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Monoprice Monolith THX 887 Balance Headphone Amp: New Champ?

D

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Hopefully they'll make a version 2.0 of their Monoprice Headphone Amp + DAC using the THX 887 and throw in a remote. That'll be endgame for me...for 2 years
 
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amirm

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If you haven't put it away yet, with its 4w max output, do you mind testing it with 8ohm speaker output?
There is no heatsink in this. At that load current output goes way high. I worry about damaging it.
 

sbsj

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I wonder what is the difference between the 789 and 887 implementations ?
 

Jorj

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Thanks to Amir for the test results and review!

As a Massdrop 789 owner, the slight improvements over their unit are impressive, but for certain inaudible.

As a former Monolith portable DAC\amp owner, I promised that I'd never trust my ears to their gear again, and I stand by that. Caveat emptor. My headphones are too expensive and my ears too precious for me to readily trust their gear. Despite the fantastic test results, I cannot help but feel that this company, at some level, failed me. For those few niggling decibels, I'm going to stick with companies that don't ship gear that may or may not blow eardrums into kingdom come.

In all earnestness, I hope no one gets the eardrum punishment from this amp that I got in the past. I don't trust them.
 

AndrewDavis

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Thanks to Amir for the test results and review!

As a Massdrop 789 owner, the slight improvements over their unit are impressive, but for certain inaudible.

As a former Monolith portable DAC\amp owner, I promised that I'd never trust my ears to their gear again, and I stand by that. Caveat emptor. My headphones are too expensive and my ears too precious for me to readily trust their gear. Despite the fantastic test results, I cannot help but feel that this company, at some level, failed me. For those few niggling decibels, I'm going to stick with companies that don't ship gear that may or may not blow eardrums into kingdom come.

In all earnestness, I hope no one gets the eardrum punishment from this amp that I got in the past. I don't trust them.

What?!? Eh?

Could you speak up??!?!!?
 

wadec22

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Thanks to Amir for the test results and review!

As a Massdrop 789 owner, the slight improvements over their unit are impressive, but for certain inaudible.

As a former Monolith portable DAC\amp owner, I promised that I'd never trust my ears to their gear again, and I stand by that. Caveat emptor. My headphones are too expensive and my ears too precious for me to readily trust their gear. Despite the fantastic test results, I cannot help but feel that this company, at some level, failed me. For those few niggling decibels, I'm going to stick with companies that don't ship gear that may or may not blow eardrums into kingdom come.

In all earnestness, I hope no one gets the eardrum punishment from this amp that I got in the past. I don't trust them.

As a THX 789 owner, you should be content, perfectly good product and zero reason to upgrade. However, I would like to point out that neither monoprice unit tested poorly. 105 SINAD for the unit you are referring and 107 I believe for the desktop. Those are perfectly good scores. Your ears weren't missing anything. Certainly with the existence of the 789, the implied THX excellence of the other two made their measurements somewhat disappointing, but not poor. In fact I think it is important to point out, if you weren't in need of the extra oomph of the 789, I highly doubt you could distinguish an audible difference between it and either Monoprice product. The distinction between the three products should be on need, feauture set and preferred aesthetic.

When it comes to companies, both Monoprice and Drop have a very mixed bag of service reviews - neither is stellar. And if you do your research, both have a fair number of black eyes. If all one cares about is raw performance the JDS atom is the best choice due to the customer service factor and low price but again it lacks a feature or two one may want (XLR, rarely needed but often desired).

This product showing is great for the consumer. In all likelihood, this will probably get Drop to have their product always available - like several of their other big successes. Either way, we now have a third choice in this performance bracket. More availability, more aesthetic choice, and maybe even a price battle down the road. Win, win, win. ;)

EDIT/UPDATE - just read your prior experience that I was unaware of, I now see your reason for sour grapes :)
 

GuNStArHeRo

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I have a 789 but I still would pick this unit for my second pc. Also would want to see if there is any real differences in sound which I highly doubt.
 

gvl

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The layout of controls and plugs is exactly the same as in the drop unit. What's different?
 

mi-fu

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The layout of controls and plugs is exactly the same as in the drop unit. What's different?

The brand is different :p

Actually I even suspect if both of them are made in the same factory in China.
 

maxxevv

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The layout of controls and plugs is exactly the same as in the drop unit. What's different?

Possibly some key components that affect noise were changed ? That 1+ dB difference in noise at such levels of excellence has to come from somewhere I suppose ?
 

gvl

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Possibly some key components that affect noise were changed ? That 1+ dB difference in noise at such levels of excellence has to come from somewhere I suppose ?

A cherry was picked?
 
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amirm

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Possibly some key components that affect noise were changed ? That 1+ dB difference in noise at such levels of excellence has to come from somewhere I suppose ?
It is optimization of an existing reference design.
 

JohnYang1997

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A few candidates for noise performance.
1 resistor.
2 gain stage design.
To me both can happen. And second one is more possible.
 

Jimmy

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I guess that monoprice just OEMs these (and many other of their products), the 887 seems to be mostly the same as the 789, but with lower height case, different knobs, no vent holes?, and when internal pictures appear we'll see the rest.

Anyway almost every brand screw things up sometimes, I understand what you say, but you'll eventually get burned at some point even with big names, the important thing is how they react when these things happen.

Thanks to Amir for the test results and review!

As a Massdrop 789 owner, the slight improvements over their unit are impressive, but for certain inaudible.

As a former Monolith portable DAC\amp owner, I promised that I'd never trust my ears to their gear again, and I stand by that. Caveat emptor. My headphones are too expensive and my ears too precious for me to readily trust their gear. Despite the fantastic test results, I cannot help but feel that this company, at some level, failed me. For those few niggling decibels, I'm going to stick with companies that don't ship gear that may or may not blow eardrums into kingdom come.

In all earnestness, I hope no one gets the eardrum punishment from this amp that I got in the past. I don't trust them.
 
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