Little Dot MK II vs xDuoo MT-604

Short answer

  • More power: the xDuoo MT-604, with 2.00 W into 32 Ω; the Little Dot MK II has 100 mW. The xDuoo MT-604 drives 7 headphones to 100 dB that the Little Dot MK II cannot (Moondrop COSMO, Moondrop PARA, Moondrop PARA 2, 4 more).
  • Hiss with sensitive IEMs: cannot be compared — neither maker publishes a noise figure.
  • Price: the xDuoo MT-604 costs $7 less, and wherever both makers publish a figure the Little Dot MK II shows no advantage for the extra money.

Both are desktop amplifiers, $176 against $169.

The xDuoo MT-604 reaches 100 dB on 567 of the 567 models here, the Little Dot MK II on 560.

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationLittle Dot MK IIxDuoo MT-604
Power into 32Ω100 mW2.0 W
Power into 150Ω214 mW427 mW
Power into 300Ω300 mW213 mW
Power into 600Ω150 mW107 mW
Output impedancenot publishednot published
Output noisenot publishednot published
Price$176$169
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567
560567

Not published means the maker leaves it out, so that axis cannot be compared.

Where each power figure comes from

LoadLittle Dot MK IIxDuoo MT-604
32 ΩPublishedPublished
150 ΩDerivedDerived
300 ΩPublishedDerived
600 ΩDerivedDerived

Both makers publish a power rating. Little Dot MK II publishes at 32 Ω and at 300 Ω; xDuoo MT-604 at 32 Ω. The other rows are worked out from those.

So the two columns are not equally firm row by row: at 300 Ω only the Little Dot MK II figure is the maker’s own. On those rows the derived number is the one to doubt first.

What the labels mean.

The headphones that tell them apart

7 headphones reach 100 dB on the xDuoo MT-604 but not on the Little Dot MK II — Moondrop COSMO, Moondrop PARA, Moondrop PARA 2, 4 more.

560 of the 567 models here reach 100 dB on both.

Headroom and hiss on 8 models, both sources

Headroom is at a 100 dB SPL peak.

The widest gap on the list is the HiFiMAN HE400se: xDuoo MT-604 has +23 dB of headroom there against +10 dB. 13 dB is about 20 times the power, which matters for peaks rather than for how loud the music sits.

The hiss columns are empty for Little Dot MK II and xDuoo MT-604 because neither maker publishes no output noise figure.

HeadphoneImpedanceNeedsLittle Dot MK II headroomxDuoo MT-604 headroomLittle Dot MK II hissxDuoo MT-604 hiss
Shure SE8469 Ω0.04 mW+28 dB+42 dBnot publishednot published
Campfire Audio Andromeda 20209 Ω4.0 mW+8 dB+22 dBnot publishednot published
Audeze LCD-2 Classic70 Ω0.79 mW+22 dB+31 dBnot publishednot published
Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω)250 Ω0.63 mW+26 dB+26 dBnot publishednot published
HiFiMAN HE400se25 Ω7.9 mW+10 dB+23 dBnot publishednot published
Audio-Technica ATH-R70X470 Ω1.6 mW+21 dB+19 dBnot publishednot published
Sennheiser HD 600300 Ω6.6 mW+17 dB+15 dBnot publishednot published
HiFiMAN Susvara60 Ω50 mW+4 dB+13 dBnot publishednot published

The gap in dollars, against the gap in numbers

The Little Dot MK II costs $7 more than the xDuoo MT-604, and on these three axes the money buys nothing: among the 567 models here there is not one that the Little Dot MK II handles and the xDuoo MT-604 does not — not on power, not on the one-eighth rule, not on hiss. The traffic runs the other way: the cheaper xDuoo MT-604 drives 7 models to 100 dB that the Little Dot MK II does not.

Only published figures count here; blank axes are counted separately.

Both pages in full

Each in full: Little Dot MK II and xDuoo MT-604.

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