fran
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- May 3, 2006
- Posts
- 846
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- 11
Hi all,
I'm looking for a new headphone amp and am now pretty much set on a little dot - but theres the question, do I go for the MKIII or MKIV?
I'm using a LD2 at the moment and use both HD650s and K501s so I would need to be able to use both of these. I have good quality sources - Teres turntable and eastsound CDP primarily and an aikido based preamp. I intend to use the LD MKIII or IV as a headphone power amp using the attenuator on the pre as a volume control.
So I know the question has been asked before, but not clearly answered:
Is the MKIV worth it over the MKIII? I want a good quality neutral sound, not either emphasising treble or bass.
Has anyone listened with both of those cans to the MKIII or IV. Has anyone listened to those 2 amps and come down for either one?
EDIT: Another issue is the tube equivalents. Both amps use the same input tubes but the MKIV uses 6H30 as power tubes (no real equivalent) where as the MKIII uses 6N6 which can be subbed out by ECC99, E182CC, 6840 and 6BL7 (and maybe 6H30). I know the 6H30 is very highly rated - but is a bit of an unknown entity other than that. Availability of different tubes is a big plus in my books - about the only major fault of the original LD2.
Any advice much appreciated!
thanks,
Fran
I'm looking for a new headphone amp and am now pretty much set on a little dot - but theres the question, do I go for the MKIII or MKIV?
I'm using a LD2 at the moment and use both HD650s and K501s so I would need to be able to use both of these. I have good quality sources - Teres turntable and eastsound CDP primarily and an aikido based preamp. I intend to use the LD MKIII or IV as a headphone power amp using the attenuator on the pre as a volume control.
So I know the question has been asked before, but not clearly answered:
Is the MKIV worth it over the MKIII? I want a good quality neutral sound, not either emphasising treble or bass.
Has anyone listened with both of those cans to the MKIII or IV. Has anyone listened to those 2 amps and come down for either one?
EDIT: Another issue is the tube equivalents. Both amps use the same input tubes but the MKIV uses 6H30 as power tubes (no real equivalent) where as the MKIII uses 6N6 which can be subbed out by ECC99, E182CC, 6840 and 6BL7 (and maybe 6H30). I know the 6H30 is very highly rated - but is a bit of an unknown entity other than that. Availability of different tubes is a big plus in my books - about the only major fault of the original LD2.
Any advice much appreciated!
thanks,
Fran