DarkVoice 336SE OTL Headphone Amp Reviews | Drop

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DarkVoice 336SE OTL Headphone Amp

Mar 20, 2019

Verified Buyer

For the price and the sound it delivers with even cheapo tubes, this thing is an easy five-star value. It's built like a tank, with absolutely no creaks or wiggles. The movement of the volume knob is especially nice. The power tube was broken on arrival, but I was planning to replace the tubes anyway, so I popped over to Tube Depot (no link lest anyone accuse me of shilling) and bought a new Tung Sol 6SN7 and a NOS 6080 (ruggedized 6AS7). The driver tube hummed, so I followed the instructions here to burn in the new tube (TLDR; remove power tube, plug in driver tube and run it for 72 hours) and tried again after three days. The hum was gone and the sound was great! As others have reported, this amp really brings the HD650/6XX to life, and I think for many people that could be a budget endgame combo. For me, the ritual of warming up the amp and taking care not to burn myself on the red-hot power tube proved to be too fiddly. I sold the amp, but that's no reason for me to lower my rating. For what it is, it's perfect: a well-made, great-sounding introduction to tube amps. I highly recommend it if you're curious about "the tube sound" but don't want to invest in a megabuck amp you might not like or use. I also recommend it if you know you like the tube sound, have <$300 to spend, and don't mind the quirks of tube amp ownership.

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