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Little Dot MKIII & MKIII SE Tube Headphone Amps

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ALL PRODUCTS / AUDIOPHILE / SMSL

Little Dot MKIII & MKIII SE Tube Headphone Amps

Name: Little Dot MKIII & MKIII SE Tube Headphone Amps
Brand: SMSL
SKU: littledot-tube-amp
Price: 189 USD
Availability: OutOfStock
Rating: 4.46875 (32 reviews)

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Product Description

Instead of a single cheap tube that gives off muddled sound, the Little Dot MKIII features four tubes: two dedicated input tubes and two dedicated output tubes. Letting your left and right audio channels enter through separate RCA ports and pass through channel specific input and output tubes before joining up at the headphone jack, you get a clear signal on both sides with little to no crossover Read More

Customer Reviews

4.5

(32 reviews)

(20)

(10)

(0)

(1)

71% would recommend to a friend

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22gordon

Nov 29, 2020

Verified Buyer

worth it

impressively packaged to prevent damage of installed tubes, truly plug & play. an upgrade over my hybrid bravo v3 amp. cans used: hd58x, 1more triple driver, focal elegia, koss porta pro, numerous iem's (dd, planar, ba & hybrids). I'll skip the subjective performance's of the previous listed for... reasons I recommend: preamp out, check upgraded GE driver tubes, check minimalist design, check quality materials, check fit & finish, check one gripe would be the fine tuning adjustment access underneath unit. however, an exceptional value to price offering.

Recommends this product? Yes

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Fastrid

Oct 23, 2020

Verified Buyer

My amp has hum/noise

My unit has hum/noise. I am not sure if it's the amp or my setup over all. I have several power conditioners in the mix, so I don't think it's power. The amp has noise when it's on and has signal but it's not as bad as when the amp is on but the source isn't. The noise gets worse as I crank the volume. The two main sources are a Focusrite external DAC/mic device and the other is my computer which has a MSI Creation Prestige motherboard. The other think that makes me think it's the unit is I don't hear hum when my JVC wood diaphragm IEMs are plugged into either unit directly. Any thoughts? What should I do? Return it? I do think that it sounds nice over all but I'm disappointed so far with the hum issue. So far I'm not will to recommend though.

Recommends this product? No

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Captain_Hercules_vinegar

Oct 13, 2020

Verified Buyer

Warm , smooth and very musical. My sources vary from iPod, Spotify via my LG G8 ThinQ. This amp is a joy to listen to and can take all loads and musical styles. Fits nicely on my desktop and drives my HD 6xx like a dream.

Recommends this product? Yes

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quicklytoo4

821

Sep 19, 2020

Verified Buyer

solid package for a balanced class A tube amp

my biggest gripes so far are that the XLR connectors are unlabeled (found pictures of older versions that had labels seems the one next to the RCA's is R and the one by the power plug is L) apparently they decided to switch the labels for locks (even though they could have labeled the locks as they took the time to carve some type of logo into them) that tube swapping is somewhat annoying needing a hexagon bit to take the ring off but the posts being attached to the base (there are some screws on the base that may let you take that off but I didn't try) sensitive things like my Mangird tea's pick up a humming noise at low volume which switches to static at higher volume (doing some research it seemed the most likely causes are a grounding problem or dirty power if not a internal device issue) tested for grounding issues by touching the device/plugging it into different places with no change so if I can even fix it is a wip (if anyone has fixed this let me know) now some pros this thing has hella power I left it on normal gain and I have yet to go above 1/4 volume on either balanced or SE for the 10 different IEM's/headphones I tried on it better tube sound than my CTH and stock tubes with it seem solid (I did 2 swaps so far and actually prefered the stock but haven't spent crazy money on tubes) built like a tank and as heavy as one (close to being as heavy as a CTH and 789 stack) if anyone has some tube rec's that are solidly better than stock let me know and I will look into them :)

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TJWH

Apr 10, 2020

Verified Buyer

I am very happy with it

Recommends this product? Yes

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Mehoron

Mar 12, 2020

Verified Buyer

Good Tube Amp, Came With GE JAN tubes!

It took a while to ship given the current situations in the world, this couldn't be helped. I hope the makers out of Hong Kong are well and safe and that they didn't feel the need to take risks in getting this item to me. First off a couple notes. My MKIII amp came with GE JAN 5654W tubes already in it. Which is fantastic, people have said these are some of the best tubes for this amp. When the amp arrived the tubes were a little off kilter because they had been jostled during shipping, I made sure to re-seat each and every one before powering it on. The jumpers were also in the package so I assume none were set on the device, I haven't tuned any of that yet. I have an SMSL M8A DAC feeding this thing. I have two primary headphones I use currently. The first is HiFiMan HE-400i which is a planar magnetic set. As well as Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pros. For the HE-400i, I was surprised they actually worked so well, I keep hearing horror stories about PM headphones and tubes. Out of the box I was listening at 40% volume. Overall this amp relaxed some of the highs in a really pleasant way, without making them feel stuffy. To check this I used the digital version of Bob Dylan's Girl From North County, that harmonica and his vocals really show how this amp colors the music. However, this amp also added some additional airyness to the bass on the planars, it's still punchy and responsive, it doesn't drown out other things going on at all, but it does feel slightly more relaxed than through the micca origen 2 or the SMSL SAP 12 solid states on the planars, which I like. I used various Deadmau5 albums and really hear the difference, Creep from "while(1<2)" really sounded great. I haven't had a chance to get to analytical with the DT770 pros, and I feel like there are already reviews covering various dynamic drivers with this amp, and those people know way more than I do. I really wanted to give those with Planars, at least HE-400i type drivers, a decent analysis.

