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Monoprice Monolith THX 887 Balance Headphone Amp: New Champ?

jae

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I'm hearing "2000 mW at 32 Ohms, 1000 mW at 16 Ohms, and 275 mW at 300 Ohms" (think 32/16 is swapped). To he honest, this is probably a pointless product with stuff like the Atom/Heresy in existence, especially if they can't beat it in price.
 

Veri

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I'm hearing "2000 mW at 32 Ohms, 1000 mW at 16 Ohms, and 275 mW at 300 Ohms" (think 32/16 is swapped). To he honest, this is probably a pointless product with stuff like the Atom/Heresy in existence, especially if they can't beat it in price.
I hope they price it well under $200 if they want it to succeed...
 

escalibur

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Appears to be a stripped down, single ended, lower powered entry level THX.
I bet 99,999% wouldn't hear the difference between any of them. :)
 

Celty

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jae

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Here you go, looks quite interesting..
That product has been out for years and has already been reviewed here https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ements-of-monoprice-thx-desktop-dac-amp.7483/

It has power but honestly at the $500 price they are asking, the measurements fall short compared to newer stuff, it's using older THX chips, and it's missing out on features that some of those other products offer like wireless streaming, higher bitrate playback etc. (thinking of the DX7 Pro for example). Just doesn't seem like a good value and monoprice has added shipping costs outside of North America
 

Celty

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That product has been out for years and has already been reviewed here https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ements-of-monoprice-thx-desktop-dac-amp.7483/

It has power but honestly at the $500 price they are asking, the measurements fall short compared to newer stuff, it's using older THX chips, and it's missing out on features that some of those other products offer like wireless streaming, higher bitrate playback etc. (thinking of the DX7 Pro for example). Just doesn't seem like a good value and monoprice has added shipping costs outside of North America
Ah, it was just reviewed by Joshua, so I was thinking they refreshed it.
 

escalibur

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Ah, it was just reviewed by Joshua, so I was thinking they refreshed it.
He is way too late with this one. It's old and definitely not worth nowhere near $500.
 

jae

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He is way too late with this one. It's old and definitely not worth nowhere near $500.
I wouldn't be surprised if the company would be persuading reviewers to push these to clear out old stock to make way for their new offerings.
 

jae

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I wonder what the power amp 'equivalent' to the THX 887 is in terms of value to performance? I consider this the 'budget' version of the Benchmark HPA4, I wonder if there are any (THX) power amps that will emerge as the 'budget' version of the Benchmark AHB2.
 

ZeDestructor

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I wonder what the power amp 'equivalent' to the THX 887 is in terms of value to performance? I consider this the 'budget' version of the Benchmark HPA4, I wonder if there are any (THX) power amps that will emerge as the 'budget' version of the Benchmark AHB2.

The most obvious one that comes to mind would be amps using the Purifi 1ET400 modules, followed by the Hypex NC400- and NC252MP-based amps. Depending on how high the noise floor of your listening room is, they may well be completely indistinguishable from an AHB2.
 
D

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I streamTidal via the Bluesound Node 2i analog out to the Monolith 887 via the balanced output to Focal Clear headphones. I compared this set up with the Node 2i analog out to the new Schiit Magni 3+ . The Monolith has a better channel balance and a slightly bigger or more forward presentation to me but the soundstage is narrow and at time inside my head. By far The Magni 3+ has a bigger soundstage but loses its channel balance as the volume goes up which produces a shuffled sound stage if you will. i.e cymbals being off in the distance. Both amps reveal the best of good recordings and the worst of bad recordings. I really like the Monolith BUT where's the soundstage ?! The "In your head" sound of the Monolith is not for me. I've ordered the Schiit Heresy and will compare that next.
E
 

