[timleg002]

Would like this to be compared to other amps, such as JDS Labs Atom, Cavalli Tube Hybrid, Little Dot MkII/MkIII

 

[tomb]

This little thing is a toy, nothing else. Oatley is quoted in their listing, "... lets you experience "tube sound." I'd say that's about the extent of this thing.

1. There are signal-coupling capacitors everywhere - between the tubes and the opamp, after the opamp, and even ahead of the volume pot.
2. Like many dirt-cheap, often Chinese-designed audio kits, there is NO power supply included anywhere.
3. They advertise use of a battery, but the schematic shows 18V. This is because there's a huge buck-boost voltage convertor on the board (the blue thing). Those have a worse effect on sound quality than the predominate use of capacitors in the signal supply everywhere.
4. I won't even get into the use of inherently microphonic tubes for audio. They should be outlawed.
5. This one takes the cake in items being left out. Besides no power supply and no audio connectors, THERE IS NO VOLUME POT.

Buyer beware is an understatement in this case. If you simply want to fiddle with an electronic oddity, go for it. If you want something to really use with headphones, look elsewhere. Why not Pete Millett's NuHybrid Millett headphone amp? It's right here in this forum section and while very inexpensive and fairly simple, it has the backing and support of one of the premier pioneers in headphone amplification (particularly with DIY).