DarkVoice 336SE OTL Headphone Amp Discussions | Drop

DarkVoice 336SE OTL Headphone Amp

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Apr 19, 2019

I've bought the Little dot mk3 last drop < didn't arrive yet. Should I get this also? Or not worth it?

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TheChosenOne

118

Apr 20, 2019

Ro0omi7xxI had both LD mk3 and the Darkvoice for a few days and the DV sounds better by quite some margin, to my ears! Fuller sound and better & more bass comes to mind. Returned the LD and have been very happy with the Darkvoice.

(Edited)

Apr 22, 2019

Ro0omi7xxI think the Little Dot non-hybrid is probably the best of the el-cheapo valve headphone amps. Which is not to say that it's good, rather, that it may barely be good enough! The Dark Voice is definitely next best, both being bad, cheap, potentially unsafe fun. You can't argue with these prices, you WILL get a funky, "toooby" sound, but you may tire of it quick enough. It's frustrating to listen to beautiful valve tone marred by erratic sonic quirks & poor reliability AND durability. The Dark Voice, as its name implies, is likely the Little Dot with double fudge & extra chocolate sauce & honey on top. I would recommend instead, without having heard any of these 3 but speaking as someone with decades of knowledge building & designing my own valve audio gear, that you try the complete counterpoint to either of these lousy & unbelievably comprimised valve amps. I'm joining the next drop for the THX AA-789 amp. Tons of power (6 Watts into low Z!) at zero distortion (0.000%!), infinite quiet (S/N Ratio greater than 120db!!), balanced outputs just because, and all for around $300, certainly well under $500. Designed by brilliant engineers, not drooling children scribbling on napkins at the local noodle joint. This is THX after all, just visit your local movie theatre (if you still remember those things). It won't stink, catch on fire, and will work right out of the box & STAY WORKING for years to come. Even if, ultimately, you & I find the sound a tad sterile, uninvolving, thin or whatever ( the Benchmark AHB-1 Power Amp, @ $3000USD, is based on the identical circuit configurations & has received rave subjective reviews as well as having virtually unmeasurable THD & Noise!), it can only be so bad sonically. JUNK like the Little Blot & Dull Voice will likely be MUCH worse sounding, just from the opposite side of the sonic coin...

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Apr 22, 2019

Nottagorillaammm D: i'm dissapointed now :( maybe I'll get the THX when I got some cash. it's kinda pricey for me. and thanks for the advice.

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Apr 22, 2019

Ro0omi7xxYour mileage may improve considerably if you have high impedance phones. The valve amps, especially these too-cheap things, work MUCH better with those. You didn't mention what phones you have. You also sound like you joined the Dark Voice drop after you posted this question? ALWAYS read the comments section of a drop before committing! Much aggro will be saved from learning from the experience of others. The Dark Voice drop comments section is absolutely RIFE with negative comments about reliability, MANY units not working properly right from the box. And THEN there are the "one channel hums" & "a bad smell is coming from my amp!" comments...Don't like bumming people out, I personally am crazy in love with valve amps. But as a designer, I KNOW a decent one can't be built, even in cheapo China, for anything even REMOTELY close to $250. Even $1000 would be a bit of a stretch, sad to say. Hope my advice is wrong for you & if ordered the DV you get one that works. But yeah, start saving for the 789. It's as technologically perfect as the best audio engineering minds can make using test equipment, and the home hifi power amps made with this technology (QUAD 405, 606, 909; Soulution 300/500/700 series, Benchmark AHB-1)have more of the precious valve smoothness than ANY other transistor amps I've heard over my 40 yr. interest in hifi sound. I prefer valves, but on a more limited budget even I grudgingly admit that a better sound will come from a well-designed transistor amp. And it looks like the THX AA-789 may be the best transistor amp...at ANY price! For around $300, THIS is the MassDrop-only bargain that phoneheads have been dreaming of...

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Usehername

107

May 1, 2019

Ro0omi7xxGood luck trying. It’s now gone up to $400 and the drops, when/if announced are limited availability. And if you do get lucky, they won’t be $800 and take 6 months or more to ship while Drop holds your money. It’s like expecting to win the lottery 🤣

(Edited)

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May 1, 2019

UsehernameThat's why I don't want it xD

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May 12, 2019

NottagorillaAnd you haven’t even tried either amp… just because something is under $400 doesn’t mean it’s garbage.

May 12, 2019

Ro0omi7xxThe dark voice doesn’t seem as bad as that guy made it seem. The THX is great for solid state sound, but I would recommend looking at some more credible online reviews of all the amps.

May 15, 2019

AudioCatGot it. I won't buy the darkvoice. right now I've had enough, I bought the CTH Cavali and Aune x1s.

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May 15, 2019

Ro0omi7xxOk

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Wile-E-Coyote

May 27, 2019

Ro0omi7xxWell you should be happy with your MKIII. Put on it some russian EF95 driver tubes (or RCA/Mullard Ef 92/91) and you are ready to go with a nice mellow sound with still good dynamics. No overheating like the DV, reliable, and you wont be afraid of setting fire in your house ! DV is well known to heat heat heat to a crazy level, and the sound with the tubes delivered with it is...hmmm...bad ! I advise you to stay on MKIII and forget this useless bulky BBQ just my opinion though...

