[Myriad]

I'm considering picking up an LD MKIII for use with my SR225s. From the limited opinions I've been able to find it looks like it would be a solid combination. I'm also looking at buying a pair of HD600/650 in the future which also seems to pair well with the LD.

Any opinions about the first combo would be greatly appreciated. I also apologize in advance if I missed some obvious info during my searches of the forum.

 

[tintin47]

Grados and senns will need vastly different amps to be driven properly in general. There are great all around amps, but they are much higher up the price ladder. The mk III is not a particularly good match with grados. It is Output Transformerless, which makes it generally more suited for high impedance phones, like the senns.

With my Rs-1s, it makes the midbass and bass seem a little bloated. It just has a lot of bass noise without much tone. If you are looking into an amp for the 225s first, I would look at a LD I+ or one of the other inexpensive hybrids such as the Millet Starving Student. The mk III will make your grados sound better, it just will not get as much out of them as a hybrid or ss amp in the same pricerange.

The mk III does sound pretty good with the senns, especially with a tube change.

 

[tke398]

I haven't had any problems with the mkIII and low impedence headphones. It drives the Denon D2000 and D7000 which has a very low impedence of 25 ohms, I believe.

I did not like the sound of the Grado 325i's, but I don't think that had anything to do with the ability of the mkIII's capability to drive them. The Grado's didn't sound any better using the ibasso D3.

If you like the sound of your Grados, I think the mkIII and some tube rolling will serve you well. You really can't beat that amp for $199.

 

[hypoicon]

I also disagree about any "bloated mid bass" with the RS-1s and the Mk III. Mine sounds just fine and always has, with or without tube rolling.

With Sennheisers, it's a different story. The HD650s just didn't work at all with the Mk III until I upgraded the output tubes to the Russian versions-- driver tubes made a subtle difference, but the bass was postively flaccid with the Sennheisers until I changed the output tubes. I still don't think the amp is a perfect match-- the Sennheisers sound better on my VHP-1 solid state amp.

But with the Grados (RS-1s or SR-80s) the Little Dot has always performed flawlessly for me.

 

[erikzen]

I'm no Grado expert but my HF-1s sound pretty good out of the LD MKIII. I don't notice any problems with bloated bass. As a matter of fact they sound pretty balanced.

 

[Myriad]

Thanks for the opinions guys. I've actually decided to go with the LD I+ for now. Seems to be very good with Grados and at half the price of the MKIII it really helps out on a college budget. The Senns are still a ways off (aka summer job) so I'll worry about that when the times comes.

 

[apatN]

The Senns will do better on the MKIII than the Grados but Little Dot amps have gain switches that changes the sound quite a bit...

 

[iriverdude]

So Grado and Little Dot aren't a good match? (seen the MKI/MKI+ Portables)