Pangea Audio HP-201 vs. Little Dot Mk II vs. Schiit Valhalla 2

I own the Pangea HP201 (which looks like a re-badged Napa 208H) coupled with Sennheiser HE598's. Initially, I was underwhelmed, but, both having been broken in by now, the combination sounds very good.

However, none of us would consider ourselves audiophiles, if we didn't strive for improvement, i.e. - upgrading. Thus, I'm currently considering the Little Dot Mk II and the Schiit Valhalla 2 headphone amps.

As a side note, I'm also thinking of Sennheiser 600 vs. 650, and/or maybe Hifiman HE 400i.

Anyone who has experience with any combination of the above is welcome to contribute. What do you think would be a better pairing?

 

I have the Little Dot MK II and, I must say, for the money I'm very impressed with it. It has adjustable gain and also the advantage of rolling tubes. Nice clean highs, smooth mids, and good tight bass. It effortlessly powers my HiFiman HE-400 cans with very good results.
Regards, Sam

 

The Pangea amp is a hybrid. The Little Dot and Schiit are OTL. OTL amps, especially the lower cost OTL amps, are more suited for higher impedance dynamic headphones like the Senn HD600/HD650 than planar magnetic headphones. Some of the OTL amps can drive planars well enough, but you're operating the amp somewhat out of its comfort zone or designed for zone. If you have visions of a planar headphone in your future then you probably want to look at tube amps other than OTL amps, unless the OTL amps you're looking at are something like this.

The Senn 600/650 combined with the Little Dot or Schiit would be a good pairing. I don't know how that pairing would compare to the Pangea. I've never heard the Pangea.

If you think you might want a planar in your headphone collection and you want a tube amp then you may want to look at hybrid amp options or transformer based tube amps (transformer based tube amps are going to be more expensive because audio transformers add to the cost).

 

Thanks! So, it sounds like the Woo Audio SA6 SET amp may be a better match for the planar ones?

 

Ordered the Little Dot MkII today - let's see what it sounds like. For now, to be used with my Senn 598's, but I have my sights set on the 650's soon enough...

 

That will be fun. Trying different styles of amps is how you explore and discover the sort of headphone sound that suits you. The 598 and 650 should be a good pairing with that amp. And it will be fun, especially if you want to explore tubes.

Woo Audio is in NY, and Stereo Exchange in New York is also a Woo dealer. Should be possible to arrange a demo of some of the Woo amps so you can hear the Woo style of SET amps and some of their other amps.

A tube amp that I'm interested in is the Sonnare amp by ZMF. The amp hasn't been released yet. I listened to a prototype version at a recent meet. It's nice. It drives planars and also sounds great with dynamics like the HD800. It could be a great amp for both dynamics and planars. Enjoy The Music did a teaser for the amp as part of their AXPONA coverage. Here's the coverage: AXPONA 2016 Ear Gear Expo Show Report AXPONA 2016 Show Report By Dave Hanson -- AXPONA 2016 Show Report (Audio Expo North America) Coverage by Enjoy the Music.com » scroll down a bit to see the teaser for ZMF and the amp. I hope it gets released soon.

 

Thinking about picking up the HP201 this week.

Might by fun running the PC through it and bypassing my normal system. May also let me set up a 2nd headphone only system in another space.

 

If you want to run both high impedance dynamics and planars with authority, the Schiit Jotunheim will do you right. Unless you absolutely positively must have tubes.

 

I confess - I must absolutely have tubes. I never really had them, it's a childhood dream that's been postponed for years due to reasons of practicality, cost, wives, and other fragments that collectively we call "life". Now, nothing is holding me back - I'm going to indulge myself and see where it takes me. If it falls below expectation - solid state is never far away, but I doubt it...

 

After I get my Little Dot (I cancelled the first order due to reasons I will post below, but will re-order it right after I finish typing this) , I might actually be selling my HP-201. I got it delivered by Amazon on Aug 31. By now it has, conservatively estimated, maybe 50-60 hours on it, but probably less. (I mostly listen to speakers, headphones are used only after 10 pm, to let my building neighbors have some peace). Purchased for $199 (after supposed 50% discount by AudioAdvisor). Sale price will be determined if it comes to that, it will be reasonable.

