I received the Douk Audio Little Bear P7 yesterday, I ordered it May 4th and the shipping information said it would arrive sometime late June or early July so I was quite surprised and happy to receive it so "early".
It came very well packed in white foam and everything was unscathed. IMO it looks fantastic in the pictures (this was one of the driving reasons for having to purchase it) and it doesn't disappoint in person either! Its got about the same footprint as my Little Dot MKIII. The face-plate is well done with all printing looking sharp and square to the edges which is always nice
. The recessed inputs are also well done. They are mounted on a triangular recessed plate with a high gloss finish contrasting the flat brushed face-plate. Volume knob is mounted square and does not wobble as I had seen in another video review. Tube sockets are good with the exception of the right 6N3 tube socket that is mounted slightly at an angle but not too bad for a relatively inexpensive tube amp.
It has a stepped volume which I wasn't aware of but it is silent and works well, I usually do not like stepped volume controls but this one works very well and I don't find myself longing for a step that isn't available. The unit looks classic with the tubes installed and after connecting it directly to my Oppo multi disc player I hit the rear power switch and prayed. After reading the very limited reviews on the P7 it seemed either people loved it of hated it. I gave it a minute or so to get up to operating temp and plugged in my Beyerdynamic DT880 600ohm Premiums and listened a bit, remember no external DAC and just a lower cost RCA cable connecting them. Result? Not too freakin bad! I playing some Acoustic Alchemy Natural Elements. Detailed, check, no hiss or other noises, check, slight smell of new electronics in the room, check. It does use a small fan to cool itself and listening through open back headphones at times I could hear the slightest whirl from the fan.
I did have to turn the volume up to around 11:00-11:30 to get to my preferred listening volume level which is high for me as I usually listen around 9 o'clock on most my amps.
I listened for a half hour or so and with the lights down it's a very calming experience to have music being played through comfortable headphones and looking at the glow of the tubes. Like a mini campfire when you just sit and stare at the flame (or glow in this case) and drift off. Luckily there were no fires to report! Beautiful first session.
I then tried the P7 with my NAD cd player feeding my Maverick Audio D2 DAC with some Audio Art IC-3 interconnect cables with my Superlux HD668b headphones. The Superlux are 56ohm and sure enough my volume was much lower at a click above 9 o'clock. Listened to some Shastro Malimba Moon and I have to say everything sounded fine to me. Was this the last word in resolving high frequencies? No, but the satisfaction of knowing I was listening to a $120. amp and getting this much enjoyment made it special. I didn't try to over analyze the music I just enjoyed the bloom if the bass through the glowing tubes, the mids were like a waft of smoke rolling through the room and the treble had a delicate touch with all the little details that tubes seem to relay within the music.
Next I plugged in my Beyerdynamic DT990 600ohm Black Edition and hit play on my go to reference, Lee Ritenours tribute to Wes Montgomery Wes Bound. This is just a fantastic disc recorded by the GRP label, it has beautiful bass and exquisite mids as Lee plays like a man possessed by the amazing spirit of Wes himself. It was all there I couldn't believe it! As the unit played it seemed to get even better. Needless to say I am mightily impressed with the little P7. I'm glad as I've seem to have gotten a good one, at least for now. I've ordered a RCA 6080 to try out and a pair of matched 6N3's to explore tube rolling options but dam if it doesn't sound great stock!
