[DNZGamer]

Never have bought a full sized headphone amp before, this will be my first purchase. Hope to gain some guidance on how much I should spend.

I hear tons of great things about both the LD 1+ and MK III on forums but another poster suggested the La Figaro 336c.

My question is, which would be the best value for its money? I really want to try tube amps as I have never heard them before and people seem to rave about their synergy with Grado RS1i.

They are all about $100 difference from each other from ebay so it would be great to hear some people who have moved up the chain progressively and tell of the differences in performance between each price gap. One thing I was told regarding LittleDot was that it would require more maintenance than the La Figaro. That was concerning as I am not familiar with tube amps at all and don't want to have to mess around with it. At least not initially.

I am also open to other suggestions within these price ranges but these are the ones I've read up on so far.

The one thing is that these amps have to be able to drive an HD650 well as I plan on picking up this headphone as soon as I find a great used price. Will try to get my hands on an Ultrasone pro 900 sometime within the year as well but thats mostly for the heavy bass and surround sound so it would be a bonus if it also is good for the Ultrasone.

Also, as someone who has only owned portable amps before, how does full size amps compare with portables in terms of performance for price? I bought a $300 Headstage Arrow 4g so would something like the LD 1+ still be signfiicantly better in terms of SQ?

I am confused mostly because I want great value but I also don't want to suffer from Upgraditis very soon afterwards (which I have) so I think I want a great value product for the money more than anything else.

Edit:

I keep seeing people bring up how the MAD Ear+ HD is much better when people are discussing the Little Dot but they about 3-4x the cost. Can you find them much cheaper or are people just recommending a super expensive upgrade out of the blue?

 

[DNZGamer]

Ah I made some mistakes. The next amp after MKIII was the La Figaro 332. Got those confused. I've also now found some comparisons between La Figaro and MKIII. Didn't know they were more commonly called Darkvoice, how confusing.

So the prices in China (where I will buy these) are actually:

LD MK1+ @ $110
LD MK3 @ $190
La Figaro 336c @ $240
La Figaro 332c @ $340

 

[telecaster]

It's not maintenance I was refering to PCB in little Dot versus point to point wiring in La Figaro.
Tube amp or any piece of gear can break even solid state.
 
 
 

 

[DNZGamer]

Thanks but that kind of went over my head a bit. 

So basically, if I don't have a warranty policy, I should go with something safe (and you kind of give me the impression that tubes are more prone to failures), so a La Figaro would be good I guess and if it really breaks down, I will just have to do more research and fix it myself. 
 
Also, I made one more mistake... I confused the Little Dot 1+ with the MK 1+. The MK 1+ is a portable, I am guessing the one that is said to be really good with Grado is the LD 1+. That amp is actually under $80 in China after shipping. I think I will have a hard time passing on that...
 
Aside from reliability, what other differences are there between the Figaro 336c and MK III, and do you think the LD 1+ gives similar performance at a much lower cost for the RS1i?

 

[telecaster]

I doubt that it will give you better performance. You can try it if you want though!
Tube amp is not more prone to failure. Read on here solid state design even from the US fail every day.
 

 

[DNZGamer]

Quote:

I doubt that it will give you better performance. You can try it if you want though!
Tube amp is not more prone to failure. Read on here solid state design even from the US fail every day.
 
Also never repair a tube amp yourself it is dangerous, a technician will do it for 30 bux. But you may pay a 100 if it has a PCB requiring the tech work way more time on it.
 
For a solid state design, repair is not cost effective and the manufacturer will just replace the motherboard, it's that cheap.

What are you referring to? 

 

[Melvins]

my ld works like the day I got it, and I haven't seen ANYONE on this board post any complaints about their LD amp breaking so I have zero idea what this guy is referring too. 

 

[DNZGamer]

Good to know, because the warranty would be useless since I am not shipping it back to China. I think I will start with the LD 1+ and see how it goes. If I don't like it, I could probably just sell it without much of a loss anyways. Will be excited to compare it with portable amps.