Dynasty62
Head-Fier
First off, I would most certainly like to thank the Head-Fi community for all of the useful information regarding this wonderful world of Hi-Fi. After about two months of research on these forums regarding amplifiers and tubes, I decided to take a chance and pull the trigger on a Little Dot MkIII.
For some of us, whether we are just hobbyists, students, or simply strapped for cash, we might not have the HD800s, the latest Funktion-One speakers, or the most sonically advanced components, but we still strive to pump the most performance and the highest quality out of the equipment that we have. You might consider $245 to be a lot of money to shell out for a piece of equipment. If you fall into this category, I definitely know how you feel.
My System:
Sony Vaio Laptop
Logitech G510 Keyboard w/ USB Audio DAC
Little Dot MkIII Amp/Preamp
Audio Technica ADH700 Headphones
Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 Speakers
Unconventional? Definitely. Do I consider myself a true audiophile? Not really.
Review:
I ordered my Little Dot from David on Jan 16th, and it arrived on Jan 26th to the northeastern United States, which was on par with the construction/QC/shipping times mentioned. LD has some of the best customer service I have seen, and all my emails were answered very promptly.
Out of the box:
The amp and tubes arrived in perfect condition. It features very good build quality, featuring a brushed aluminum and black metal chassis, smooth volume potentiometer, and gold plated RCA jacks. It is very nice looking.
I connected the amp to my DAC built into my Logitech keyboard, and connected my headphones. The unit powered up correctly, and I opened up Winamp, enabled the ASIO DirectX Full Duplex Output Plugin for direct hardware streaming to the DAC and a bit-perfect signal, and cued up a song by Katherine Jenkins. The next few moments were absolutely stunning. I was riveted to my seat... what amazing sound!!! Even right out of the box, the sound was very very full, as if it were a liquid, warm, emotional, and I could resolve many details that I wasn't hearing before. I was in complete rapture and felt like I was soaring within what I was hearing. After being in a trance-like state for some time, I decided to listen more critically, and as is usual before tube and amp burn-in, the bass was a bit floppy, and the highs were a bit harsh, and not all the detail in the song was present. I set a song to loop and let the amp and tubes burn in for 8 hour segments, with an hour break in between.
After about 16 hours,
the amp gained more musicality, and the bass had tightened up quite a bit. The extension was definitely more present. The high frequencies no longer sounded sibilant and were more rolled off. The midrange had grown considerably, and I was hearing a very pleasing, warm tube sound which was sweet and extremely full. Soundstage had opened up quite a bit as well, and I could position the instruments in my songs. However, in more complex passages found in genres such as symphonic power metal, the detail was definitely lost and sounded a little muddy. This probably would lessen as burn in with the stock GE tubes progressed, but I will never know...
Analogue tubes
really fascinate me. I had purchased several sets of EF95 class tubes before my amp even arrived, and I was dying to try them out to see how they would affect the audio signal. I decided to dabble in some preliminary tube rolling, despite my amp not being fully burned in.
The first set I tried were a pair of 1950's Tung-Sol 6AK5. Personally, I did not find these tubes to be as compelling. After another 8 hours of burning in both these tubes and the amp, through the ADH700s, the sound was definitely not as warm, lush and full as the GE tubes, and the highs sounded very sibilant. This was probably compounded by not burning the tubes in long enough, as well as my headphones, which excel at providing an airy sound and high-end sparkle. These tubes, however, had very very good sonic accuracy. Bass was tight and punchy, and complex passages were rendered without a problem at all. For some, this might be what you are looking for, and with a little bit of EQ-ing, these would make good tubes for accuracy, with a hint of tube warmth.
I personally liked a lot of tube warmth and a very full sound, even though it isn't necessarily accurate. I replaced the Tung-Sols with a pair of Amperex 5654 6AK5W. (For those of you who are new to changing tubes, this can be done by gently but firmly pulling the tube straight out. A slight wiggling motion can also help, as they are in their sockets pretty tightly.) Upon firing these tubes up and playing a song, I was absolutely blown away by what I was hearing, even without burn in. These tubes are extremely full and liquid-sounding, with absolutely brilliant sound staging and mids to die for. Emotion! Upon several more hours of burn in, detail is exquisite as well. For instance, I can hear pages being turned, and musicians tapping their music stands in some of my classical crossover pieces. As I listen to Katherine Jenkins again, I feel as if I'm right there with her in a concert hall. Everything sounds so rich and full with these tubes... it reminds me of the acoustics that I remembered hearing when I was performing in Carnegie Hall. Bass extension is very prominent in these tubes, and the bass itself is punchy, but may be a bit much for some people. As my ADH700 are relatively light in bass, these tubes complement them perfectly. Highs were accurate, with cymbal splashes retaining musicality, but were overall slightly rolled off, which again was benficial for my my hot-sounding headphones. These tubes are remaining in my Little Dot until some DeoxIT comes in so I can clean and tube roll my Amperex EF95 Bugle Boys.
