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with its power loss protection affordability and performance the sp920

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from a data makes upgrading to an SSD remarkably safe and simple some years

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back Chinese tube amplifier companies came crashing onto the headphone amp

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scene offering impressive specs and features at prices that traditional

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audio companies were simply nowhere near if you wanted something with similar

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performance and inexpensive worldwide shipping but all of the usual questions

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must be asked when buying something from China before investing your hard-earned

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dollars because they're still not cheap will the manufacturing quality be

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consistent are they using high quality componentry what about after sales

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support well over the last few years one of these Chinese brands has expended

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their portfolio Beyond a few products established a solid track record for

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user support and has turned into pretty much the go-to for inexpensive but high

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quality Chinese built tube amps and that is little Dot and this is the MK4 a

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premium single-ended headphone amplifier and one of the most famous with a

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469 deep appreciation thread on headfi

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that's actually been running since 2010 but was even posted in today but before

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we get into this product you're probably asking yourself already well why would I

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even want a tube based headphone amplifier I heard from oh I don't know

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my plumber or some tall dark techsavvy hippie or something that they're bad and

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solid state amps are much better great question and it comes down to the

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subjectivity versus objectivity argument

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that has been and continues to be a raging internet War hopefully I can

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clarify things a little bit objectively tube amplifiers do typically sound

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different than accuracy Above All Else solid state amplifiers like the

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objective 2 they're less bright more

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natural sound signature is real and a result of a number of factors including

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their relatively high output impedance also objectively they straight up do

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introduce Distortion and therefore will not achieve that purest For Better or

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For Worse it sounds exactly like the original recording goal that you might

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be going for but that is where subjectivity comes in a lot of people

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don't give any cares about that they just want an enjoyable listening

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experience and to their ears the Richer base warmer sound and subdued highs of a

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tube amp sounds a okay and to those people I'll say this rock on just keep

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your thoughts about the obvious Superior I ority of tubes to yourself but before

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the solid state Fanboys get all high and mighty now lonus and Logan are on our

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side about this frankly I don't want to hear about the obvious superiority of

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solid state either enjoying music is not that black and white and there are other

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variables at play here like the fact that everyone hears a little differently

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that make it actually impossible to have a one-size fits-all solution so take the

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rest of this video for what it is my own subjective personal experience with the

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little dot markv tube headphone amplifier the the manual is functional

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if not amazing the only things I really needed it for were the Fairly Specific

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Instructions for powering the unit on and off and the procedure for flipping

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the dip switches on the underside to increase gain to five when I was testing

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my fairly inefficient lcd2 headphones

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the warning about how hot it gets was also pretty helpful as well the unit

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itself was well packed in soft foam and looks absolutely stunning the vacuum

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tubes and the gold accents give it a very steampunk look and frankly the

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wasted desk space a if I was going to go pick a headphone amplifier just based on

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how badass it's going to look I would probably go this route in the Box Little

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Dot includes a power cord a headphone adapter and a set of RCA cables so

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you'll be able to easily plug into an existing external deck they're perfectly

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nice and only folks who believe in fancy

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cables are likely to replace them on to the listening tests with my senheiser

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hd8 DJs frankly it was impossible for me to tell the difference between my

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stack and the mark I figured the strong base and lack of

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Sparkle in the hd8 in the first place was making it hard to make out those

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characteristics in the tube amp so I moved on to my dt990 Pro 250 ohms from

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be Dynamics these headphones have a lot of fans but I don't personally really

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like them because the clear and accurate Highs are a little bit too bright for me

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and I find them fatiguing to listen to still couldn't tell moving on to the

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ad's LCD 2s whether it's my music tastes

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un as shamed top 40 listener here or something else I still just couldn't

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tell as it happens the lcd2 sound fantastic on the markv but I guess that

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leads to the only real conclusion that I could draw from this buy whatever makes

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you happy aside from the high price and the usual tube inconveniences uh it does

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take a few seconds to power on you may get the occasional audible anomaly and

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you should clean and replace your tubes from time to time the mark 4's build

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quality looks and sound quality out of the box left nothing to be designed Des

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ired for me another selling point is the fact that it allows you to tube roll or

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swap out for different tubes which will be a lot of fun if you're a tinkerer who

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wants to experiment with different pairings the way wine enthusiasts will

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look for dishes that go well with their favorite vintages personally I'm not and

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for me the much more obvious differences between one pair of headphones and

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another make them a more Sound Investment than searching for the

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perfect amp but your mileage may vary so

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there it is guys I mean feel free to call me out on this video I don't mind

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and I'll even save you the trouble of debating the validity of my tests in the

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comments aside from being inconclusive they are not scientific at all a double

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blind experiment with normalized output volumes would have been a better more

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scientific way of testing the two against each other and while I do plan

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to obtain an SPL meter and take another crack at this on my own time for the

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sake of training my ears and refining my audio Gear review process you the buyer

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won't have any of that stuff anyway and if I can't tell the difference when I

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know which is which sitting right next to them in the time it takes to switch

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between them then my recommendation of buy whatever will make your friends

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think that you're cooler won't change either way so I just don't think it's

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that big of a deal thank you for watching guys the link to pricing and

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availability of this product is in the video description below the like dislike

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and share buttons which I would love for you to use accordingly also in the video

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description is a support link that we'd love for you to use if you appreciate

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what we do you can get a t-shirt give us a monthly contribution or change your

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browser bookmarks to sites that give us an Kickback whenever you buy stuff it

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helps us out a lot thanks again for watching and as always don't forget to

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mash that subscribe button if you haven't

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already I mean not that it works half

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the time anywh or whatever you can also follow on Twitter release our videos we

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tweet about them tweet tweet tweet anyway