Review and Measurements of Little Dot MK III Tube Headphone Amplifier

[JohnYang1997]

That is obvious but there are also Solid State Stax amplifiers that should technically be better than the tube ones

High voltage solid-state devices are as well the limiting factor of performance for electrostatic amplifiers. But you need to know that electrostatic headphones are really different load. So solid-state don't really have much lower distortion.

 

[Silou]

Thanks for the explanation!

 

[Krunok]

I'd say they simply use a RTOS (Real Time Operating System) - there are many to choose from

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_real-time_operating_systems

Of course they do, but they had to make a rocket science out of it to justify that enourmous price.

 

[PierreV]

Of course they do, but they had to make a rocket science out of it to justify that enourmous price.

I really can't fathom what you are complaining about... Your bias against them is transparent. Why not even a kind word about the free shipping anywhere in the world?

 

[andreasmaaan]

Since people love the look of tubes glowing, I wonder if one created a (bogus) case with 4 glowing tubes that does nothing other than glow, and then hide a JDS Atom inside, audio output purely from the Atom.

And let people listen to it and then compare it to some high-end tube amps like the Blue Hawaii ...

I wonder how would people subjectively appraise it ?

It's been done by (I think?) Ethan Winer. Can't find the link now...

 

[Krunok]

I really can't fathom what you are complaining about... Your bias against them is transparent. Why not even a kind word about the free shipping anywhere in the world?

LOL I'm still contemplating on a thought that maybe those who are buying such products deserve to pay that price for their ignorance..

 

[Shadrach]

Thanks for the review amirm.
That's about it then. If the differences were just about inaudible with sighted listening and volume levels matched by ear my money would go on no differences discerned in an ABX test.
Given the considerable differences in performance specifications and amim's extensive listening experience if a unit performing this badly can sound as good as the Atom for example then my view is we could probably extend this to most other amplifiers, dacs, music servers, laptops; in fact anything that comes before the loudspeaker.
Soooo, go out and buy what you like the look of and amirm may as well close the site. All the various discussions of the merits of this or that, all the audiophile hot air, all pointless.

 

[maxxevv]

It's been done by (I think?) Ethan Winer. Can't find the link now...

Ahh .. interesting!

Perhaps you can summarise the gist of his "experiment" ?

 

[Veri]

Since people love the look of tubes glowing, I wonder if one created a (bogus) case with 4 glowing tubes that does nothing other than glow, and then hide a JDS Atom inside, audio output purely from the Atom.

I'm pretty sure a lot of hybrid 'tube' designs do nothing with the glowing tube at all, and are simply solid state.
Then read about reviewers 'tube roll' with great success. "wider sound stage, better dynamics, so velvety" lol

 

[andreasmaaan]

Ahh .. interesting!

Perhaps you can summarise the gist of his "experiment" ?

More of a trick than an experiment. IIRC, he invited a few audiophile friends in to listen to his system while apparently flicking between a tube amp and an SS amp. Everyone preferred the tube amp until finally someone called the bluff. Hardly a scientific experiment ofc

 

[maxxevv]

I'm pretty sure a lot of hybrid 'tube' designs do nothing with the glowing tube at all, and are simply solid state.
Then read about reviewers 'tube roll' with great success. "wider sound stage, better dynamics, so velvety" lol

lol...

More of a trick than an experiment. IIRC, he invited a few audiophile friends in to listen to his system while apparently flicking between a tube amp and an SS amp. Everyone preferred the tube amp until finally someone called the bluff. Hardly a scientific experiment ofc

I was actually thinking of an actual full on casing dressed up for maximum bling, as described, then bring it into one of those shops that allow you to try the headphones and amps.

And invite the people there to try the "DIY" amp .... and give their "honest opinion"....

It will be pretty interesting, especially if there was a hidden camera somewhere to record everything, positive / negative or plain nonsense whatever ...

 

[Azeia]

Since people love the look of tubes glowing, I wonder if one created a (bogus) case with 4 glowing tubes that does nothing other than glow, and then hide a JDS Atom inside, audio output purely from the Atom.

Well, I think it's kind of like how some people like to romanticize internal combustion engine cars; if in the future battery tech advances and electric vehicles become super cheap as a result, and thus the ICE cars become yesterday's news, I can imagine some people would still say they'd like to drive an old ICE car just for the nostalgia occasionally, maybe not as your daily driver, but as a secondary leisure car.

I could suggest exactly what you did to these people, that I could build an EV that looks like an ICE car, and when you open the hood, there's a fake engine block in there, with an electric motor to make it vibrate a bit and look like it's actually running for real, I could also hide a loudspeaker in there to make loud engine noises when you press the gas, and perfectly emulate everything. The issue is, at the end of the day, just "knowing" that it's not real, sort of ruins the retro feel of it.

