[sell224]

I am completely new to the headphone amp world, and am having a lot of trouble finding simple answers to simple questions.. hope you guys can help.

I am planning on buying a little dot mkII amp, but I don't know HOW it will connect to anything. I have an m-audio mobile pre audio interface, but I'm not sure if that can work as a DAC to connect it to computer.

What I want: to plug the little dot mkII via USB, Optical, or Spdif out to my computer. I don't know how to achieve this. Do I need a DAC? If so do I need to throw down another 200-300 dollars (which I can't do) to get this thing running? Or is there any way I could connect this through my mobile pre (if you guys have any knowledge of this device)? I'm not sure what chords are gonna run out of this thing so I'm not sure myself how to make this happen.

Ahh

Please help, thanks

 

[paara]

Hi there,

is this the product you have: M-AUDIO - MobilePre USB - USB Bus-Powered Preamp and Audio Interface

If it is it will work just fine for your Little dot amp.

I dont know how good it is though. Many people (me included) believe that the source (cd player/dac etc.) is as important if not more important then the amp.

 

[sell224]

Quote:

Originally Posted by paara /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hi there, is this the product you have: M-AUDIO - MobilePre USB - USB Bus-Powered Preamp and Audio Interface If it is it will work just fine for your Little dot amp. I dont know how good it is though. Many people (me included) believe that the source (cd player/dac etc.) is as important if not more important then the amp.

Thanks for the response,

Yes that is what I have. It is pretty good, powers up my mackie HR824's pretty well (minus a somewhat loud hiss when turned all the way up, though I'm not sure if thats due to the mackies or the interface, I picked the speakers up second hand).

The reason I am looking to buy an amp though is when I plug my headphones into the headphone input and turn it all the way up in the audio settings I get a ridiculous amount of distortion mostly on the bass (tested multiple headphones and confirmed this.) So I am scared of using this, but I might as well try.

What exactly would I be plugging the headphone amp into in the mobile pre? Like which plug? I'm really not sure I see any inputs that would power an amp?

 

[matanoosh]

Well, for now you can simply connect it via the headphones plug. a 3.5" plug on one end, and double RCA connectors to connect to your amp on the other.
Not the best solution, though, but it WILL work.
In the future, where new funds become availlable, consider buying a cool DAC that will upgrade your listening experience.

 

[sell224]

Quote:

Originally Posted by matanoosh /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well, for now you can simply connect it via the headphones plug. a 3.5" plug on one end, and double RCA connectors to connect to your amp on the other. Not the best solution, though, but it WILL work. In the future, where new funds become availlable, consider buying a cool DAC that will upgrade your listening experience.

Awesome, thanks for the info. Just to confirm, I would plug a 3.5 inch plug into the "stereo line output" plug in the back of the mobile pre, and connect the double rca to the amp?

Pic of the mobile pre (to see the stereo line output, which I'm assuming would normally be used for speakers): http://beonbeat.com/library/MobilePre_USB_callouts.jpg

The only hesitation I have with doing this is that when I plug my headphones directly into the stereo output and turn it all the way up I get completely horribly distorted sound. Leaving it at -8 provides perfectly good sound quality. I am assuming/hoping that I could plug the amp in, keep the volume down to the normal level (which is at like -8, as opposed to 0 which is max, whichever measurement that is) and the amp would work well? I am just scared of throwing down 170 bucks on the amp and not getting any sound quality improvement

If this would work well for now and not detract too much from the quality I will for sure go ahead and buy this amp.

Thanks again for the help!