Review and Measurements of Monoprice THX Desktop DAC & Amp

[odyo]

Looks like this product is discontinued and there will be an updated version of it. Very curious how it will compete in Amir's testbench. Also the price... Hopefully it will not have audiophile tax.

 

[Dreamslayer]

I've had mine for 4 years and it's been great but I started hearing little pops in the right ear yesterday - like maybe there was a short in the cable.
Tried playing with the cable to see if I could induce it without success.

I wondered if it might be the headphones - I plugged them into my Parasound amp - no pops, sounds great

Ugh.

Really not wanting to buy a headphone amp right now

 

[Jimster480]

I've had mine for 4 years and it's been great but I started hearing little pops in the right ear yesterday - like maybe there was a short in the cable.
Tried playing with the cable to see if I could induce it without success.

I wondered if it might be the headphones - I plugged them into my Parasound amp - no pops, sounds great

Ugh.

Really not wanting to buy a headphone amp right now

That is a shame. About how many hours do you figure you have on it? I personally have atleast 10000 on mine.

 

[Dreamslayer]

That is a shame. About how many hours do you figure you have on it? I personally have atleast 10000 on mine.

Not sure but easily 3000, maybe 5000 (plus I leave it on all the time)

As soon as I posted, I swapped cables and was getting no sound from the Monolith until I gave it a little twist and a push on the HPA end.

Could end up being the headphones (vmoda crossfade wireless 2) - the 3.5mm jacks on these don't always age well, but I bought this pair in April.

Could be the 3.5mm cable too. I need to do some more testing and probably order some 3.5mm cables too

 

[Jimster480]

Not sure but easily 3000, maybe 5000 (plus I leave it on all the time)

As soon as I posted, I swapped cables and was getting no sound from the Monolith until I gave it a little twist and a push on the HPA end.

Could end up being the headphones (vmoda crossfade wireless 2) - the 3.5mm jacks on these don't always age well, but I bought this pair in April.

Could be the 3.5mm cable too. I need to do some more testing and probably order some 3.5mm cables too

You only have 1 headphone to test with?

I actually realize that I mixed up the thread and that this is the Monoprice Monolith. I have the Drop THX 789. Same but different ;x
I would get another headphone to test with.

 

[Dreamslayer]

I think that's the same amp I have (below). I really just use headphones for gaming - I probably have another pair somewhere but I'm not really a headphones person - I prefer speakers.

 

[Dreamslayer]

I think I figured out the problem and it's pretty unexpected.

Static electricity (as in actual static)

I tried 2 cables on 2 amps and could never induce the static sound. It sort of sounded like a break or short but there was no way to cause it now matter how much I played with the cable.

Then I noticed something:

Rubbing my feet on the carpet would cause the static sound.

Consistently.

My headphone amp is using a digital coax cable to connect to my PC and the cable is pretty long so I'm wondering if there is some kind of induction / antenna effect?