Using the Little Dot as a preamp
is absolutely brilliant as well. I linked it up to my Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 speakers, and was once again very impressed. All the tube warmth and detail translates directly into the speaker drivers exactly as I wanted. Lushness, detail, soundstage, and POWER were all present. I can't wait to try watching a movie with this amplifier in my system. With the signal cut, I tried cranking the volume knob all the way up, and this amp is dead silent. There is no buzz of any sort, as well as during actual playback through either speakers or headphones.
Is the amp worth the $245?
A resounding YES! This has probably been the single greatest increase in sound quality in one upgrade that I have witnessed so far and the build quality and customer service of/for this piece of equipment is top notch. There is a definite and audible increase in audio quality, even with consumer and prosumer grade audio equipment, let alone true audiophile equipment. Fair warning though; your signal source should be good, or else you will definitely hear it through this amp, as it is quite accurate. Songs sound much better through bit-perfect hardware streaming through my computer/DAC compared to normal signals through my Creative MP3 PMP. I am highly impressed by this piece of equipment and wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone looking for a desktop headphone amp. If you're on the fence, stop right here. Buy the Little Dot MkIII! I hope this helps!
For my audio references, each targeting specific characteristics of songs and the audio signal, I used the following playlist. I am definitely a fan of vocal/classical crossover, rock, and techno.
Who Wants To Live Forever- Katherine Jenkins- Overall SQ for vocal genre, Mid response: female vocals
I Believe (with Andrea Bocelli)- Katherine Jenkins, Andrea Bocelli- Mid response: male vocals
Running- Sarah Brightman- Complex Passages (Orchestral) and sibilance test
Come Running- Darren Styles, Francis Hill- Bass response and extention test
Shining Star- DJ Fait- Overall SQ for techno genre
좋은 날 (Good Day)- 아이유 (IU)- Sibilance test
Broadway- The Goo Goo Dolls- Overall SQ for light rock genre
Kings and Queens- 30 Seconds to Mars- Overall SQ for alt rock (more electric guitar) genre
Liberty- Aquaria- Super Complex Passages, Mid response: male vocals / heavy metal
Illusive Consensus- Epica- Mid response: female vocals / heavy metal
Dark Chest of Wonders- Nightwish- Complex Passages, Overall SQ for heavy metal
Basic Space- The XX- Overall Detail test
For some of us, whether we are just hobbyists, students, or simply strapped for cash, we might not have the HD800s, the latest Funktion-One speakers, or the most sonically advanced components, but we still strive to pump the most performance and the highest quality out of the equipment that we have. You might consider $245 to be a lot of money to shell out for a piece of equipment. If you fall into this category, I definitely know how you feel.
My System:
Sony Vaio Laptop
Logitech G510 Keyboard w/ USB Audio DAC
Little Dot MkIII Amp/Preamp
Audio Technica ADH700 Headphones
Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 Speakers
Unconventional? Definitely. Do I consider myself a true audiophile? Not really.
Review:
I ordered my Little Dot from David on Jan 16th, and it arrived on Jan 26th to the northeastern United States, which was on par with the construction/QC/shipping times mentioned. LD has some of the best customer service I have seen, and all my emails were answered very promptly.
Out of the box:
The amp and tubes arrived in perfect condition. It features very good build quality, featuring a brushed aluminum and black metal chassis, smooth volume potentiometer, and gold plated RCA jacks. It is very nice looking.
I connected the amp to my DAC built into my Logitech keyboard, and connected my headphones. The unit powered up correctly, and I opened up Winamp, enabled the ASIO DirectX Full Duplex Output Plugin for direct hardware streaming to the DAC and a bit-perfect signal, and cued up a song by Katherine Jenkins. The next few moments were absolutely stunning. I was riveted to my seat... what amazing sound!!! Even right out of the box, the sound was very very full, as if it were a liquid, warm, emotional, and I could resolve many details that I wasn't hearing before. I was in complete rapture and felt like I was soaring within what I was hearing. After being in a trance-like state for some time, I decided to listen more critically, and as is usual before tube and amp burn-in, the bass was a bit floppy, and the highs were a bit harsh, and not all the detail in the song was present. I set a song to loop and let the amp and tubes burn in for 8 hour segments, with an hour break in between.
After about 16 hours,
the amp gained more musicality, and the bass had tightened up quite a bit. The extension was definitely more present. The high frequencies no longer sounded sibilant and were more rolled off. The midrange had grown considerably, and I was hearing a very pleasing, warm tube sound which was sweet and extremely full. Soundstage had opened up quite a bit as well, and I could position the instruments in my songs. However, in more complex passages found in genres such as symphonic power metal, the detail was definitely lost and sounded a little muddy. This probably would lessen as burn in with the stock GE tubes progressed, but I will never know...
