My headphones system

[TazLondon]

I currently have the following for headphone listening of my music:

- Beresford TC-7510 DAC

- Little Dot MKIII tube headphone preamp/amp

- Sennheiser HD-595 headphones

The sound is really, really good - very transparent, good soundstage, detailed and warm. I think the headphones are the weakest link and could be improved to get the best out of the DAC and tube amp. The Little Dot MKIII is an imported Chinese-made tube amp with both pre- and power-amp stages driven by tubes. Amazing sound, but needs to be powered off and cooled down after 8 hours of use. It's solidly built and reassuringly heavy.

Budgetwise, I think it all added up to around the £500 mark including interconnects between the DAC and amp.

 

[ID.]

The forum demands pictures

Nice looking little amp. I've been contemplating trying out a tub amp for headphone listening, although my toddler would probably make short work of those easily accessible tubes. Are the RCA outputs variable? i.e. can it be used as a preamp too? It would be nice to also be able to hook it up to my active speakers to hear what the tubes do to the sound of them.

 

[TazLondon]

The forum demands pictures

Nice looking little amp. I've been contemplating trying out a tub amp for headphone listening, although my toddler would probably make short work of those easily accessible tubes. Are the RCA outputs variable? i.e. can it be used as a preamp too? It would be nice to also be able to hook it up to my active speakers to hear what the tubes do to the sound of them.

I'll dig out some photos of my headphones system once I work out how to post pictures on here!

Yes, the Little Dot MKIII can be used as a pre-amp, according to the manual. Here's an extract from the manual regarding use as a pre-amp:

Little Dot MK III Pre-Amplifier Use

The Little Dot MK III is not recommended to be used with a DC or direct coupled power amplifier.
The pre-amplification signal in the Little Dot MK III includes both the driver and power tubes for better
compatibility with power amplifiers with low input impedance (for example, transistor-based power amps).

Always power on your Little Dot MK III pre-amplifier before you power on your connected power amplifier as this is good practice for any pre-power combination. It is also highly recommended to wait at least a minute after powering on your Little Dot before turning on your power amplifier so that the Little Dot has time to stabilize.

For best sound quality and lowest noise, first maximize your source’s output level without introducing gain (i.e. to 0 dB), and then set your Little Dot MK III’s volume to a relatively high level. Amplification done at the pre-amp stage will result in less noise than amplification done at the power amplifier stage (if the amplifier you are using as a power amp has volume control at all).

One last thing to remember is keep all your components connected to the same ground, as introducing
another amplifier in a pre-power setup increases the likelihood of introducing a ground loop.

To be honest, I've never used it as a pre-amp so can't say if the line level output is variable. The above would suggest it's not, I guess? I'm not an expert on the technical side of things. All I know is that it sounds really good.

The tubes are exposed so I would be wary of using it if you have children around the house! There's no cage for the tubes and they do get very hot, as does the amp itself (although it's not uncomfortable to touch the body of the amp even after several hours of use).

There are DIP switches in the amp to balance impedance so it can drive a wide variety of headphones with ease.

It's a lovely looking amp too and, as I mentioned before, feels like a quality product.

 

[TazLondon]

Here are some photos of my headphones system. It's an fairly entry-level system but I'm more than happy with the sound. Total budget was around £500.

The Little Dot MKIII tube headphone amp sits perched upon the Beresford TC-7510 DAC to save space.

 

[fr0g]

I have the same DAC and headphones. I simply use(d) the DAC headphone out

Although I now mainly use my Shure SR940 directly with my laptop or phone. Firstly as I often listen whilst the kids or missus or both are watching TV, and the Senns are too loud on the outside, but secondly now, as the Shures sound better to me

But I do love the 595s. I tested against 650s and preferred them.

 

[ID.]

Thanks for sharing the pictures. neat setup. I like it when a headphone rig can be stacked neatly like that. Bet it sounds great.