Little Dot MK3

[Noelstan]

I recently plugged in a set of Yamaha HP 1 headphones and even at low volume I get distortion. I believe they are 300 ohm cans. I never remembered a problem with clipping sound distortion. Now to get it anywhere loud I get distortion especially in the base. It is not the headphones as they work fin out of the NAD preamp and can get loud. So what gives is my mk3 losing it? I have tried tube rolling and some combos work slightly better but nothing seems to stop the head phone distortion. Any suggestions? Thanks Noel. PS the gain settings are all on high (both switches off)

[rockage]

Hello Noel,

You shouldn't be getting any distortion. Are you feeding the MK III with a line-level signal?

[Noelstan]

I have tried going direct from a NAD 540 cd and also from pre out of a NAD preamp and both examples distort! They do NOT distort on line out from MK 3 to power amp and speakers- only the headphone jack on the MK3 is distorted. The same headphones plugged into the NAD preamp sound great. Thanks David for helping....

[ViperGeek]

I believe they are 300 ohm cans. ... PS the gain settings are all on high (both switches off)

I believe your gain is set way too high for high impedance headphones. I use HD 650s (300 ohm) and Gain 4 (1=OFF, 2=ON) works perfectly. Gain 10 (OFF/OFF) is for low impedance headphones.

Worth a shot, anyway.

- Dave

[juliaan]

Can you please tell me the best gain setting for the ld mk3 and akg k1000? Thank you in advance

[MKCBrown93]

I believe your gain is set way too high for high impedance headphones. I use HD 650s (300 ohm) and Gain 4 (1=OFF, 2=ON) works perfectly. Gain 10 (OFF/OFF) is for low impedance headphones.

Worth a shot, anyway.

- Dave

The manual that comes with the Little Dot MKIII specifically says to set the switches to Gain 10 (Off/Off) for headphones that are 300 Ohms or greater, and that this setting is for "High impedance headphones" (quote from manual). You seem to have it backwards, Dave.

[derrellgore]

MKCBrown93,

I agree with you but the manual available on this site right now says the opposite. Not sure if this version of manual is wrong or do some MKIII do it this way. I have version 4 and off/off is for 300 Ohms. Anybody else have the other way?

[TubeStack]

I believe your gain is set way too high for high impedance headphones. I use HD 650s (300 ohm) and Gain 4 (1=OFF, 2=ON) works perfectly. Gain 10 (OFF/OFF) is for low impedance headphones.

Worth a shot, anyway.

- Dave

The manual that comes with the Little Dot MKIII specifically says to set the switches to Gain 10 (Off/Off) for headphones that are 300 Ohms or greater, and that this setting is for "High impedance headphones" (quote from manual). You seem to have it backwards, Dave.

Did this ever get sorted out?

I have HD600s and find that gain at 5 works well...