Thank you for the reply.   OK, so FIIO X1 is a nice player for the Grados. Good to know. I'll have to read up on that player.    Any other candidates anyone?

I'm a Ponoplayer owner and have the Grado GR10 IEM's but the combination just doesn't rock my boat. There is to much voltage out (and hiss) from the Pono to be used with such high sensitivity IEM's. And as both can be described as somewhat lean sounding I would like to get some recommendations...

  Your have good ears. The sound IS slightly different. It is brighter (and/or less warm) It seems that the Pono has more gain than before (louder with the same volume setting). Not really my cup of tea. The sound is a little to cool and etched for my liking. You need warmer sounding headphones...

The Cardas EM5813 is great in my opinion. The only problem is that they take an enormous amount of burn in before the reach their true potential. A burn in of 300 hours (at loud but not stupidly loud volume) is not nearly enough for hearing what they are capable of. I have around 500 hours on...

Hello again. I needed to use chassis connected tube shields to tame the humming. Not very pretty but it worked very well indeed. But even so - the TS62 is still my favorite tube on the Little dot 1+. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I have removed the unnecessary input capacitor...

You are indeed right! The tubes were the culprits. Just found a pair of Sylvania 6DT6 that didn't hum. To bad I liked the humming EI 6HM5 much better. Sylvania was way to sharp sounding for my taste. Interestingly enough while measuring the heaters on the amp I found out that the amp uses AC for...

No, I haven't tried sandpaper but the hum changes when I put my hands close to the tubes and the amp. There definitely is some kind of interference involved. I have tried to shield the tubes with aluminium and the hum quiets down somewhat but not enough. Maybe I have ground issues in my setup...

Just an update. Alas all of the tubes recommended by gibosi hummed to much in my setup with Grado (a borrowed Sennheiser HD650 was quiet). I had to settle for a pair of Philips Miniwatt TS62 With OPA2107 (the LME499990 sounded too threadbare and cold with these tubes). As of now just the Philips...

Great! Tubes and op-amp based on your recommendations are already ordered. I have no time to waste on unmusical hifi.

Just a few follow up questions - do the above mentioned tubes need some kind of strapping between the pins, and is it a reason for concern that some of the tubes draw a bit more heater current from the transformer than the stock 6J1?

Thanks gibosi! A thorough answer and very much appreciated. There sure are some helpful guys on this thread.   Regards, VB

Hello, again!   Can somebody (who has experience with the Voskhod 6ZH1P-EV) recommend alternative tubes with more musicality? Details, bass etc. is amazing, but the "foot-tapping" quality seems to be missing. I have the stock op-amp so perhaps that's part of the problem. Please advice. By the...

Sound advice indeed! The bass is very very strong at the moment and the soundstage is a bit "underdeveloped". I'll guess that some burn-in will do the trick....Or another set of tubes.

Just received the Little Dot 1+ this week, but alas one of the tubes was a dud. Luckily enough I had bought a pair of Voskods just in case. The amp sounds very good already but how long does it take to burn it fully in, and what kind of changes can I expect?   Regards, VB

  Ok, thank you for the answer. When I get it I probably try to check where it gets hot. Maybe some parts can be changed or given better cooling. I don't like to turn off preamps and such (its probably all those years using Black Gate capacitors).    I'm really looking forward to getting the...

It's a little of topic but is it true that you need to turn the Little Dot 1+ off and let it cool after some hours use? And if so - why is it necessary? I have used tubes in preamps, cd-players and headamps before and never had any problems whatsoever. Does it get very hot or is it the wattage...