Little Dot's QC/workmanship

[Navyblue]

I wonder if this is rule or exception.

Those pictures shows part of the PCB, but pretty much the whole thing that has soldering look like those.

I have been having some small issues with the amp, and wonder what's wrong with it. I opened it up, and wonder that the amp could work at all with no major short circuit.

 

[ciphercomplete]

I have owned two of their amps and neither of them had PCBs that looked like this. That really looks bad. Show the pics to David and see what he says.

 

[ddoingwell]

Yikes!

Is this the guts of the LD MK1? I was wondering if stuff like this was likely to happen with the feeding frenzy surrounding the LD MK1+ (and the assumed production rush to fill orders) and asked as much in a thread a while back.

There are a lot of cut-rate($-wise) LD MK1s on eBay right now; could people be selling fakes/copies or product "seconds"? That's a big ol' mess you're showing us here; what has David from LD to say about this? I haven't read a single critical work about his biz ethics thus far...

You're doing a lot of us a favor by high-lighting this and I for one will be watching this thread to see where it goes.

Good work.
Don

 

[Navyblue]

Thanks Don.

I got my Mk I from a local vendor who imported them from China. I imagine that it isn't made recently surrounding the "frenzy", but I really don't know. I don't think that it could be fake. Factory reject? May be, but it comes with complete packaging.

I mailed these pictures to David, he hasn't responded so far, may be he didn't get the impression that he needs to respond. My past correspondence with him had been swift and pleasant.

Anyway I'm returning this. The battery life appears to be shorter than it should and the LED rarely lit up. I think it looks like there are some short circuits some where. Also it did get a bit luke warm in operation, not sure if it is normal.

 

[sunseeker888]

Had two bad 2++'s and 3 bad MKII's. Finally have one good version of both, and love them, but man what a hassle.

 

[atbglenn]

Although LD service is excellent, their qc sucks from my experience. I've had more than one bad experience with their products.

 

[Spareribs]

Little Dot amps are not perfect and don't expect great service. My Little dot 2+ had arcing problems and I contacted David twice in the past about the problems and he said he would send replacement tubes and they never showed up. Little Dot service is not really consistant.

Little Dot amps are cheap so don't expect good quality service like you would get at Headroom for example. You get what you pay for.

That being said, Little Dot amps are still a good bargain and they are really great amps for the price. If you want to buy a cheap good tube amp, Little Dot is a gamble but over all, it's worth it and still recommended even though you could have some annoying issues. Your iPod or DAP will sound warmer and more natural with a Little Dot amp. Most budget-Fi people will be happy.

Little Dot is great for introducing people to tube amps without spending a lot of money. So I really applaud Little Dot for this aspect. It's a good company over all. But other than that, serious tube lovers who want better amps must look elsewhere.

I still love my Little Dot amp though and it sounds great despite the arcing problems but I've moved on though and upgraded to Woo Audio.

 

[Pricklely Peete]

Heres a pic of my MK III's pcb...it's in great contrast to that work....(sorry about the quality, photographer I'm not) I was adding bypass caps in this particular instance (to the filter caps and the output coupling WIMA's seen in the second shot) All the solder points although unspectacular are clean with no sloppy spots that I could see.......is it possible the MK 1 is subcontracted out for assembly ? Just a guess really.

The electrical tape seen is my addition to keep from scraping the casing off those large electrolytic caps when sliding the pcb back into place ( a real exercise in patience , let me tell you).

I wish I had a taken a shot of the other side of the pcb, I don't have one. The MK III uses WIMA, Eros, 1 % tolerance metal film resistors, United Chemicon caps, heavy duty Fairchild diodes plus a few other parts I need to find out about (IOW don't have a clue what they are. lol

) It's a good list for a budget amp IMO.

Those are pure Teflon and foil .1uf 600V caps ( I got for fairly cheap, Russian Mil Spec) on the underside. They sound divine. 6H30Pi-DR's with a variety of top shelf drivers of NOS vintage and this amp sounds really good for what it is.

Peete.

 

[Navyblue]

FYI guys, I got the reply from Little Tube. They acknowledged that it looks like "B-stock or even a poorly refurbished unit". And my battery problem comes from a bad batch of MkI that has badd battery which is supposed to be recalled. However it isn't explained why the solder blob is there.

 

[Golden Monkey]

Are they offering a replacement or anything, Navy?

 

[Navyblue]

Nope, may be because I didn't get it from an "authorised dealer". I'll be retuning it to the dealer I bought it from, and they'll proceed to get it repaired or replaced. But it'll probably end up with them somehow.