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My new Tube Headphone Amplifier just arrived!!
For the past few years I've powered my Sennheiser HD580 headphones with an Antique Sound Labs MG-Head OTL tube amplifier and while I love just about everything about it, I've been itching to see how some other affordable amps sound. Since I love the warm sound of tubes, I decided to purchase a very affordable amp called the Little Dot MK III for $150+shipping from Hong Kong. My deciding on this amp was based on the high popularity over at head-fi.org, a headphone-centric audiophile website. So far I am very impressed with this amp, though I've only put about 8 hours on it and as many of you know, headphone amps... especially the tube variety, need time to burn-in to achieve their best fidelity. So until then, I'll hold back my complete thoughts on this amp.
The first thing that struck me was build quality. For only $150, I had expected the materials and quality to be below my MG-Head. But upon lifting it out of the packaging (which was excellent), I was immediately impressed by the weight of the amp which is roughly 6.6lbs or 3kg. The main black case body and silver front bezel seems to be a nice solid aluminum construction, and the little rings which surround each vacuum tube are a polished silver-gold color and reflect the glowing tubes in the dark for a nice effect. The gain knob is very sturdy and smooth while adjusting it as well. The front has a 1/4" output jack for headphones and on the rear are two pair of RCA jacks for both stereo input and output. Lastly on the bottom are a couple holes for access to dip-switches that allow you to adjust the maximum output gain from 100, 300, and 350mw depending on if your headphones are 32, 120, or 300/600ohm impedance. Mine are 300ohm so I adjusted it according to the manual.
I'll post my full assessment in a couple days once I have had enough hours on the amp to do so, and later on I'll definitely do some tube rolling.
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