Little Dot MK III SE vs Schiit Valhalla 3

Short answer

  • More power: the Little Dot MK III SE, with 2.50 W into 32 Ω; the Schiit Valhalla 3 has 750 mW. The Little Dot MK III SE drives 1 headphone to 100 dB that the Schiit Valhalla 3 cannot (Symphonium Titan).
  • Hiss with sensitive IEMs: cannot be compared — the maker of the Little Dot MK III SE publishes no noise figure.
  • Price: the Little Dot MK III SE costs $41 more; what that buys on these numbers is set out further down, under What the price difference buys.

Both are desktop amplifiers, $540 against $499.

The Little Dot MK III SE reaches 100 dB on 567 of the 567 models here, the Schiit Valhalla 3 on 566.

Side by side

Every published figure, next to each other

SpecificationLittle Dot MK III SESchiit Valhalla 3
Power into 32Ω2.5 W750 mW
Power into 150Ω1.5 W286 mW
Power into 300Ω800 mW250 mW
Power into 600Ω400 mW125 mW
Output impedancenot published25 Ω
Output noisenot published6.32 µV
Price$540$499
Headphones it reaches 100 dB on
out of 567		567566

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 3
32 ΩPublishedPublished
150 ΩDerivedDerived
300 ΩPublishedPublished
600 ΩDerivedDerived

Both makers publish a power rating. Little Dot MK III SE publishes at 32 Ω and at 300 Ω; Schiit Valhalla 3 at 32 Ω and at 300 Ω. The other rows are worked out from those.

The two publish at the same loads, which is the one case where the rows of this table can be read straight across.

What the labels mean.

What separates them

The headphones that tell them apart

1 headphone reaches 100 dB on the Little Dot MK III SE but not on the Schiit Valhalla 3 — Symphonium Titan.

566 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 Audeze LCD-2 Classic: Little Dot MK III SE has +34 dB of headroom there against +27 dB. 6 dB is about 4.4 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 because that maker publishes no output noise figure.

HeadphoneImpedanceNeedsLittle Dot MK III SE headroomSchiit Valhalla 3 headroomLittle Dot MK III SE hissSchiit Valhalla 3 hiss
Shure SE8469 Ω0.04 mW+42 dB+37 dB dampingnot published30 dB
Campfire Audio Andromeda 20209 Ω4.0 mW+22 dB+17 dB dampingnot published10 dB
Audeze LCD-2 Classic70 Ω0.79 mW+34 dB+27 dB dampingnot published9 dB
Beyerdynamic DT 1990 Pro (250Ω)250 Ω0.63 mW+32 dB+26 dBnot published4 dB
HiFiMAN HE400se25 Ω7.9 mW+24 dB+19 dB dampingnot published3 dB
Audio-Technica ATH-R70X470 Ω1.6 mW+25 dB+20 dBnot published-3 dB
Sennheiser HD 600300 Ω6.6 mW+21 dB+16 dBnot published-7 dB
HiFiMAN Susvara60 Ω50 mW+16 dB+10 dB dampingnot published-9 dB
What the price difference buys

The gap in dollars, against the gap in numbers

The Little Dot MK III SE costs $41 more than the Schiit Valhalla 3. Out of the 567 models here, that difference buys 1 more model 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 3.

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