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Monoprice Liquid Platinum Headphone Amp Review

peterq

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You could easily find internal photo from Internet, the price is ridiculous for such product.
platinum_2018-1.jpg
 

gtb75

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noobie

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Looks like it should sell for half the price especially given the monoprice brand.
To be fair, minimum price is set by the costs plus necessary markup to stay in business. Beyond that price is set by the market - the value people put on it / volumes they are willing to buy it in, along with any other factors such as production limits and the effects on supply versus demand.

I never did understand people saying something should cost x or y... What they really mean is "I would not pay more than x or y."
 

JohnYang1997

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To be fair, minimum price is set by the costs plus necessary markup to stay in business. Beyond that price is set by the market - the value people put on it / volumes they are willing to buy it in, along with any other factors such as production limits and the effects on supply versus demand.

I never did understand people saying something should cost x or y... What they really mean is "I would not pay more than x or y."
There is a thing called competition. Loser will be broke. Simple.
 
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amirm

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To be fair, minimum price is set by the costs plus necessary markup to stay in business. Beyond that price is set by the market - the value people put on it / volumes they are willing to buy it in, along with any other factors such as production limits and the effects on supply versus demand.

I never did understand people saying something should cost x or y... What they really mean is "I would not pay more than x or y."
I said it should *sell* for half as much. That is a value statement. Massdrop makes the THX AAA 789 amp and sells it for $350. That is half the price of Monoprice.

As brands go, I associate Monoprice with prices pennies above cost. They are not a luxury brand. They have horrible service. Use one of the worst shipping companies in my area, etc. All of a sudden they make audio products and want to price them high??? Makes no sense.

Now, if the guts were full of unoptanium material, it would be one thing. But from the picture posted, there is no such thing in there. Hence my comment as someone who lives in the industry, has taken hardware products to market and compares products every day here.
 

JohnYang1997

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Tbh real good engineers won't do audio stuff, probably dsp in some cases. Amplifier and dac? Takes days to design and weeks to manufacturer. Minimal effort except marketing. Seriously?
 
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amirm

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Tbh real good engineers won't do audio stuff, probably dsp in some cases. Amplifier and dac? Takes days to design and weeks to manufacturer. Minimal effort except marketing. Seriously?
Any kind of hardware development is pain in the neck from design to supply chain management and manufacturing. So no, there is nothing trivial about it.
 

noobie

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I said it should *sell* for half as much. That is a value statement. Massdrop makes the THX AAA 789 amp and sells it for $350. That is half the price of Monoprice.

As brands go, I associate Monoprice with prices pennies above cost. They are not a luxury brand. They have horrible service. Use one of the worst shipping companies in my area, etc. All of a sudden they make audio products and want to price them high??? Makes no sense.

Now, if the guts were full of unoptanium material, it would be one thing. But from the picture posted, there is no such thing in there. Hence my comment as someone who lives in the industry, has taken hardware products to market and compares products every day here.

I'll stick with what I said. I did not say I agree or disagree with their pricing. I said - in short - that they need to sell for what they need to stay in business and make an adequate profit to make it worth their while. And, the market will give them whatever the market will bear. In short market forces work (maybe not the way we think that they should). In this case people are buying it. Whether that is a smart purchase or not is beside the point...

Anyway, I should have kept my opinion to myself - you are entitled to yours and I should not have commented, though by putting your opinion out there it does invite responses. All I was really trying to say is that the market works, regardless of whether the market works the way we want it to.
 

JohnYang1997

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Any kind of hardware development is pain in the neck from design to supply chain management and manufacturing. So no, there is nothing trivial about it.
I have done a couple of headphone amplifier from designs to production. And both performe a lot better than jds atom. Lower ps noise lower distortion at lower impedance load and at higher frequency etc. I only sold tens of them because I'm still a student in a uni. It isn't worth my time.
Sure it's a bit complex when comes to business management and labours and stuff which I didn't really get involved into(I was by myself). But really, I don't appreciate all these bullshit in this industry. Make something good and cheap or get lost. It's not like someone is making new dac from gound up (chord) and perform very well. We buy stuff off the shelf and use knowledge form decades ago to put things together. (the manufacturer making these chips are the actual good ones). Good electrical engineers will do DSP, RF, even power electronics. Unless they see money, they won't do audio.
 

JohnYang1997

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I'll stick with what I said. I did not say I agree or disagree with their pricing. I said - in short - that they need to sell for what they need to stay in business and make an adequate profit to make it worth their while. And, the market will give them whatever the market will bear. In short market forces work (maybe not the way we think that they should). In this case people are buying it. Whether that is a smart purchase or not is beside the point...

Anyway, I should have kept my opinion to myself - you are entitled to yours and I should not have commented, though by putting your opinion out there it does invite responses. All I was really trying to say is that the market works, regardless of whether the market works the way we want it to.
I don't think discussion is anything wrong. People can have different opinions and go back and forth discussing them. Just don't get personal, it's all fine. We can argue certain things and allow the difference in opinion and live with it.
 

noobie

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I don't think discussion is anything wrong. People can have different opinions and go back and forth discussing them. Just don't get personal, it's all fine. We can argue certain things and allow the difference in opinion and live with it.
Yup - neither of us got personal. I do regret mentioning anything, because in the end this really isn't the place to discuss economic theory, and I certainly am not deeply schooled in that field. I just had a knee jerk reaction to what is a pet peeve of mine. I should know better.
 
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Tarzan

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Another great review thank you.

I have an dac and ss amp. I would like a tube amp for live recordings for the sound stage and thicker notes. But I feel hybrids (this may not be one) defeat the purpose. A well engineered tube amp would be interesting to see reviewed. Its a shame the Darkvoice didn't do too well, would be great to see the Wooaudio WA6 on your desk. Far more expensive but perhaps worth the cost?
 

TommyK

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Another great review thank you.

I have an dac and ss amp. I would like a tube amp for live recordings for the sound stage and thicker notes. But I feel hybrids (this may not be one) defeat the purpose. A well engineered tube amp would be interesting to see reviewed. Its a shame the Darkvoice didn't do too well, would be great to see the Wooaudio WA6 on your desk. Far more expensive but perhaps worth the cost?

How about Linear Tube Audio microZOTL 2?
 

SIY

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My review in AudioXpress, December 2018. LTA was decidedly unhappy about them, but offered no contrary data.
 

FrantzM

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They have so far only sold just one. Drop is closing soon.
 
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