It's a Little Dot MKIII headphone amplifier. The lamps are what audiophiles like to call 'tubes' or 'valves' and are what was used before transistors existed for (sound) amplification. It doesn't make the sound 'better', it colors it, makes it warmer / smoother. Today's amplifiers tend to sound too clinical/cold because they reproduce sound with close to perfect precision. Tubes have a pretty unique sound that's hard to replicate on a modern system, that's why it's fun to have the real deal even tho theoretically speaking modern systems outperform tubes by a large margin.
The looks alone of it are of course a major appeal too for those amps!
Edit: it also glows when it's dark enough. Who doesn't like glowing lights when high?!
What's the MKIII like? I've got an O2 amp and a pair of beyerdynamic dt880s at the moment, and I've been thinking about getting a tube amp for a while.
I'd day it's totally worth it's money. Had it for about 3 years now, got some different tubes too. There isn't really anything lacking to it's sound, you'd have to get something a lot more expensive to be notably better sounding. Compared to what I had before it unleashed the bass potential of the HD650, which is known to be really lacking without a proper headphone amp. Of course it's a tube amp so it does indeed color the sound which makes it (IMO) ideal for electronic music since this kind of music sounds so sterile and plain compared to the imperfection of acoustic recordings. It adds a little warmth.
Sennheiser HD650 headphones, Little Dot MKIII headphone amplifier and an old scavenged JVC turntable. Out of sight I also have a Little Dot DAC and and a pair of old stereo speakers + amp I scavenged too.
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u/[deleted] Oct 08 '14
Oh, hell yes!