So, If I like the Little Dot, the HP may be offered for sale. If HP turns out to be better, it will stay, and I will use the LD for my bedroom system. Stay tuned.

 

In that case enjoy the Little Dot!

 

I made an interesting discovery last night, and, actually elaborately looked to verify it today. Here's the rundown:

Having gotten deeper into the whole headphones/amps field, I got interested in comparing how my current headphone amp (the Pangea HP-201) compares to the headphone outputs of my components. Here is the comparison of the respective headphone output by component, with headphones plugged into their respective headphone jacks:

In the digital CD mode, the outcome was predictable, but by only a very small margin:

My Cambridge Azur 851A integrated - mediocre crap; (it's a very good amp, but not the headphones part);
Cambridge DacMagic Plus DAC - better!
Pangea headphone amp - better than the DAC, but not by a very large margin. Soundstage and 3-D are better, probably thanks to the tube. All in all, if that amp was solid state, it probably would have not been worth buying, and the DAC would have sufficed.

Turntable/tuner - have not headphone jacks, no choice but to have the amp, so, on that front - it's worth it.

Biggest surprise of them all - the cassette deck, a Denon DRM-555. The headphones jack on it provides the BEST sound of any of the above. It literally blew me away - better than the headphone amp, and by far! On the one hand - it's quite a pleasant surprise. On the other hand - it makes me wonder, how does a dedicated headphones amp sound lamer than the stock headphones jack on a cassette deck? And it's not a Nakamichi Dragon, but a regular mid-fi Denon deck, single head, nothing really special. To be sure, I even played the same albums (Deodato 2 and "Sun Goddess" by Ramsey Lewis) simultaneously on both the CD and the cassette deck, and kept on switching the headphones between their respective jacks. The order is pretty much the same:

Integrated amp - crap!
DAC - a bit better;
Headphone amp - better still;
Cassette deck - BEST! Even comparing the cassette output between the deck and the headphone amp, the cassette deck is hands down the BEST, killing the headphones amp with no hope in sight.

Does anyone have a similar experience? Is it normal? Does it have a reasonable explanation? Or is it just me? I was initially so overwhelmed by the sound coming from the deck, that I figured a headphone amp is unnecessary, period, and that components have better sound to start with. True with the deck, not true with the CD. Having thought that, though, I impulsively cancelled the order for the Little Dot MK2.

I then experimented further with my bedroom system components, where I have a Yamaha R-S201 receiver and a much-lauded Onkyo-7030 CD player. Now, these are simple inexpensive components, and their headphone outputs were predictably crappy, compared to my primary system. Interestingly, the Yamaha receiver has better headphones sound coming from the Onkyo player than the Onkyo's headphone jack does. If I had to stick to just that, Yamaha it is, no doubt. But, the bedroom system is a natural candidate for a headphones amp, as it may provide much improvement.

That's why I decided to re-order the Little Dot MKII and yet see how it sounds with my primary system. The pangea HP-201 will be transferred to my bedroom. If it improves things there - it stays. If not - I will stick to Yamaha, or try the Little Dot in the bedroom and keep the Pangea in the primary rack.

Will report back as things progress.

 

I ordered the HP201 today and it should be here by Saturday,.
Based on the above, I will give my PCM-R500 (Sony DAT deck) a run through it as well and report.

 

Get an HD650 and try that experiment again.

One explanation for what you heard is that the HD598 is what I'd consider very good mid-fi. The HD650 can be very good audiophile-fi when driven with a good tube amp. The amps you've tried have largely maxed out the capabilities of the HD598. While those same amps would just be the starting point for the HD650. The HD650 can be used to hear what is special about and what differentiates $2000+ tube amps. The HD598 has no business being used to audition a $2000 tube amp, or even a $500 tube amp.