Veri

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I streamTidal via the Bluesound Node 2i analog out to the Monolith 887 via the balanced output to Focal Clear headphones. I compared this set up with the Node 2i analog out to the new Schiit Magni 3+ . The Monolith has a better channel balance and a slightly bigger or more forward presentation to me but the soundstage is narrow and at time inside my head. By far The Magni 3+ has a bigger soundstage but loses its channel balance as the volume goes up which produces a shuffled sound stage if you will. i.e cymbals being off in the distance. Both amps reveal the best of good recordings and the worst of bad recordings. I really like the Monolith BUT where's the soundstage ?! The "In your head" sound of the Monolith is not for me. I've ordered the Schiit Heresy and will compare that next.
E
Uh-huh, sure.. odd that others don't hear this sound stage issue.
 

saadi703

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I currently own D90 and Monolith 887 which are connected using short XLR cables. The problem is that in high gain mode 887 has distortion / clipping going on whereas if I connect both devices using RCA cables then there is no clipping / distortion. My guess is that it is due to higher voltage supplied to 887 in XLR mode and it is not designed to sustain that voltage (4v in XLR and 2v in RCA), I am not sure though. Can anyone please confirm this? I can work around this problem by using either RCA cable or by using D90 in preamp mode and lower the volume a bit on D90. Both are not ideal solution as in both cases I am loosing headroom in terms of loudness / volume. The volume is important to me as I am using Hifiman Susvara which requires high gain on 887 to reach good level of listening.
 

Pillars

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Are you using full DAC only output from the D90? High gain on 887?
 

Veri

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I currently own D90 and Monolith 887 which are connected using short XLR cables. The problem is that in high gain mode 887 has distortion / clipping going on whereas if I connect both devices using RCA cables then there is no clipping / distortion. My guess is that it is due to higher voltage supplied to 887 in XLR mode and it is not designed to sustain that voltage (4v in XLR and 2v in RCA), I am not sure though. Can anyone please confirm this? I can work around this problem by using either RCA cable or by using D90 in preamp mode and lower the volume a bit on D90. Both are not ideal solution as in both cases I am loosing headroom in terms of loudness / volume. The volume is important to me as I am using Hifiman Susvara which requires high gain on 887 to reach good level of listening.
Both drop 789 and monoprice 887 accept only up to 2.1V input before clipping in high gain (knob setting III). This is documented in the manual. So with balanced 4V input, you will drive it to clipping in the highest gain, except when using an input that is <= 2.1V, solution is to use only middle gain with XLR input, or to lower the output a bit as you indicate :/ (over at Topping A90 thread, a user tested this and found no such clipping in highest gain. So it appears to be a "limit" in the THX amplifying circuit).
Edit: I see you already replied in the A90 discussion so you are already aware of all this.. :)
 
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trl

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I currently own D90 and Monolith 887 which are connected using short XLR cables. The problem is that in high gain mode 887 has distortion / clipping going on whereas if I connect both devices using RCA cables then there is no clipping / distortion. My guess is that it is due to higher voltage supplied to 887 in XLR mode and it is not designed to sustain that voltage
If when using a lower gain the distortions are not there, my guess is that the input stage might distort a bit. Usually, higher gains are for much lower input voltages, like 1V RMS for non-balaced or 2V RMS for balanced operation, while a lower gain is imperative for higher input voltages.

Something similar is happening with the Objective2 headamp: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-about-input-gain-headroom.10383/#post-286626, http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2011/08/o2-details.html?m=1#maximuminput.
 

saadi703

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Both drop 789 and monoprice 887 accept only up to 2.1V input before clipping in high gain (knob setting III). This is documented in the manual. So with balanced 4V input, you will drive it to clipping in the highest gain, except when using an input that is <= 2.1V, solution is to use only middle gain with XLR input, or to lower the output a bit as you indicate :/ (over at Topping A90 thread, a user tested this and found no such clipping in highest gain. So it appears to be a "limit" in the THX amplifying circuit).
Edit: I see you already replied in the A90 discussion so you are already aware of all this.. :)

Thanks. Yes I saw that post. It was a coincidence that he posted this just when I was looking for the answer to this question.
 
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