Monoprice Monolith Liquid Platinum Headphone Amplifier by Alex Cavalli

Been salivating over it, told myself I wouldn't. Had some tubes delivered for the valhalla 2 instead today. Can't wait to see people impressions of synergy with HD600/6xx.

 

Have one at home sitting in its box that I'm too busy to open until Sunday! Aggh.

 

^^Found the sig to be highly relevant

 

If anybody interested, there is one Acopian VB36GT230 LPS available on eBay.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Acopian-Regulated-36VDC-2-Amp-Power-Supply-VB36GT230/112931793394

It's a 36VDC 2.3A LPS with builtin fuse for Over Voltage Protection( prefix V) .
Hopefully 2.3A provides enough headroom to help with inrush current draw during power on for LP's 36VDC 1.5A rated input.

 

Judging by the Liquid Spark impressions and AtomicBob's measurements of the Liquid Spark, I am starting to doubt the performance increase of spending $68. I would likely wait and see.

My guess is that to cut costs, the MCTH had a very cheap and simple SMPS, but to the looks of it, the one that came with the LS is much more substantial and looks like it measures much better. So I am only speculating similar things with the power supply and performance of the LC.

 

Can we please leave out the LPS circle-jerk until people have posted actual impressions of this amp?

TIA.

 

Nice post by Alex:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/mon...-by-alex-cavalli.876406/page-27#post-14575002

 

Family picture



Kudos to Monoprice for delivering the next day!

The amp is much smaller than I expected and feels pretty solid, despite the Fischer-Price look online.
The tube sockets are kind of crappy. I bent pins on both tubes because the inserts are not well aligned on the socket.

Overall it's a cute little amp, better than I expected.

 

Hoping to get your impression soon. Congrats on the new amp!

 

I must say the case get noticeably warmer than the CTH, front panel included.

So far it sounds good but I'm only running SE and Alex recommends letting it run for 100 hours.
I'll bring it home and run it balanced there. I only have a Gungnir Multibit at home and my power is shitty, though (people familiar with Sawtelle probably noticed the buzzing from the power lines on the street... Not a good sign!)

 

FYI: Alex posted this on HF regarding balanced in vs SE in.
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/mon...-by-alex-cavalli.876406/page-28#post-14575685

Of course this assumes that output is the same quality from the source

 

Am I the only one significantly bothered by this for a $700 amp?

 

I'm very curious what stock tubes come with it and how Liquid Platinum responds to tube rolling.

 

Electro Harmonix 6922 non gold pin.

 

One of the factors that play into how the costs of an expensive amp are reduced to that price. This wasn't very unexpected.

 

Like many others, really looking forward to the impressions and reviews of those brave enough to be the first into the breach!

I am really hoping the sound out of the LP will be something special, and that the compromises made to hit a more attainable cost point are not deal breakers.

 

Now that I packed it back to take it home, I can say that taking the tubes out is quite challenging. It’s a very snug fit (which is a good thing, right?).

If it’s anything like the CTH, it’s not meant to tube roll as the stock tube sounds the best to me.

 

Brand new tube sockets are tentioned quite tightly. The MCTH socket took much force to get it in, like much more than other new 9-pin sockets I have used.

So that is kind of expected, but not chassis alignment issues to get the tube in correctly.

 

Clearly missed Alan Marcus' post like 5 up