Ocean Mini Valve Class A Tube Headphone Amplifier

To start off, this is my first tube amp and headphone amp at that. I own what i like to think is a decent ($2-300 range) set of headphones. I've also only been using the amp for 2 days now. It only has about 4 hours of good sound through it at this point. I enjoy loud clean music from anything between Blues to Electronica.Cons:Just to get this out of the way. The red (power) light is kinda bright. I have it sitting on my desk(attached photo) and in the dark it's just TOO bright. I don't mind a small little LED letting me know it's on, but really, i can see that the switch is in the "on" position if i really need to know.I've noticed a few "pops" while listening, nothing that is a big deal, maybe once ever 2 or 3 hours. Just worth noting.Pros:It sounds good. I have nothing to compare it to, really. It sounds better than it did before i had it. It is also louder.It actually drives my headphones. I feel it as much as i can hear it.The sound certainly is more "warm" as most people are describing.The build quality is exceptional, i'm most impressed about this. This thing is built and finished very well. The knob, switch, and input/output ports are high quality. The tube guard is also a nice feature. I love the form factor, i was thinking big huge bulky monstrosity, but it fits well on my relatively small desk.Other thoughts:Bad quality music/sound will still sound bad, simple as that.It gets hot (see picture*Edit, i guess i was only allowed one photo). I've taken temperature readings of the case(which i've read acts as a heatsink made from extruded aluminum) at 110F regularly and i've seen the tube reach above 130F. I guess when talking about electronics, this isn't nothing to be worried about. Nothing i'm worried about at least, i have computer components that reach 160F+ regularly.If you have the headphones on and you flip the power switch on you'll get a bit of noise through the speakers. Caught me off guard the first time it happened.I'll probably use it for a good 250+ hours before thinking about switching out the tube as most people say it's a common modification and actually pretty highly recommended.I can see the itty bitty glow of the tube, but the bright annoying red light shines into the case and "kills the charm" as someone else said.This amp is running off of my PC with an old Soundblaster 5.1 sound card of some sort into the amp via 3mm.

I purchased this unit to add just a little more "power" to my music. I say power only in a headphone environment. I am not trying to drive a set of 12" woofers along with a mass of mid range and tweeter speakers, just a good set of headphones. The manufacture quality of this unit is excellent. I removed the lid to replace the shipped tube with a Gold Lion Custom Tube. This gave me a chance to peek inside and as a former circuit board manufacturer, I can say the build quality is excellent. Just a note on the protection loop over the top of the tube, while i had the lid off, I removed that bar for future ease of swapping out tubes. I know why the bar is there, and I promise not to hurt myself Bravo Audio.Once i had the Gold Lion in place, this little guy tamed my V-Moda M-100 cans to a nearly reference headset. All the frequency range became neutral all across the spectrum. It took away some those strong low frequencies these cans are noted for. It did not reduce the lows, it just smoothed out the soundstage from top to bottom. The sound is very sharp, all instruments can be heard just like they should, The reverb in the music now becomes part of the background allowing it to blend with the soundstage. Voices and midrange become part of the total volume of the music. I have no problems hearing all the mids which smooth in with the other frequencies.This is a well made unit. I had to purchase a single 3.5mm connection to RCA analog cable which was no big deal. The unit does become warm but remember, this is an amp. I remember the days when you could nearly heat your house with some of the tube amps out there at the time. This was a excellent purchase for me. It added another dimension to the sound of my M-100's. Now if I can only find the best volume setting between my computer output and the Ocean Mini. My setup was a set of V-Moda M-100's, an Audioengine D3 DAC and my home Dell all-in-one computer.

Great first tube amp for desktop use. Currently use it with my computer and my Shure SE535's, and the sound is clean and slightly warmer then a straight pass through to the computer audio output. The unit is small, well built, and the volume knob and power switch both have a solid feeling to them.The downsides are limited, but apparent. Firstly, the tube that came with the amp was poorly constructed, the internal components were all askew, and looked cheap. The sound it produced was also a bit too cold, not particularly accurate. However, I also bought the Tungsol 12AU7 tube and swapped that in (this unit is really simple to take apart with a Philips head screwdriver). The sound produced by a better tube is like night and day. Since I have really nice headphones, it was easy to detect the differences immediately.The blue color is ugly. I wish it came in straight gunmetal or black. The blue makes it look cheap and makes the unit look as though it's made of plastic rather than metal.The power light is red, and it is extremely bright. I recommend cutting a small swatch of duct tape to cover it up since I don't want to completely cut the connection. If you have this on in a dark room, its like a lighthouse.The protective bar over the tube is a great idea, however, to replace tubes, you do need to open the whole unit, they should have made the protective bar swivel, but I guess that would add major cost to the unit.Also, make sure you use a grounded outlet, otherwise you get a humming noise which will drive you mad.All those problems aside, this is a $130~ tube amp (add another $15-$35 for a better tube) and that is and incredible deal. The sound is warm but clean. The unit is well constructed, and feels like it'll last for years to come. Only other recommendation would be to make sure you have some nice headphones, otherwise you won't really get the full benefit of this tube amp. I'm personally picking up some B&W P7's to further enjoy this amp.