Recommends this product? Yes

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Kmv1

Oct 18, 2019

Verified Buyer

Not impressed

The amp worked good at first then after six months the left channel started to have static. I used the little dot 2 with HD650, M1060, M1060c, and Foster Tr-xoo Mahogany. I also have 3 other amps that I listen to these headphones on. Harman Kardon HK3490 (Stereo Receiver), PS audio spout, and Earstudio Es100. Out of all these amps the Little dot 2 is ranked last. The Harman Kardon HK3490 is the best performer. It really brings out the true potential of the HD650. It's like lifting a blanket off the head headphone and now I can finally hear the clarity and power of the HD650.

Recommends this product? No

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Brutus64

Apr 19, 2020

Kmv1Might have to agree with you on the HK amp. I have the AVR 30,circa 95' bought it new and it's still kicking 25 years later. I use it for my 6xx,4xx,dt 770,880,990's Great sound. Pushes my Elac debut 5.2's nice also.

Phuncure

Jun 26, 2019

Verified Buyer

I like it!!!

I really like the MKiii. the stock tubes were better than i thought, but will try tube roll. Nitpicking here, i wish the power led light is not blue but yellow or orange to make the whole package a old school experience. :)

Recommends this product? Yes

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Sune1966

Apr 15, 2019

Verified Buyer

I received my LD MK3 March 30 here in Denmark. It took about 15 days to arrive which is fair time. It took a few days in custom here in Denmark and I paid totally 1450 (LD)+ 550 DKR (custom fee ) for the amp. It was in fine condition when I opened the box, only had one of the driver tubes been pushed by the protection foam but no damage. I turned on the LD and I listened only for short time at the included tubes: there was very notable distortion and the sound was very dark, no great high frequency quality here... I had ordered GE5654W JAN and EH 6H30Pi (all paired) in Germany at tubeampdoctor (TAD) for approx DKR 1100. So the amp is totally about 3000 DKR. When those tubes was inserted instead of the included, the sound was then great. Perfect L-R balance, clean, smooth and no noise at all. I use Sennheiser HD650 (300 Ohm) + Audioquest Nighthawk Carbon (25 Ohm) + AKG K712Pro (62 Ohm)headphones. All fits the amp, no distortion with any of them. I have just bought DEKONI pads for HD650 and 712Pro. Elite sheepskin for HD650 and fenestrated sheepskin for 712Pro. The sound LD MK3 + HD650 with DEKONI is unfortunately very dark, not much detail in the high frequency but great bass slam, maybe too much on some music. The Nighthawks are OK with LD but somehow I like them better on my Note 8 with Audioquest Dragonfly Red. I have just bought AKG 712Pro because my OLD AKG K701 broke recently so the 712Pro is not yet broken in and I have fitted them with the DEKONI pads, I like the sound most with 712Pro because they have a much more open sound with super great high frequency response and great dynamic - it really is perfect with LD MK3 and the upgraded tubes. It is close to perfect sound for very little money (amp 3000 DKR and phones 1700 DKR + 600DKR for the pads). The amp have now been use for more than 2 week with 8 hours burn every day and it sounds great, there is no noise at all, it is totally quiet when no music is on. The only problem is that I think the gain it too high, I use a Pioneer N50A NAP. The volume is around 9 O-Clock with all phones (a little bit highere with 712Pro) but thankfully the volume pot has great L-R pairing so there are no problem there. And yes I use the lowest gain 3X. The only tube I would like to try out is C3G but it is not easy to find - I will not buy some not paired and used one. As I have written I am pleased with the LD sound (upgraded tubes), good frequency balance, good sound detail, good dynamic, great soundstage depth & L-R separation, no noise, no hum - it really sounds great :-)

(Edited)

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BruceC

Apr 5, 2019

Verified Buyer

I purchased the standard MKIII since it is my first tube amp and I wanted to try one out to see if all the hype was true. I have a couple of solid state amps and three different DAPs and listen only to FLAC or FLAC HD music via planar magnetic cans so I have some music experience and consider listening to music a primary activity. I have to say that I AM impressed with this little amp. Not sure if it's purely the tubes or partially the class A amplification but the sound IS very smooth and musical, more so than my other amps. There may be some coloring going on but if so it's very enjoyable. All details and depth are at least as good as or better than my solid state amps but with the overall sound being somehow smoother and more musical. My only con so far is that tubes DO get hot and will burn you if you touch them accidentally :-)

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Tickler136

Apr 26, 2020

No, the 400i works fine though audible distortion does kick in at higher volumes using stock power tubes. Upgrading to 6n30pi tubes cures this (you need a later revision LD motherboard to use these). As an aside, the hybrid LD 1+ works really well with the 400i too.