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May 28, 2019

Wile-E-CoyoteThe MK3 arrived and I'm so happy with it. And it heats a little bit. And thank you for the advice I"ll buy thoose tubes you recommend. Thanks alot. I was looking for some. :D

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May 28, 2019

AudioCatSorry to be a party poop, but I do know a thing or three about valve amplifier design. $400 is a ridiculously insufficient amount of money to work with when it comes to working with valves (go price a 6H30 or KT-120/150!) & the high voltage parts they require. A good valve amp would have Output Transformers, which even made in China are going to $15-25 USD EACH unless defective/surplus RUBBISH was used. As for saving that cost to go OTL, you need a minimum of 2 6AS7's per channel to get the output impedance low enough to drive 30-50 ohm phones properly, and that would still require a busy & sophisticated front end/voltage amplifier circuit to be able to generate the tremendous gain required so you could put 40+db of negative feedback around the entire amplifier to make this all work properly! You need a MINIMUM of 2 or 3 DUO-triodes, PER CHANNEL, to generate the tremendous forward voltage gain required (60db MINIMUM) so that you could put a MINIMUM of 40db of negative feedback around the entire amplifier so as to end up with a reliably & consistently quiet, unfussy, low-distortion (0.1% max, 20-20k, all power levels), & low output impedance (below 5 ohms so that ANY headphone could be used with its intrinsic frequency response retained as its makers intended!). So **** using a single POS sino-soviet cold-war surplus crap-sounding RF Pentode like EF95 or 6J8/6SJ7/6AC7 AUDIO DEATH, then coupling that to a 6AS7 cathode-follower running at nuclear-meltdown Class A idle bias of 100mA+, then using a NASTY electrolytic condenser (just to save money, because $400, RETAIL, doesn't go particularly far. And because a polypropylene type of several hundred microfarads, which would give you good reliability & fidelity would cost $50-100 PER CHANNEL, WHOLESALE, and the set of them would be larger than the entire amplifier is now!!!). This piece of crap has no specs, doesn't specify output impedance (because it's probably well in excess of 100 ohms!), etc., so it's nothing but a distorted flavour-control effects box, NOT a "cool" & clever valve hifi amp bargain! Maybe if you have professional hi-Z headphones like Beyer DT-990's or something with a 200 ohm+ impedance you MIGHT stand a chance of getting decent noise out of this Chinese Firecracker. Got the picture now?

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May 28, 2019

NottagorillaBut you haven’t even heard it, and it’s generally well regarded by reviewers. This is a good video for my point https://youtu.be/fQBgvwDMSFQ

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May 29, 2019

AudioCatNo, that was a "great" video by great INDUSTRY SHILL Steve Guttenberg, explaining why we shouldn't disagree with him just because we happen to know better. And I DO know better. Do I need to unread all the other comments that I have read here about what an explosive POS this & other Dark Voice amps are? Do I need to "hear" an exploding, flammable, stinking POS that several OWNERS have commented on, RIGHT HERE, on this very thread, to be able to have a correct opinion that, this is indeed, a highly flammable, non-CE (or fake!) approved, explosive pieces of s***? I am a valve amp DESIGNER, have done so professionally for 35 of the past 40 years, and have several DOZEN circuits to my credit. I currently am semi-retired, on pension, working in a High-End audio store as both the turntable setup expert & also, the ENTIRE Repair Department, just as a "hobby"! You have had nothing of substance to say in rebuttal about my contention that $400 is an insufficient budget to build a valve audio amplifier. Not a single, technical or logically-informed peep. And your reply simply confirms that you have neither the knowledge, nor the common sense, to process the OBVIOUS information that myself, as well as other OWNERS of said product(s), have presented before you here, on THIS very site (never mind others, do you dare do a Google search?:), & in THIS very thread! Two things, then, to summarise: 1) As a designer of valve audio circuits for HiFi purposes, I damn well KNOW what the various components sound like, what my operating conditions (voltage & bias currents) sound like, what my components & valve types sound like, what their maximum & minimum ratings are, & what my design options are when presented with a given budget of parts & price. I can infer, MOST STRONGLY, from the sonic & cigarette-lighting comments about these Dark Voice amplifiers, that its designer(s) know nothing I do not, and for that matter, far less. 2) Since you are incapable of responding to the hard technical truths of what I say, you appear instead only to reply on the opinion of a professional know-nothing/Online Stereo Salesman instead. I am not persuaded by opinions when instead I have certain FACTS. Facts based on hard-gotten & hard-swallowed personal observation & actual experience, not "just" the opinions of others whose biases are more sympathetic to my own! If you continue to lower your standards, I can, with the greatest of optimism, confirm to you that eventually they will be met. Steve Guttenberg & his shilly friends in print & on-line FRaudio ragasines are happy to help us all with our cognitive dissonance issues. Yet even they will tell you to (please!) SHUT UP & PAY. That's what their world of overpriced audio is ultimately about. Too cheap IS worse than too expensive, please trust me on this one! If you continue to rebel & resist in the face of hard truth, so be it. But you, my friend, will be the one stuck with making the necessary call to the fire brigade. Or hopefully before that happens, perhaps before your hair catches on fire, 1-800-GOT-JUNK.

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