[Wazza]

But the question remains, which amp I should get

.
I'm doubting between the MKIII & MKV, Tubes vs. Solid-State...
The MKIII has tubes, which I really want to give a try, but it also comes with some downsides such as maintenance, and more reliability problems.
The MKV probably has a more detailed sound, less maintenance, but is also more expensive.
My current setup uses a Marantz CD5001 OSE cd-player as source, and I use its internal headphone jack as amp (which isn't a good solution for a power-hungry headphone such as the K601), And the K601 are my primary headphones (I also have an older philips which I never use).
I'm hoping that an amp will improve the sound quality, my current configuration has some sibilance issues, at least with some recordings (maybe this is just a problem with those recordings and isn't fixable by changing amp /source), At first I thought a tube amp would do the trick, And I'm interested how tubes actually sound, but then again I do not want to sacrifice detail either, but musicality is more important to me then detail or accuracy, in the end both the MKIII and MKV have their pros and cons.
But I'm wondering, with a tube amp, do you sacrifice a lot of detail, or is the difference not that big?

I hope people can give me some advice to make my decision between these two models...

 

[rpnfan]

In the german hifi-forum many state that the Meier amps are not the best solution for the AKG K601/K701. Others use this setup and are very happy. It mainly boils down if you like the warmer sound of the Meier amps. I personally only had a very short listineng to the Cantate/K701 combo. I liked it, but was suprised how warm the sound was and would need more time to deceide if it's the sound for me.

I also have the CD5001 and you're right that some sibliance comes from the so-so headphone output of the CDP. Sibliance will be less or gone and overall sound willl improve -- especially the bass. I listened to the Eaton for one day and liked the combo with my K601. That could be an option too. Also the Lake People amps are easy to get in germany and are told to be a good match to the AKGs.

 

[Wazza]

Uh oh

After reading around on these forums I got a bit too excited about the MKIII, so eh, I mailed David I would order one

If anyone wants to scream at me "Dont do it!!!, Please do it now since David hasn't replied yet

Still, the MKV is in the back of my head, problem is, I like both, I like the fact that the MKV is very transparant and detailed, but I also like the way Penchum described the MKIII's as being very analog & smooth sounding, since my current setup is quite harsh and fatiguing, plus the fact that the MKIII is a lot cheaper.
Now I hope everything goes well...

 

[Golden Monkey]

You should be more than happy with the MK III, don't worry about it. Congrats on finally taking the plunge. I love my MKV, but wish it had that lovely tubey glow about it. ENJOY!

PS - David's great, and responds promptly to any emails, so don't worry about any customer service or support issues...these guys are top notch.

 

[dr dougie]

LD III and DT880 is a good combo, I think you will have a lot of fun with a K701 through the LD III. Don't forget the amp will sound much better after a few hundred hours of burn in and replacing the stock driver tubes with the many better ones available. I agree that the LD III is worth the price. It's well built, customer service is great and shipping is surprisingly fast from China.

 

[Wazza]

Well, today my Little Dot arrived!, and it works perfectly!

First Impressions are pretty good, there´s definitely more bass than before, deeper as well, however the bass sounds pretty muddy, it isn't as tight as before, maybe this will change over time.
Also it seems that the sound isn't as detailed as I hoped for, maybe even less than before.
I'm kinda slightly underwhelmed right now, but haven't compared it back and forth to my headphone output of the Marantz, and the Little Dot hasn't burned in at all (Dont know if that makes a difference).
I'm not using very expensive interconnects at the moment, I picked them up at a local electronics shop, since I didn't have any and wanted to test the Little Dot.
I read in the manual of the LD MKIII that you cant plug or unplug your headphones when it is turned on, is this completely true?
I mean even if I dont play music and have the volume turned all the way down, it is still a problem if I plug or unplug my headphones?
It kinda makes it hard comparing things, and switching tube amps on and off frequently isn't good at all.

 

[vvanrij]

The LD definetly needs good burn-in, my mkivse was very muddy in the bass and also didn't have a lot of detail, but past 50 hours its already a big difference.

 

[Wazza]

Well, I'm comparing it to my Marantz headphone output and the difference is surprisingly small, actually I hardly hear a difference

.
After reading so many posts about how a headphone amplifier would improve the sound, and how the AKG's needed a good headphone amplifier to sound good I kinda feel disappointed, I was expecting big differences

.
I have to admit that the LD MKIII is my first headphone amplifier and I'm pretty new to "hifi" and I'm definitely no audiophile or have "golden ears"

, But still, if the differences between a good headphone amplifier and a bad/average one are as big as people say here than the average John Doe should have no problem picking up the differences.
Anyway, I couldn't hear the difference between a 320 kbps MP3 and a flac file but when I compared them with Audiodiffmaker the differences were pretty big...

Edit:
I'm kinda exaggerating, I just compared again, with some fresh ears (last time I already listened a lot before comparing), and definitely hear differences, I think

 

[Golden Monkey]

The Marantz players have a pretty respectable heaphone section, but you should definitely hear a step up in sound quality. Being that this is a tube amp, leaving it powered on for a little bit to warm up before listening should help. You'll REALL notice a difference in an A/B comparison after your amp is burned in, as vv mentions...don't worry.