Sennshead
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2009
- Posts
- 196
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- 11
I'll probably be getting back to a more thorough review in the near future, but I wanted to make a few comments on my new portable Little Dot MkI+ before the newness wears off.
Out of the box:
Very clean and good looking. The high gloss black sleeve against the stainless/aluminum (?) top and bottom pieces provides a nice contrast, and the black leather case is a great touch as well.
I was a little put out that I needed to install jumpers (not included) to the circuit board to get the best performance from my amp. After they were purchased and installed I set the gain to X4. I listen to Senns HD650s, and I'd heard some complaints that high impedance (300ohm) phones like these were too quiet with this particular amp. Let me say that at this gain level and with the jumpers they are PLENTY loud! In fact, I turned it up all the way while listening to a Notorious BIG track (320kbps) and the phones actually popped on a couple of the low notes. I say phones, but it could have been my poor eardrums as this was VERY uncomfortable to listen at this level even for a few seconds. Anyways, that's the last time I'll ever do that, but let the haters please take their seats.
The manual states that a livelier sound will be heard with the jumpers in. This is also quite true. As compared to the outputs on my onkyo and Denon AVR's as well as the stock phones jack in my macbook pro the timbre is much brighter and crisper. Both the lows and the highs are louder. This either fixes the subdued sound of the 650s or ruins it depending on your preference. I liked the sound before the amp, but I love the new sound. It has breathed some new life into some old recordings for me and I find myself listening to songs I haven't been interested in in a long time.
My one real complaint has to do with the timbre. While both the highs and lows in my phones benefited from the new sound, I don't like the brightness in the mids. It's not terrible, but for those used to the silky smooth sound from tubes, you'll probably be disappointed a little. I don't know this yet but removing the caps might fix this problem.
As I said I hope to get into the particulars of this great little addition soon, but for now...I think it's a great portable amp.
Out of the box:
Very clean and good looking. The high gloss black sleeve against the stainless/aluminum (?) top and bottom pieces provides a nice contrast, and the black leather case is a great touch as well.
I was a little put out that I needed to install jumpers (not included) to the circuit board to get the best performance from my amp. After they were purchased and installed I set the gain to X4. I listen to Senns HD650s, and I'd heard some complaints that high impedance (300ohm) phones like these were too quiet with this particular amp. Let me say that at this gain level and with the jumpers they are PLENTY loud! In fact, I turned it up all the way while listening to a Notorious BIG track (320kbps) and the phones actually popped on a couple of the low notes. I say phones, but it could have been my poor eardrums as this was VERY uncomfortable to listen at this level even for a few seconds. Anyways, that's the last time I'll ever do that, but let the haters please take their seats.
The manual states that a livelier sound will be heard with the jumpers in. This is also quite true. As compared to the outputs on my onkyo and Denon AVR's as well as the stock phones jack in my macbook pro the timbre is much brighter and crisper. Both the lows and the highs are louder. This either fixes the subdued sound of the 650s or ruins it depending on your preference. I liked the sound before the amp, but I love the new sound. It has breathed some new life into some old recordings for me and I find myself listening to songs I haven't been interested in in a long time.
My one real complaint has to do with the timbre. While both the highs and lows in my phones benefited from the new sound, I don't like the brightness in the mids. It's not terrible, but for those used to the silky smooth sound from tubes, you'll probably be disappointed a little. I don't know this yet but removing the caps might fix this problem.
As I said I hope to get into the particulars of this great little addition soon, but for now...I think it's a great portable amp.