The way I feel about retro stuff is it's fine to appreciate it just for the retro aesthetic as well as just appreciating like how things "used" to be built, etc. But obviously a lot of the claims about it sounding "better" are silly, and even if there was some sort of audible difference, you'd probably just be able to write a plugin for a software media player to emulate that very sound. So personally, the only reason I'd like the Little Dot is just the aesthetics, but my interest in it would indeed be diminished if I knew it was a fake, not because I could hear the difference, but because it's not authentic retro tech, so I'd feel cheated since it's not what I was paying for.

Speaking of fake engine noise, it's worth noting that it's already a thing in many modern cars due to improvements in design that've made the car more quiet even during acceleration:

- https://www.washingtonpost.com/busi...b09a10-a0ba-11e4-b146-577832eafcb4_story.html
- https://www.core77.com/posts/79755/...turers-Pipe-In-Fake-Engine-Sounds-Listen-Here
- https://theoutline.com/post/6158/your-car-is-pumping-fake-engine-noises-into-your-ears

 

[levimax]

I have played around with various tube amps over the years and am back to SS for reliability and convenience rather than "better specs" or "better sound" as when I tried "level matched" and sighted A/B testing I could not hear much if any difference. While much of the "folk lore" around tubes is just that I do think there is some "truth" to tube amps (I am referring to well designed SE triodes rather than push pull designs) having relatively lower distortion at low output levels, having relatively more 2nd order distortion, and having "different / softer" clipping behavior. It would be interesting to see how a SS amp and tube amp with the same measured SINAD and power would fare against each other in double blind testing. While interesting I am not sure what practical value it would have though as even if the tube amp "was preferred" where would anyone find and why would any buy a SS amp that performs that bad.

 

[Tks]

One of the most valuable insights I've gotten from this review:

"We see that the famous "tubes mostly have 2nd harmonic distortion" is wrong. 3rd harmonic is just as high and we have good bit of H4 and H5."

"The thing about soft clipping is also wrong. Here is what the amp does at max volume:"

I've seen people in other forums talk about this so many times but never understood where they were getting this from. While it can be the case some amps hold true to these claims, they made it seem like gospel that tube amps ONLY had "pleasing even harmonics" and such.

 

[levimax]

One of the most valuable insights I've gotten from this review:

"We see that the famous "tubes mostly have 2nd harmonic distortion" is wrong. 3rd harmonic is just as high and we have good bit of H4 and H5."

"The thing about soft clipping is also wrong. Here is what the amp does at max volume:"

I've seen people in other forums talk about this so many times but never understood where they were getting this from. While it can be the case some amps hold true to these claims, they made it seem like gospel that tube amps ONLY had "pleasing even harmonics" and such.

Here is an AES article that discusses this and they seem to confirm some of the "folk lore" .... but only during "overload conditions" .... https://secure.aes.org/forum/pubs/journal/?elib=1980 for people like me that are not AES members https://ia802501.us.archive.org/30/...ThereAnAudibleDifference/TubeVsTransistor.pdf

 

[Tks]

I'll read it, thank you kindly for the non member link.

 

[cjfrbw]

Since people love the look of tubes glowing, I wonder if one created a (bogus) case with 4 glowing tubes that does nothing other than glow, and then hide a JDS Atom inside, audio output purely from the Atom.

And let people listen to it and then compare it to some high-end tube amps like the Blue Hawaii ...

I wonder how would people subjectively appraise it ?

Heh, Heh! "The crispiest tubes I have ever heard, but very pleasing nonetheless!"

 

[maxxevv]

Heh, Heh! "The crispiest tubes I have ever heard, but very pleasing nonetheless!"

Hahaha .... It would make for a great Youtube video I think.

 

[audio_tony]

I had one a Little Dot MK III for a while. Mine also suffered from hum, and I largely solved it by re-routing some cables underneath, as the cable dressing was very poor. I didn't keep it for very long after that though, as I was really no impressed with it (even though I wanted to be).
Ironically I still use this for portable listening (different class I know) but what a great little headphone amp it is.

 

[Costia]

Haven't read all 4 pages of this topic.
Did he test it with the other set of tubes?
I wonder how much difference it makes, if at all.

I got a cheap Chinese tube amp that (hopefully) uses the tube as a buffer.
I couldn't tell the difference between the stock Chinese tubes and the Russian Voskhod ones, which many people seem to recommend.
It looks kinda nice though.
It glows in the dark and has a rocket logo on the tubes.

https://imgur.com/fxsZUJK