Analogue tubes
really fascinate me. I had purchased several sets of EF95 class tubes before my amp even arrived, and I was dying to try them out to see how they would affect the audio signal. I decided to dabble in some preliminary tube rolling, despite my amp not being fully burned in.
The first set I tried were a pair of 1950's Tung-Sol 6AK5. Personally, I did not find these tubes to be as compelling. After another 8 hours of burning in both these tubes and the amp, through the ADH700s, the sound was definitely not as warm, lush and full as the GE tubes, and the highs sounded very sibilant. This was probably compounded by not burning the tubes in long enough, as well as my headphones, which excel at providing an airy sound and high-end sparkle. These tubes, however, had very very good sonic accuracy. Bass was tight and punchy, and complex passages were rendered without a problem at all. For some, this might be what you are looking for, and with a little bit of EQ-ing, these would make good tubes for accuracy, with a hint of tube warmth.
I personally liked a lot of tube warmth and a very full sound, even though it isn't necessarily accurate. I replaced the Tung-Sols with a pair of Amperex 5654 6AK5W. (For those of you who are new to changing tubes, this can be done by gently but firmly pulling the tube straight out. A slight wiggling motion can also help, as they are in their sockets pretty tightly.) Upon firing these tubes up and playing a song, I was absolutely blown away by what I was hearing, even without burn in. These tubes are extremely full and liquid-sounding, with absolutely brilliant sound staging and mids to die for. Emotion! Upon several more hours of burn in, detail is exquisite as well. For instance, I can hear pages being turned, and musicians tapping their music stands in some of my classical crossover pieces. As I listen to Katherine Jenkins again, I feel as if I'm right there with her in a concert hall. Everything sounds so rich and full with these tubes... it reminds me of the acoustics that I remembered hearing when I was performing in Carnegie Hall. Bass extension is very prominent in these tubes, and the bass itself is punchy, but may be a bit much for some people. As my ADH700 are relatively light in bass, these tubes complement them perfectly. Highs were accurate, with cymbal splashes retaining musicality, but were overall slightly rolled off, which again was benficial for my my hot-sounding headphones. These tubes are remaining in my Little Dot until some DeoxIT comes in so I can clean and tube roll my Amperex EF95 Bugle Boys.
Using the Little Dot as a preamp
is absolutely brilliant as well. I linked it up to my Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 speakers, and was once again very impressed. All the tube warmth and detail translates directly into the speaker drivers exactly as I wanted. Lushness, detail, soundstage, and POWER were all present. I can't wait to try watching a movie with this amplifier in my system. With the signal cut, I tried cranking the volume knob all the way up, and this amp is dead silent. There is no buzz of any sort, as well as during actual playback through either speakers or headphones.
Is the amp worth the $245?
A resounding YES! This has probably been the single greatest increase in sound quality in one upgrade that I have witnessed so far and the build quality and customer service of/for this piece of equipment is top notch. There is a definite and audible increase in audio quality, even with consumer and prosumer grade audio equipment, let alone true audiophile equipment. Fair warning though; your signal source should be good, or else you will definitely hear it through this amp, as it is quite accurate. Songs sound much better through bit-perfect hardware streaming through my computer/DAC compared to normal signals through my Creative MP3 PMP. I am highly impressed by this piece of equipment and wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone looking for a desktop headphone amp. If you're on the fence, stop right here. Buy the Little Dot MkIII! I hope this helps!
For my audio references, each targeting specific characteristics of songs and the audio signal, I used the following playlist. I am definitely a fan of vocal/classical crossover, rock, and techno.
Who Wants To Live Forever- Katherine Jenkins- Overall SQ for vocal genre, Mid response: female vocals
I Believe (with Andrea Bocelli)- Katherine Jenkins, Andrea Bocelli- Mid response: male vocals
Running- Sarah Brightman- Complex Passages (Orchestral) and sibilance test
Come Running- Darren Styles, Francis Hill- Bass response and extention test
Shining Star- DJ Fait- Overall SQ for techno genre
좋은 날 (Good Day)- 아이유 (IU)- Sibilance test
Broadway- The Goo Goo Dolls- Overall SQ for light rock genre
Kings and Queens- 30 Seconds to Mars- Overall SQ for alt rock (more electric guitar) genre
Liberty- Aquaria- Super Complex Passages, Mid response: male vocals / heavy metal
Illusive Consensus- Epica- Mid response: female vocals / heavy metal
Dark Chest of Wonders- Nightwish- Complex Passages, Overall SQ for heavy metal
Basic Space- The XX- Overall Detail test
i am thinking about getting one of these. . .
