Little Dot MK VI / Little Dot MK VIII SE Owners Unite
Jan 23, 2013 at 6:24 PM Post #530 of 2,724
Glad to see John still here providing helpful tube rolling recommendations....found any good contenders lately at the same price against the LD MK VI? I've heard the WA22 recently and my LD MK VI wipes the floor clean with certain music.
 
Jan 25, 2013 at 12:42 AM Post #531 of 2,724
I have not heard of anything better than the LD Mk6+ but there maybe some Solid State balanced amps that might be good but I do not care. What more audio refinement can there be? Once my Bendix tubes wear out I just switch to the matched and numbered RCA 6AS7 tubes from David. I still have several quads of NOS tubes. The latest news I have is that I went thru 5 balanced sources, three that I already owned before until I find the one that will work the best for my LD MK6+. I was surprised at the difference and a long story short, I ended up again with the ESI Juli@ card that I switched  the bottom half of the card to balanced mode using TRS jacks to XLR's. The ESI Juli@ computer card is better than all the other outboard DAC's that I tried. That is going to stay that way for the long term now. The previous new XDA-1 balanced DAC that I was using, the single ended outputs is much better than its balanced outs is now driving my other LD tube amp with great results.
 
Jan 25, 2013 at 12:47 AM Post #532 of 2,724
Great to hear, the LK VI+ is indeed a little gem, I will probably get around to trying some Bendix's but they are little costly. Hopefully David pulls some surprise from his sleeves in releasing a new LD flagship sometime soon.
 
Jan 25, 2013 at 1:37 AM Post #533 of 2,724
Now that I have sold my MK6+, I do miss them a little.  6 glowing tubes at night surely was a nice view.  It was a great amp.  But compared to my current amp Liquid Glass, its really shows what it lacked.  For almost 3K more it should or I would had returned it to Cavalli.  The MK6 still holds its ground well sonically, the sound is heavier and the background is less dark than the LG.  What it lacked it that its not as involving as the LG.  Dont get me wrong the MK6 for what its worth it one hell of an amp.  If my space and budget could allow I would get the MK6+ back in a instant. 
 
Jan 25, 2013 at 2:25 AM Post #534 of 2,724
Well it is one heck of a jump in terms of price, so you'd have to sort of expect a near $4k amp to behave like one. I like the LG's ability to tube roll like crazy, but at the cost of more expense spent on tubes, more varieties. Indeed the MK VI+ is a a hellva amp, especially when it outr performs the WA22 which cost 2x more.
 
Jan 25, 2013 at 3:40 AM Post #535 of 2,724
[size=11pt]Since the last time I heard the LG at the RMAF last fall it was great with the HE-6. [/size][size=11pt] Right now my LD MK6+ is sounding better and a new comparison may need to be made. Part of my issue was getting the right driver tubes with the right balanced DAC for my LD Mk6+.  There is also a mod for the couplings caps for the driver tubes earlier in this thread that if you want that could improve the sound from the LD Mk6+. Still I have not heard anything better at the LD Mk6+ price range. I learn that having the right audio components in the chain does makes quite a bit of difference in the final results so comparing my LD Mk6+ with the LG would not be as easy. I also have my LD  Mk6+ driving my Equator D5 monitors and it is fantastic in mixing music instruments together that translate well for others.  [/size]
 
Jan 25, 2013 at 4:27 AM Post #536 of 2,724
[size=11pt]I am trying some new headphones with the LD MkV+ and already have return one headphone and waiting on another to be delivered. I tried the ATH-A900 locally and it keep sliding down on my ears. The AKG K550 at Best Buy did not have enough clamping pressure for bass and the clerk did not want me to bend the headphone!
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Jan 26, 2013 at 1:39 AM Post #538 of 2,724
The right meter should click in about four minutes after warm up. Does the meter light up after this time? You will hear a soft click of the relay and the right needle will move. This is the power and warm-up time sequence of the LD Mk V6+.  The left meter always lights up as soon power is applied.
 
Jan 27, 2013 at 4:35 PM Post #539 of 2,724
Quote:
[size=11pt]Since the last time I heard the LG at the RMAF last fall it was great with the HE-6. [/size][size=11pt] Right now my LD MK6+ is sounding better and a new comparison may need to be made. Part of my issue was getting the right driver tubes with the right balanced DAC for my LD Mk6+.  There is also a mod for the couplings caps for the driver tubes earlier in this thread that if you want that could improve the sound from the LD Mk6+. Still I have not heard anything better at the LD Mk6+ price range. I learn that having the right audio components in the chain does makes quite a bit of difference in the final results so comparing my LD Mk6+ with the LG would not be as easy. I also have my LD  Mk6+ driving my Equator D5 monitors and it is fantastic in mixing music instruments together that translate well for others.  [/size]

Interesting how it's sounding better! That mod is very tempting too, I'm almost willing my mkvi to break down so I can order a new modded one but it won't damn it! I've now got the audiophilleo 2 asynchronous USB interface and it's already sounding good prior to burn in. One thing I wondered, as you have tried them both, is how does the HE-6 sound different compared to the HE-500 which I've got. I went for that one because many preferred it anyway but it was the best value can and at the time I thought the HE-6 would be difficult to drive. I got HiFiMan to send it to me with the HE-6 copper cable which made an enormous difference to SQ, with the silver cable it sounded almost walkman like which I mentioned previously so I would think that it sounds more like a scaled down HE-6 with the copper cable. I put that down to the fact that vendors do not ship cans with the best quality silver. Sometime I  will try a better quality silver cable with the HE-500 which  would be interesting as nigeljames told me previously that a good quality silver cable improved the HE-6 as well despite it already being one of the best cans on detail.
 
Feb 8, 2013 at 5:29 PM Post #540 of 2,724
Hi,
 
I am a owner of  Beyers T1 and Hifiman He500..
 
So am wondering... if I gonna get a Little Dot amp...which of the above 2 models should I be pairing with
 
Mk6+ or Mk8... ???
 
Pls adv...
thanks in advance
 

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