An upgrade to my Little Dot MKII
I made the decision to upgrade my modest Little Dot MKII Tube Amplifier this past week and it just got here yesterday. This is a used piece of gear, it's the first generation Woo Audio WA6. I wanted to go with Silver as it would match my Solid State Burson Conductor 3 Performance Headphone Amp/DAC/Pre-Amp, as well as the Schiit Lokius I also picked up recently. I wound up with Black; it was in the best condition of those I saw available, it was priced better and it came from an audio dealership with a brick & mortar store which displayed a working telephone number and an A+ rating with the BBB so I knew that I was probably safe in dealing with the gentleman. The Lokius is brand new. What I've learned is that I am going to have to do some figuring out how to deal with all of this new stuff, including how to get it all onto my 6 foot desk along with my lamp and modem. Apparently the Lokius has to be connected between Amp and DAC, so it would fit in between...
Jun 30, 2022
Components: 65” LG C7 OLED TV; Denon AVR-X4300H Receiver; Klipsch Reference Premiere 7.2.2 speakers(RP-280F fronts, RP-450C center, RP250S surrounds, RP-160M rears, R-112SW subs, & CDT-5800-CII in ceiling); Samsung UBD K8500 UHD Blu-ray player; XBOX One X; Sony CDP-CE 500 CD changer; TEAC TN-400 turntable (just upgraded – my old TN-200 is in the pictures), Sennheiser RS-160 wireless headphones (x4).
Performance: The outcome has been fantastic. Best picture quality I’ve ever experienced, and my home theater sounds MUCH better than any of the actual movie theaters near me. When it comes to movies, just as with music, the mastering and source quality are critical. This setup does a nice job bringing out the potential of every soundtrack. Clear dialogue, enveloping ambiance, excellent localization, and room-shaking explosions all play clearly if they are in the mix. Lessons Learned: The biggest lesson I learned was the value of acoustic treatment. While the Audyssey room correction on the Denon definitely helped, finding creative and attractive ways to treat the room itself made a huge difference. I’m not exaggerating when I say that it gave the system at least a 50% performance boost.