[tyty5150]

I'm going to tell this in a story format so you can know exactly what I went through.
 
I got the Little Dot I+ a while back and instead of using the headphone jack on my SACD player I now use the LDI+ of course.  Just tonight I was listening to Aphex Twin's Flim from the album Come To Daddy with my Sennheiser HD 555 using the headphone out of the LDI+.  I know the song pretty well so when I heard the bass bumps they seemed to be lacking in volume and overall punch.  I thought to myself that doesn't sound right so I turned the amp off and removed the phones and then plugged them into my source's headphone out.  Pressed play and there was the bass bump again (what I'm used to hearing).  I did switches really quick and got the volume of the treble the same with both headphone outs on the separate units.  So each time I switched the highs and mids seemed constant but the bass was different.
 
Many things popped up into my mind. I can't cite these sources but I believe I've read some people say dedicated amps clean up a headphone's response (like tighter and cleaner bass) and some say they improve bass response on bass light headphones.  Others say dedicated amps don't make a sonic difference they simply amplify the signal very cleanly and try to keep the distortion to a minimum (thus the amps let the headphones do an accurate job of reproduction otherwise bad amplification is used and the sound is muddied or bass-shy, etc.).  Tube amps apparently have warmth and solid state (SS) are for accuracy and being true to the source.  Which one amplifies more linearly?  That's what I want, everything to be amplified linearly because if not then I'll hear certain frequencies amplified more than others.  As far as I can tell, both tubes and SS are very linear when done correctly, it just seems SS are good for low impedance (high current) and tubes are good for high impedance (high voltage).  Well, I'm pretty sure the little headphone amp in my SACD player is solid state cause I've seen pictures of the unit opened up and there are no tubes.  LDI+ is of course hybrid tube, but it still has tubes.  Lastly, I know I've read people say a dedicated headphone amp is better than an amp found within a source unit...
 
I did some other tests.  I took out my M50 and a bass CD.  Plugged it in and listened to it on the LDI+, switched to headphone out on the source and more bass (and sub bass).  So in a sense, this agrees with the "tightening up" with dedicated amp use if that's correct.  Then I switched to AD700 and back to Flim and yet again I got a loss in bass with the external amp.  That disagrees with post 14 on this thread here.  Basically it did the opposite of the improving bass response on bass light headphones.
 
So I'm really confused.
 
Is this the "warmth" everyone talks about with tubes?  Loss in bass?  I mean what is warmth (good mids?)?  I don't know.  It certainly is different than the small SS amp in the source unit.
 
Correct me if I have anything wrong.  I just want to get this solved.  If it's more true to the source with less bass then so be it, but I don't know...  Seems strange.
 
Just as a side note, no searches came up with "bass light Little Dot I+" when I searched for it.  And another side note, when I first got the unit I heard static and distortion (much like pink noise) and then cleaned the tube pins with DeoxIT and of course checked all the gains on the inside of the unit (caps and jumpers and switches and whatnot are set up correctly).
 
What are your thoughts?  I think failing tubes but I have no idea cause I'm more of a new to amps guy.  Thanks for any help in advance.

 

[apatN]

There's reasons why there are different types of amps. They include different ears and different pair of phones. Every amp has its own sound signature, but after that it all depens on how you (or another head-fier in post 14 for example) interprets that sound. That interpretation is then heavily influenced by your own personal experiencen of previous amps and how you think your music should sound.

 

[kboe]

Some amps are bass light.  Tube amps have the habit of slightly rolling off the highest of the highs, and the lowest of the lows, while at the same time plumping up the mids.  This is just they way your amp sounds. Others will differ of course.

 

[Zombie]

just something to check, any chance you have the bass management sending 80-120 Hz and under to a sub output?

 

[MomijiTMO]

Cynical me says it's the ld mk 1. It drives... Stuff... Well...

 

[tyty5150]

Okay thanks guys (to the posters above).  I guess it is working properly.  Now that I think about it if it were having problems it probably would have trouble with mids too (which seem to be there in abundance).  I appreciate the help.
 
On a brighter note (no pun intended) the amp does have its benefits over my source's headphone out.  I do hear a bit more separation between the instruments and soundstage is improved a bit.  I want to sit down with it more and really do some testing now that all of this has come up.
 
Quote:

just something to check, any chance you have the bass management sending 80-120 Hz and under to a sub output?

Nope, don't have a nice subwoofer and I probably wouldn't put it in my dorm room even if I had one.  Not much room for it.  I got into headphones specifically for this reason: not to make my roommates (and whole hall for that matter) mad cause of my music.

 
Quote:

Cynical me says it's the ld mk 1. It drives... Stuff... Well...

 
I seriously don't understand what you mean.  Sarcasm about driving stuff well?  Or are you sarcastic about being cynical?  I'm confused.

 

[Zombie]

not what i meant, some sacd players default to a 5.1 setup(my oppo for one) you have to change it, or any time your listening to a setup using the rca outputs, any lower bass will be missing. the headphone out would likely switch to 2ch or a down mix automatically.

 

[tyty5150]

Quote:

not what i meant, some sacd players default to a 5.1 setup(my oppo for one) you have to change it, or any time your listening to a setup using the rca outputs, any lower bass will be missing. the headphone out would likely switch to 2ch or a down mix automatically.

Ah I see.  Well, when I was young and naive and didn't understand the benefits of SACD (in this case I thought the format was better but I have since realized format doesn't necessarily mean better quality it's about the quality of the recording in the first place, 5.1 is the only benefit as far as I can tell for SACD) I thought I'd just find an entry level SACD player and I did.  There is no 5.1 channel output with this unit, and there are only left and right channels out for analog, no sub out.  I still hear the bass when it goes to the amp it's just quieter.  I realized all of this AFTER having it for a while but it's okay I'm interested in keeping it for now.
 
EDIT: I also found out that hybrid SACDs can be played in regular CD players but with lack of 5.1 (too bad I thought you had to have an SACD player to read them) otherwise my choice would have been different...  One with 5.1 or maybe the ERC-1.  Oh well.