutely love the sound coming from it. However, I recently got a pair of Grado SR325is', and combining the MKIII with them leads to a somewhat mediocre result. I expected that, but I wanted to give the MKIII a chance... But now, I even prefer the awful headphone output of my speaker amp (Harman/Kardon HK680) to the Little Dot.
Now, I am looking for an amp to drive the Grados efficiently. I am aware of the fact that tube amps are in no way ideal to drive low-impendance cans such as the Grados. But I really don't want to miss the warm tube sound... a hybrid amp seems to be the way to go.
Since the Grados should not really be hard to drive and I want to keep the cost down (below $300), I think something cheap like the Little Dot 1+ or the Hifiman EF2 should be sufficient.
I am looking for something that brings out the aggressiveness of the Grados a bit (I have already read that the LD1+ does that nicely). Since I use them exclusively for Rock and Metal, I would not mind it if they sound harsh - I would actually like that.
Which amp would you recommend for me? Would either the LD 1+ or the EF2 be a good choice for the grados? Are there alternatives to consider?
Just to avoid misundestandings, I don't want to replace the MKIII, I would use the hybrid amp as an addition to it. My DAC Magic should arrive soon, which has two outputs, so I would be able to use two amps without having to mess around with the cables.