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Monoprice Monolith THX 887 Balance Headphone Amp: New Champ?

ayane

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SMSL has released a THX AAA 888 headphone amplifier SP200. SINAD over 120dB.
Holy cow, that's just nuts. They're measuring at a pretty high voltage, though, so SINAD might be a couple of dB lower at 4 Vrms. And from that graph the distortion seems to be even-harmonic dominant, which is interesting.
 

jfree77

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This is my first post; I found this forum in a Google search and was blown away by your content/reviews.

I currently have a Sennheiser HDVA600. Would you say this would be a upgrade/downgrade/sidegrade to that? I know it's an older amp, but she's been pretty good to me. However, I could probably get $400 for it used and then buy this amp. I'm powering a modded M1060 and I have a Modi 3 as my DAC (although I'm considering the SMSL SU-8 to get a fully balanced setup).

Just curious! Now I'm scrolling up to the "Donations" tab...
 

yummy

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SMSL has released a THX AAA 888 headphone amplifier SP200. SINAD over 120dB.


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we're sorry, it didn't say anything about THX

sometimes we need to be more
 

Matias

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But it doesn't really matter how an ear works to judge sound accuracy, nor does it matter if every human on earth senses sound differently.
Sound is a fluctuation in air pressure. If we accurately reproduce the air pressure fluctuations then every method of hearing will sense accurately reproduced air pressure fluctuations.

So if we were somehow able to develop a pair of headphones/dac/amp/recording equipment that reproduces the same fluctuations in air pressure that were happening in the studio, and could somehow figure it out that all these things are 100% accurate, and someone listened to this stuff and said they don't like how it sounds, you would have to tell them they are "wrong" for not liking how it sounds?
 
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This is my first post; I found this forum in a Google search and was blown away by your content/reviews.

I currently have a Sennheiser HDVA600. Would you say this would be a upgrade/downgrade/sidegrade to that? I know it's an older amp, but she's been pretty good to me. However, I could probably get $400 for it used and then buy this amp. I'm powering a modded M1060 and I have a Modi 3 as my DAC (although I'm considering the SMSL SU-8 to get a fully balanced setup).

Just curious! Now I'm scrolling up to the "Donations" tab...


That's an expensive amp. You might still be able to get around $900 for it. I would sell that, and get either the 789 or 887, and buy the rme adi-2 dac to use as the dac (it is $1200 new, but you can find it for between $800-$900 used) . There are other dacs that measure around the same as the adi-2, but you get a ton of features, German engineering, and it also has an amp section.
 

Nango

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That's an expensive amp. You might still be able to get around $900 for it. I would sell that, and get either the 789 or 887, and buy the rme adi-2 dac to use as the dac (it is $1200 new, but you can find it for between $800-$900 used) . There are other dacs that measure around the same as the adi-2, but you get a ton of features, German engineering, and it also has an amp section.

Pls consider the ADI-2 as an amp does measure almost like the very best amps.
 
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Pls consider the ADI-2 as an amp does measure almost like the very best amps.

Yup. It can hold its own as an amp/dac combo, and if you buy that, your really don't necessarily need to buy something like a THX on top of it. I like having a couple of different amps and sources, because its fun to compare gear.
 

dropbear

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I haven't checked but it may be a different company (like Schiit EU?), anyway they sell through amazon mostly 3D printers, some cables and headphones, and not much more, the prices are reasonable.
I believe it is their UK office, their support e-mail goes straight to monoprice.com
 

Julf

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So if we were somehow able to develop a pair of headphones/dac/amp/recording equipment that reproduces the same fluctuations in air pressure that were happening in the studio, and could somehow figure it out that all these things are 100% accurate, and someone listened to this stuff and said they don't like how it sounds, you would have to tell them they are "wrong" for not liking how it sounds?

No, nobody is "wrong" for liking whatever they like. Some people like 8-track, boom boxes, Justin Bieber and pink flamingos. Personal preference is personal preference. That has nothing to do with objective sound quality.
 

solderdude

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don't forget the pink panthers !
 

Julf

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trotos

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with all those hi-end hi-fidelity headphone amplifiers I got one question?
If you drive them with a DAC of moderate quality, like the khadas tone board, won't the produced noise from the DAC influence the headphone amp?
so a similar hi-fidelity DAC to drive this amplifier is a necessity.
Is this statement correct?
 
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