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Little Dot MK VI / Little Dot MK VIII SE Owners Unite
Jun 10, 2012 at 7:26 AM Post #241 of 2,724
Quote:
jdevesa said:
Well, mine came with the following tubes (at least what I can read on them):
 
 
Driver Tube - 2 6N9P J+ 70 II
Power Tubes - 4 Rayeton JAN6080 WC 41
 
I am using the NuForce Icon DAC which has no balanced outputs (RCA connection) and connect my Hifiman HE-500 using the balanced port. 
 
Still looking for a good fully balanced DAC that is better than the NuForce, any recommendations? 
Click to expand...

Two good ones come to mind.
 
http://nekoaudio.com/
 
http://dhost.info/mhdtlab/havana%20balanced.htm
 
Jun 22, 2012 at 1:22 AM Post #242 of 2,724

I received my Little Dot VI+ from David. I changed the Chinese driver tube to a GE 6SL7 with bottom getter's leaving the RCA 6080 power tubes in place. The sound quality is spectacular!
eek.gif

I will write a more formal review a bit later. This is the seventh vacumm tube amp I brought over the years and it is amazing!
 
Jun 22, 2012 at 3:23 PM Post #247 of 2,724
I think you are looking at the wrong type of amp for your need. The MKVI is a fully balanced design and need a balanced sourced and balanced headphones. Using it to amplify the signal from you iMac will be a waste of money.
 
Jun 22, 2012 at 3:27 PM Post #248 of 2,724
I use some spider brand cabled between my LittleDot MK IV SE and my Schiit Bifrost.
 
Honestly don't notice any difference between these and the ones it came with.
 
Jun 22, 2012 at 3:43 PM Post #249 of 2,724
Quote:
nombedes said:
Plan to connect the little dot to the iMac using the headphone jack on the back of the iMac.  Bad idea?  
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Quote:
zenpunk said:
I think you are looking at the wrong type of amp for your need. The MKVI is a fully balanced design and need a balanced sourced and balanced headphones. Using it to amplify the signal from you iMac will be a waste of money.
Click to expand...

 
It's certainly not extremely necessary to have a 'balanced' DAC to match a 'balanced amp'. A balanced amplifier will still run balanced without a balanced source. You still get all 4 channels amplified. However, I would suggest an iMac has a low quality sound signal it is passing, that the Little Dot won't sound it's finest, and to be honest, it is very revealing of your source. If you have some extra cash, I'd suggest looking at getting a dedicated DAC to go with it. If you don't I would suggest thinking about it in the near future. 
 
Jun 22, 2012 at 3:49 PM Post #250 of 2,724
Quote:
nombedes said:
Plan to connect the little dot to the iMac using the headphone jack on the back of the iMac.  Bad idea?  
Click to expand...

 
 
OK - so this wont work.  Coming out your iMacs headphone jack is ok.  However, you have to use an optical cable to do that.  
 
Now lets put you in a pretty good entry level single ended DAC like this one:
http://www.mav-audio.com/base/product/tubemagic_d2  and you can read about it here:  http://www.head-fi.org/t/470639/maverick-audio-tubemagic-d1-dac-amp-condensed-faq-and-info-thread  and here:  http://www.head-fi.org/t/608393/maverick-audio-tubemagic-d2-dedicated-dac-review-faq-info-thread  
 
Now if you want to stay with a Little Dot Amp - you might want to look here:  http://www.littledot.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=816&sid=c3fc1b6cff869beee7f77d4d8578ba21  and if not Little Dot stuff how about some Schiit:  http://schiit.com/cart/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=0&products_id=2
 
Heck, you can even do DAC/Amp combo units like the Audio-GD stuff.   It's said to be good as well:  http://www.audio-gd.com/En%20audio-gd.htm
 
What ever DAC you get, just make sure it has a optical input.
 
I don't know what your budget is so this is really just entry level stuff.  If your budget is higher then you can get better stuff.  However, to make if work out of your iMac's headphone jack - your going to need a optical cable, a DAC, and then the headphone amp.
 
This is just for starters..
 
Darryl
 
Jun 22, 2012 at 3:51 PM Post #251 of 2,724
Thank you.  Very good advice.   Anyone have a recommendation for a DAC?
Which would go well with my projected setup?  (iMac = Little Dot = Seenheiser 700)   (oops did not see preproman post above)
 
Jun 22, 2012 at 5:21 PM Post #252 of 2,724
Quote:
nombedes said:
Thank you.  Very good advice.   Anyone have a recommendation for a DAC?
Which would go well with my projected setup?  (iMac = Little Dot = Seenheiser 700)   (oops did not see preproman post above)
Click to expand...

 
I could give you a slew of suggestions, but it's hard to be specific without knowing how much you're really willing to spend on the arrangement. Personally, I like the audio-gd dacs. They have a huge range of prices, so a general price range is important. 
 
Jun 22, 2012 at 5:45 PM Post #254 of 2,724
[size=11pt]For a low cost DAC I would recommend the Behringer SRC2496 and if you can get a good used one even better. The Behringer is also a DAC/ADC unit meaning that you digtalize a stereo analog signal and send to a recording device. The Behringer can handle three different digital inputs RCA, optical and XLR. It does not have a USB input. For the output it has balanced XLR’s AES and unbalanced RCA outputs are available and can drive them all the same time without degradation since all the outputs are isolated from each other. In my case my I am using the M Audio Audiophile 192 PCI Audio Interface S/PDIF output connected to my  Behringer SRC2496 which in turn using the AES output to my RDL HR-DAC1 DAC unit and using its balanced XLR’s to my Little Dot VI+.  Another advantage of the Behringer unit is that it has so many adjustments you can make with sampling rates and bit depth and others all on the front panel making it a tweeter delight for the price.  Behringer even makes a more advance unit called the DEC2496 if you are in room correction.[/size]
 
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