The HD650, when properly driven with a good amp, will have better layering and separation, a more cohesive soundstage, and better micro-detail than the HD598. The difference in micro-detail will be the biggie. The HD650 will just let you hear more, and hear more of what the amp is capable of.

As an hypothetical example. With the HD650 you may notice that the tape player headphone output is lacking micro-detail that the other amps have. With the HD650 you'd be able to hear the difference in micro-detail between the different amps, while with the HD598 you wouldn't be able to. That's just a hypothetical example. I haven't head the headphone output from the tape deck you have.

So get yourself a HD650. B&H has it for $340 right now, but on back order. Last year I got the HD650 for $300 from Adorama on Black Friday. I'd consider any price $340 or below for a new (non-refurbished) HD650 to be a very good deal.

Get familiar with the HD650 with your gear and favorite recordings. Get it burned in. Then take it over to Stereo Exchange and some other dealers and try it with some good tube amps and SS amps. Then you'll understand what a good headphone amp can do and why a dedicated headphone amp is needed to get that sort of performance.

 

I have 598's and 650's, and couldn't have said it better myself. Another thing is the 598's are only 50 ohms and probably won't play well with an OTL amp like the Little Dot.

 

I replaced the stock cable on my HD650 about a year ago with a Cardas cable. A nice improvement, IMHO.

 

650's are coming, soon enough. Just ordered the Little Dot again. Once I have the 650's - I will look into that Cardas cable as well, thank you.

 

Where did you order your Little Dot? The website doesn't appear to offer direct sales, unless I read it wrong.

I purchased one 2 weeks ago from an Amazon.com vendor, Soundvision, and it arrived badly damaged, though the packaging looked fine, but the back end of the unit looked like someone took a hammer to it and destroyed the audio connector in/out posts. I saw warnings after the fact about buying Little Dot amps from anyone other than the U.S. sales rep, but fortunately, I got my money back. I'm still interested in finding a decent, modest tube amp to pair with my Sennheiser HD600 phones out of my Marantz SA8004 SACD player.

TIA...

 

I ordered from the same place you did - SV via Amazon. It arrives tomorrow - let's see what happens. I'm a Prime member, so, getting my money back will not be a problem. As to the damage on yours - I'd probably blame either the carrier, or the individual who packed it - he/she must have dropped it or something, and then, without saying a word to anyone, just shoved it into the box and mailed it away, knowing that amazon would be dealing with the fallout in the end...

As to another amp - I'm also in waiting to purchase the Schiit Valhalla 2. It's twice the price of the LD, but it's U.S made, so, that alone explains it. It's OTL, and it's $349 direct from Schiit website ($389 on amazon). give that a try...

 

Yikes. I suspect that's pretty close to what happened. FWIW, I received an email asking me to rate my purchase with SoundVision. I was tempted to review it honestly (and negatively), but in the end, since I didn't know with certainty that the damaged Little Dot was their fault, I left no feedback at all.

I hope you have better luck than I did, seriously.

 

I looked it up. The Cardas cable is $235 on amazon. Yikes! Is the stock cable really inadequate?

 

I just pulled the trigger on a Schiit Mjolnir 2 in the hybrid tube/solid state version. I decided to take advantage of my Oppo 105D and use my Sennheiser HD800S headphones with it in balanced mode, and pair my Sennheiser HD600 with the HDVA600 amp out of my Marantz SA8004. Certainly a different approach than my original plan to add a Little Dot MK III to the mix. We'll see how it goes.

 

A few obsservations.

1. The stock cable is fine, however I have noticed an improvement using the Cardas. YMMV.
2. Be careful when ordering through Amazon. Some of the sellers are not "authorized dealers" for Cardas and inferior counterfeits do exist. Best to call or e-mail Cardas and find out who their authorized sellers are. My cable came from Audio Advisor.

 

AudioAdvisor sells on Amazon - that's who I bought the Pangea amp from.

 

Best to check the actual product listing to confirm "sold by or fulfillment".