[Majinwar]

I'm trying to figure out which tube amp to get for my Denon D2000s and I had my eye on a Little Dot MK II until I saw "Suitable Headphone Impedance: 32 - 600 ohms".

The D2000s are 25 ohms and if I'm not mistaken impedance mismatch causes early death of equipment??

Can anyone steer me in the right direction of a tube amp that supports my D2000s? Or is the Little Dot MK II fine?

Thank you for your time.

 

[Tridacnid]

Uhhhmmm, no? I could use my Etymotic er6i's with my LD MKIII, and they are 16 ohm.

 

[Majinwar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tridacnid /img/forum/go_quote.gif Uhhhmmm, no? I could use my Etymotic er6i's with my LD MKIII, and they are 16 ohm.

Right, but on the LD's headphone impedance it says 32-600... So wouldn't that mismatch be bad for your tubes and cans?

 

[Golden Monkey]

You don't need a tube amp for the D2000s. You COULD, but SS works just fine with them...I loved mine with the MKV, but they didn't sound nearly as good on the Woo...

 

[Majinwar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Golden Monkey /img/forum/go_quote.gif You don't need a tube amp for the D2000s. You COULD, but SS works just fine with them...I loved mine with the MKV, but they didn't sound nearly as good on the Woo...

So maybe I should go with the LD I+ Hybrid instead? Which uses both SS and Tubes?

EDIT: I'm really set on the LD MKII though haha..

 

[olblueyez]

Go solid state, or you will be wasting money.

 

[pompon]

My SP MPX3-Slam (tube) eat easily my Apache (solid state) with all my headphones (HD650 or D5000 or DT990)

Probably you was using tube amp not strong enough.

 

[Alpha 1 Omega]

think pf the MKII as a bridge to even better cans and as long as you set the gain down an the dot it has no problems with low ohm cans. I started with shure e3s they are 26 ohm no problems to report here..

 

[Orcin]

I can tell you for certain that a Woo 6 will run those phones and sounds great with them.

 

[pataburd]

I've had excellent results driving the D2000 with the hybrid Bada PH-12. Maybe some slight sensitivity issues (a lttle background fizz), but the sound was really nice. The all-tube Darkvoice 337 didn't do as well with the D2000, though. In all fairness, I should hear the D2000 driven by a SS amp, like the Opera . . . But it's difficult to go without tubes, once bitten! : )

 

[obobskivich]

i originally demo'd the Denon's at a local hi-fi dealer, on both a MuFi x-can (tube hybrid) and McIntosh tube preamp, reall liked the sound, ended up getting a CI Audio SS amp because it was less expensive, and, waddya know, I like the sound better too

honestly, I'd just get a nice smooth SS, tubes can work just as well though, so its really up to preference (I don't find the SS too cold or anything, same goes the other way, tubes weren't too tubey (lulz))

really should get around to DIY'ing a tube amp or something, just to be able to make more aggressive comparisons, haha

 

[Majinwar]

Is there a downside of me picking up the LD MKII over the hybrid though?

I'm purely basing my assumptions of tubes > SS because of my friends and my own guitar/bass amps. Tubes are just so much better sounding to me.

If tubes don't work the same way for headphones, I'll gladly go down to the LD I+ hybrid.

Any input is always appreciated!

 

[obobskivich]

honestly, I'd audition some good SS equipment and some good tubes, you may be surprised at what you find, hybrids are another route as well, or you can do pure SS with a tube buffer, or you can do SS with a tube based/buffered source, theres really a lot of options and solutions to help tailor the sound to be where you'd like it

but honestly, like I said up top, audition some equipment, go listen to some hi-fi tubes, see what the sound signature is like, and then go listen to some hi-fi SS, and see what its like, you may not neccisarily want tubes in your system, or you may not be able to live without them

however, I do think its a bit unfair to say that tubes are always better, audio is very subjective, there are many correct solutions to the problem, but none of them are neccisarily the right answer, if that makes sense

 

[olblueyez]

Bada is a hybrid with mosfet output, it should be able to drive low impedance headphones right? Standard tube amp, is better with high impedance cans.

 

[Rednamalas1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by olblueyez /img/forum/go_quote.gif Bada is a hybrid with mosfet output, it should be able to drive low impedance headphones right? Standard tube amp, is better with high impedance cans.

Bada is very close to SS sound than tubes IMO, but it does hum a bit, depending on amps used. Some tube amps (depending on careful tube rolling, of course) sound excellent with low impedance cans. (ie grado, AD2000, etc)