Any thoughts? using little dot valve as preamp for NAD

[The Pink Panther]

I was just wondering if any one had any thoughts on a plan that I have brewing in my head.

My new NAD has the inputs so it can be used as a power amplifier if need be. I do love a bit of valve, so my idea was to try something like this as a Pre amp.

Little Dot*MK III*Valve Heahphone Amplifier / Pre-Amp,

Would it make a good match? or is it a pointless exercise. Is the NAD's Pre amp likely to be better than the DOts anyway?

Any thoughts regarding my hybrid valve pre power insanity welcome.

M

[Stratmangler]

The power stage of my NAD C320 BEE sounds very nice when driven by my mate's valve unity gain buffer & Silk TVA's, so there's no reason why you can't do something similar.

[Ali Tait]

Should work fine, and as you say, give a taste of valves in your system.

[The Pink Panther]

The power stage of my NAD C320 BEE sounds very nice when driven by my mate's valve unity gain buffer & Silk TVA's, so there's no reason why you can't do something similar.

Hi chris, could you give me an example of a valve unity gain buffer. and what are silk TVA 's

many thanks

matt

[Stratmangler]

Well a unity gain buffer is an amplifier stage with an amplification ratio of 1:1, ie no amplification.
Its sole purpose is to provide a constant input and output impedence.

The Silk TVA part is a transformer coupled stepped volume control, with different windings for different volume levels.
That's all.

[The Pink Panther]

Thanks very much

[HighFidelityGuy]

I can't think of any reason not to try a valve preamp. Little Dot gear is quite well respected as being good value for money. My only concern would be about valve availability. The valves that will come fitted will no doubt be cheap Chinese versions and you will probably get an improvement in sound from NOS valves. For the input (driver) valves this isn't too much of a problem. HERE's (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2x-Brimar-Mullard-CV4010-5654-ruggedised-EF95-valves-/380354786223?pt=UK_Consumer_VintageAudio_RL&hash=item588ee973af)a nice example of some Mullard/Brimar versions on ebay for a few quid. The output valves are less common from what I can make out. Now this shouldn't be a major problem for you as I'm guessing that only the driver valves will be used for the preamp stage. The output valves should just be for the headphone output. It may even be possible to run the unit as a preamp without the output valves but you'd have to check that.

If you wanted to keep the experiment as cheap as possible then this looks like a good options. I'm sure that the Little Dot could also be upgraded with better quality components extract some extra performance. There are a few people on AoS who could advise on that. So that's an option to keep in mind.

Another good option would be the Audio Note M Zero (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/AUDIO-NOTE-M-ZERO-VALVE-PRE-K-/300561119554?pt=UK_AudioTVElectronics_HomeAudioHiF i_Amplifiers&hash=item45fad6b942) which is going cheap on ebay, but it's £370 inc postage which may be more than you were planning on spending.

I'm sure you wouldn't have any bother selling either if the experiment was a failure. :)

[Ali Tait]

Equivalent for the output valves is 6n6p, which are readily available on ebay, cheap and sound good.

[Ali Tait]

6ak5 can be used also by the looks of it.

[Ali Tait]

...and also ecc99 I think, perhaps with some minor surgery.

[HighFidelityGuy]

Well that solves the valve issue then. There appears to be plenty of modding options for the MK III and MK IV: LINK (http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/439449/little-dot-mk-iii-mods)

I fancy trying one of these my self. THIS (http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/309855/review-of-the-little-dot-mkiii-tube-headphone-amp-pre-amp)review was very favourable. :eyebrows:

[Ali Tait]

Aye, looks a nice bit of kit.