Little Dot III As Pre-Amp

[crusaderlord]

The Little Dot is a small valve headphone amplifier i bought a year ago - there are a number of models and i have the Mark III.

Recently i have set up an office sytem on the cheap using some small Quad speakers and a 2nd hand NAD C320 BEE and use the PC as the source mainly for spotify and Radio Paradise while my main system is unusable due to family watching tv etc.

Anyway the NAD sounded pretty good although if i am honest a tad clinical as i am used to my much more expensive Arcam system. This morning i decided to play hi-fi and set up the Little Dot III as the pre-amp into the NAD just to see what happened.

You can guess it was a bit of a wow moment - the sound just seemed to open up, the clinicial edge dissappeared and the vocals improved immensely. Interestingly also the bass even improved. It is a very good listening experience now. Ok i still cant compare it to the main system but as there have been questions before on using the Little Dot as a Pre-amp, well my own experience is that it a wonderful little piece of kit and not just for headphones.

Oh and lit up glowing valves = lovely

 

[Anonymous]

yes this also happend to me when i tried this with my musical fidelity
x-can v3 headphone amp, and i now use my headphone amp as my pre amp
to drive my musical fidelity x-a50 mono poweramps with great results.

 

[idc]

Musical Fidelity make a big noise about the V8P as a preamp to the point that I don't understand why they call it a headphone amp and only the P refers to the preamp function.

dvdaudio, how do you cable the pre to the power amps?

 

[matengawhat]

have also had the time to experiment a little this weekend with mine and will mirror crusaderlords finding - although would say this i decided to reduce the gain on mine because as far as i am aware/ can tell the gain also effect the pre amp section so by reducing the gain to me also reduced a little bit of background noise which to be honest wasn't great anywhere!

Ran mine with my arcam P35 power amp with great results - have ordered a cheap audiolab 8000p to perm set this up with my computer in the spare room just to run from itunes and my ipod - may also look at a cheapish dac to sit between them but only for occasional listening whilst working/uploading songs etc.

i have a few different tubes to have a play with but not had time to do that yet in my setup - will do when the audiolab arrives though which hopefully will be before the weekend - depends on despatch times.

 

[Anonymous]

idc i just connect the headphone amp via its jack plug to my power amps
just make sure you turn the pre headphone amp down before you listen to your hifi as
it takes very little volume to drive your speakers this way.

 

[Anonymous]

How did you do this? The only output from the mark III is its single headphone output.

 

[matengawhat]

on the back of the littledot mkIII is a source input and pre amp output - just run a pair of phono cables to your power amp from the pre amp outs.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Little-Dot-MK-III-Headphone-Tube-Amplifier-Pre-Amp_W0QQitemZ200345806615QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item2ea58a6717&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1683%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318%7C301%3A1%7C293%3A1%7C294%3A50

Picture 5!

 

[Anonymous]

Glad to hear that you have done some experimenting. According to little dot, the gain does effect the pre-out too. I'm suppressed that you had any issues with noise, reviews had often commented on its almost non-existent noise floor.

Testing my dot with a portable device or straight from the CD player yields great results but I always find that for a truly class performance a DAC helps massively. This I find is far superior in every way, I think a good DAC which feeds a quality source is vital for little dot.

I'm intrigued to hear about your findings with the audiolab when it arrives, keep us updated.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,

Many thanks for the writeup.

After a bit of research, I found a yaqin tube buffer on that auction site that I won for £36. They get pretty good write-ups on other forums. This will be a cheap way to experiment with the valve sound. There are several things that I will try, when it arrives.

1. between cd player and amp.

2. between beresford dac (when I get it) and amp

3. between source and use arcams as mono-blocs.

I will write a review when I have tried these combinations (a few weeks from now).

Also, to those little dot owners, have you tried tube rolling yet? It would be interesting to hear your views.ÿ

 

[Anonymous]

Only rolled once, from the stock tubes to Mullard M8161 these are great tubes, one of the pricier sets though but they are worth every penny. A solid upgrade which is one of the first tubes people purchase when starting tube rolling, they come highly recommended. Im looking to try some other tubes soon but there are so many out there its hard to know where to start. Although forums are the best place to start.

The yaqin tube buffer looks like a gem for the price, you really got a good deal there.

 

[matengawhat]

just had confirmation that my Audiolab 8000p has been shipped - should be with me on monday so will get all set up and let you know how it sounds - will be using my littledot as my pre amp and have a few different tubes to try - the 8000p as power amp connected with merlin chopin interconnects, focal profile 908s using Chord Carnival SilverScreen speaker cable. Should give me a really warm mellow sounds with wide soundstage so here hoping

 

[Anonymous]

You should get warming up those Mullards before it arrives!

 

[matengawhat]

going to run the amp in with the voshods as don't think they are properly run in and then when the amp has had a good 100 hours will start on the mullards

 

[Anonymous]

So matengawhat, did it arrive?

 

[crusaderlord]

while we wait for the review - here is a review buried deep in a forum that i doubt youll stumble across and its a good read - half way down the page a great review of various tubes by ethebull

http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f5/little-dot-mkiii-tube-rolling-276757/index26.html

i bought some 6ZH1P-EV Russian 5654 with the neat grooves as spares and they pack a bit more bass but i cant say ive done proper in depth testing really - one day i will

 

[matengawhat]

ok - yes it arrived but having a few little teething problems which i am hoping will settle down!!!

Power amps go into like an off mode when not receiving a signal and mine has done it a couple of times when the music has been playing and then popped back into life but hoping this is just a temporary problem and will be fine once all run in and everything cooked but again pretty annoying hoping this isn't a dodgy amp!

The amp sounds pretty deep and bassy - i have just set it up to check all works so speakers not in optimal position but have to say inital thoughts i am really impressed with the sound - just connected to my ipod and sounding pretty sweet - good highs and deep bass nice warm sound!

 

[Anonymous]

Interesting problem.

I see why you have asked about the direct coupled power amp as the manual reads,

'the little dot mkIII is not recommended to be used with a DC or direct coupled power amplifier.'

Just a thought, have you checked the input sensitivity of the amp? Or even tried changing the gain switches?

I'm glad 1st impressions are good, I hope you find a solution and get to enjoy the music. Report back when you have some more info.

 

[matengawhat]

im working through that as we speak

 

[Anonymous]

If you're out of luck try and contact davidzhezhe, he responds quickly and has a wealth of knowledge.

 

[matengawhat]

have contacted david he asked if was a direct or DC coupled amp and i don't know as never come across one before

it is a dc coupled amp and thats my problem!!!