Good headphone amp?

[theoman]

After weeks of breaking in the little dot III came to life. nice clean sound. the 200 price tag is worth it. i don't get the output on the little dot? what can i use it for?

 

[mythless]

After weeks of breaking in the little dot III came to life. nice clean sound. the 200 price tag is worth it. i don't get the output on the little dot? what can i use it for?

You can use it as a preamp for other amplifiers. So CDP -> Little Dot -> a more powerful headphone amp.

 

[mrarroyo]

After weeks of breaking in the little dot III came to life. nice clean sound. the 200 price tag is worth it. i don't get the output on the little dot? what can i use it for?

The amp should have plenty of power for most cans. Have you checked the gain setting? See table on page 8: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6037680/Little Dot MK III Reference Guide.pdf

If the gain is at max and you still do not get a high output your source may not be putting out the CD standard of 2 V/rms or the tubes may be on the way out.

I would not use an amp to feed another amp since the noise will be multiplied. Just my $0.02, YMMV.

 

[labrat1956]

After weeks of breaking in the little dot III came to life. nice clean sound. the 200 price tag is worth it. i don't get the output on the little dot? what can i use it for?

As an output to a Power Amplifier for driving speakers.
Using your Little Dot as a pre amplifier.

 

[Mr. Lin]

The amp should have plenty of power for most cans. Have you checked the gain setting? See table on page 8: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6037680/Little Dot MK III Reference Guide.pdf

If the gain is at max and you still do not get a high output your source may not be putting out the CD standard of 2 V/rms or the tubes may be on the way out.

I think he meant he didn't understand what the line out was for, which you've also answered in your above post, not that there's not enough power to drive his headphones.

 

[theoman]

Well, after three months of the little Dot. i'm back to the using my Mcintosh C30 and Luxman L430 headphone output. the distortion in lower. adjusting the output on the source and the pre-amps was a hassle.
The little Dot Mk III is worth the price if you want to play with tube and don't have a good amp. I also think Grado's sound better with solid state than tubes.

 

[rnorton]

Removed by poster

 

[rnorton]

Removed by poster.

 

[Mr. Lin]

I also think Grado's sound better with solid state than tubes.

Hmm, that's funny, with my current setup I also prefer my solid state headphone amp for the Grados, and people often seem to prefer tubes with Grados. Aside from personal taste, I think the amp and headphone model themselves are the important factors here.

 

[mrarroyo]

As a norm I prefer Grado's with tube amps. The Graham Slee Solo SRGII w/ PSU1 is one solid state amp from which the Grado sound very good.

 

[Mr. Lin]

As a norm I prefer Grado's with tube amps. The Graham Slee Solo SRGII w/ PSU1 is one solid state amp from which the Grado sound very good.

Just a guess - but I would think most people would likely prefer tubes with Grados, since they're often perceived as being somewhat bright (some models anyway).

Even though I just said I prefer my solid state headphone amp with my 325i's, the latter still sounds great with tube amps.

 

[Bob_in_OKC]

I've been enjoying my recently-assembled headphone setup - Nakamichi CDP-2A, Shanling PH300 and AKG K702. Everything really came together nicely.

 

[dread31]

The vast majority of inexpensive tube headphone amps are going to be OTL, which do not generally work well with very low impedance headphone like Grados. You might consider something like the Schiit Asgard, which is a class A SS headphone amp.

A fine amp to be sure, but the name is....well...nevermind.

Dave

 

[wgrr]

Bottlehead SEX amp (tube ) with the added advantage of driving a pair of high effiency speakers in the future if you want!!! sound great with my grados and my audisone's

I built a SEX amp a few years ago and was blown away using an iPod nano for the source. You are right about driving high efficiency speakers. It had no problem driving my Chorus II's. I bought my kit just before the price jumped to $400. Now it is improved and is closer to $500 for the kit.

I no longer need a headphone amp since my C2200 has a very good headphone amp. If you are a subscriber here keep an eye on Barter Town.

 

[Joshewah]

I use a Qinpu Q2 hybrid (tube and solid state) headphone amp.

It works very well for lower impedance headphones like the Grados. I use Sennheiser and AKGs at 32 and 55 Ohms.

I've swapped the stock Chinese tube out for a NOS GE 5670/2C51 5 red star tube and it sounds pretty fantastic. There are quite a few different tubes to roll with too.

The added bonus are the speaker terminals on the back. This little amp can put out 2.5 watts per channel at 8 Ohms, so if you have any efficient speakers around you can hook them up. At the same time a powered sub can be connected from the 1/8 inch output terminal.

Looks are quite nice too. Sort of has a Flash Gordon look to it. Sophisticated yet fun.

At ~$100 I'd say it's a deal.

 

[Sticklyman]

Woah, that really and truly is a cool looking amp. Very much in the realm of Flash Gordon.

 

[theoman]

sold the grados and little dot. went with the senn's hd-650's.
using a mcintosh C30 or a luxman L-430 for a pre-amp and couldn't be happier.
low distortion is nice. i would have to say they did put great pre-amps in old stuff.

 

[theoman]

But I would have to say it depends on the music listen too.

 

[theoman]

I have had 5 SS headphone amps and my Vintage receivers are all better than the 5 I owned including the $710 Concerto./ For 250 the Matrix is a bargain but you could get a nice Pioneer SX50 or 80 for less and be happier. I own the HE6 and Denon D7000 and my reference is a custom made Decware Taboo with a CSP-2 all with Mullard old stock and the receivers hold up well to them

Frank I agree with you. Went back with my mc30 with senns hd650 and sound sweet

 

[leicamaster]

I love my Little Dot MKIII