Little Dot MK III SE vs Schiit Valhalla 2

Short answer

  • More power: the Little Dot MK III SE, with 2.50 W into 32 Ω; the Schiit Valhalla 2 has 115 mW. The Little Dot MK III SE drives 6 headphones to 100 dB that the Schiit Valhalla 2 cannot (Moondrop COSMO, Moondrop PARA, Symphonium Crimson, 3 more).
  • Hiss with sensitive IEMs: cannot be compared — neither maker publishes a noise figure.
  • Price: the Little Dot MK III SE costs $191 more; what that buys on these numbers is set out further down, under What the price difference buys.

Both are desktop amplifiers, $540 against $349.

The Little Dot MK III SE reaches 100 dB on 567 of the 567 models here, the Schiit Valhalla 2 on 561.

Side by side

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationLittle Dot MK III SESchiit Valhalla 2
Power into 32Ω2.5 W115 mW
Power into 150Ω1.5 W426 mW
Power into 300Ω800 mW800 mW
Power into 600Ω400 mW450 mW
Output impedancenot published14.0 Ω
Output noisenot publishednot published
Price$540$349
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567		567561

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

How solid these numbers are

Where each power figure comes from

LoadLittle Dot MK III SESchiit Valhalla 2
32 ΩPublishedDerived
150 ΩDerivedDerived
300 ΩPublishedPublished
600 ΩDerivedPublished

Both makers publish a power rating. Little Dot MK III SE publishes at 32 Ω and at 300 Ω; Schiit Valhalla 2 at 300 Ω and at 600 Ω. The other rows are worked out from those.

So the two columns are not equally firm row by row: at 32 Ω only the Little Dot MK III SE figure is the maker’s own and at 600 Ω only the Schiit Valhalla 2 figure is the maker’s own. On those rows the derived number is the one to doubt first.

What the labels mean.

What separates them

The headphones that tell them apart

6 headphones reach 100 dB on the Little Dot MK III SE but not on the Schiit Valhalla 2 — Moondrop COSMO, Moondrop PARA, Symphonium Crimson, 3 more.

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

On real headphones

Headroom and hiss on 8 models, both sources

Headroom is at a 100 dB SPL peak.

The widest gap on the list is the Shure SE846: Little Dot MK III SE has +42 dB of headroom there against +29 dB. 13 dB is about 22 times the power, which matters for peaks rather than for how loud the music sits.

The hiss columns are empty for Little Dot MK III SE and Schiit Valhalla 2 because neither maker publishes no output noise figure.

HeadphoneImpedanceNeedsLittle Dot MK III SE headroomSchiit Valhalla 2 headroomLittle Dot MK III SE hissSchiit Valhalla 2 hiss
Shure SE8469 Ω0.04 mW+42 dB+29 dB dampingnot publishednot published
Campfire Audio Andromeda 20209 Ω4.0 mW+22 dB+9 dB dampingnot publishednot published
Audeze LCD-2 Classic70 Ω0.79 mW+34 dB+25 dB dampingnot publishednot published
Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω)250 Ω0.63 mW+32 dB+30 dBnot publishednot published
HiFiMAN HE400se25 Ω7.9 mW+24 dB+11 dB dampingnot publishednot published
Audio-Technica ATH-R70X470 Ω1.6 mW+25 dB+25 dBnot publishednot published
Sennheiser HD 600300 Ω6.6 mW+21 dB+21 dBnot publishednot published
HiFiMAN Susvara60 Ω50 mW+16 dB+6 dB dampingnot publishednot published
What the price difference buys

The gap in dollars, against the gap in numbers

The Little Dot MK III SE costs $191 more than the Schiit Valhalla 2. Out of the 567 models here, that difference buys 6 more models driven to 100 dB.

Nothing runs the other way: there is no axis here on which the cheaper of the two does better.

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

Next

Both pages in full

Each in full: Little Dot MK III SE and Schiit Valhalla 2.

↑