Well I bought a Monoprice tube amp/dac

[Krunok]

The tubes are melt your skin to the tube hot, or at least severe burns.

That is not a sign of high voltage.

 

[Rod]

That is not a sign of high voltage.

My ignorance is showing, I was guessing. Would pictures of the insides help to determine the power supply?

 

[Rod]

Well here they are.

 

[Krunok]

Well, hard to tell from the pics, maybe experienced experts might tell. But anyway, if I were you I wouldn't bother myself about technicalities when tube amp is concerned, if you like the sound just enjoy it.

 

[mi-fu]

One thing I like about it is i already have vintage 6080 and 2c51 tubes around the house for it. No tubes to buy. Now hopefully I wont have problems with hum.

Wondering how is it compared to Bottlehead Crack, which also uses 6080.

If this is as good as the Crack, then the DAC, pre-amp, and variable impedance will all be nice bonus

 

[Veri]

I think this is an OEM version of the Cayin linked in page 1 of the thread. They must have sold the design off to monoprice.

On reviews of that Cayin product, it was said the impedance selector is basically useless, since the first setting is simply better left on at all times. Maybe you can verify this @Rod.

 

[Rod]

Planners(He-440i) sound lifeless. Not for them. The dt-770 80 ohm gets a little louder each click(2 of them) from 16-32 ohm to the 65-150 ohm settings. 32 Ohm Nad HP-50 I cant tell any difference in any of the settings.

 

[Jimmy]

This seems to be based on the cayin ha-1a, with some changes including the addition of an onboard dac. Output is probably transformer coupled, good output transformers are expensive, so I don't know how they got around that. Value seems to be very good, they have included quite a bit of hardware for the price.

I'm waiting for the upcoming THX amp with balanced output and AKM based DAC, but release dates don't stop moving forward. I would go for the RME ADI 2 Pro but I don't like that it doesn't include 4 pin XLR headphone output and I don't really need the ADC functionality, so I'm still waiting to buy a balanced solid state dac/amp combo to pair with HD800S.

 

[Rod]

This seems to be based on the cayin ha-1a, with some changes including the addition of an onboard dac. Output is probably transformer coupled, good output transformers are expensive, so I don't know how they got around that. Value seems to be very good, they have included quite a bit of hardware for the price.

I'm waiting for the upcoming THX amp with balanced output and AKM based DAC, but release dates don't stop moving forward. I would go for the RME ADI 2 Pro but I don't like that it doesn't include 4 pin XLR headphone output and I don't really need the ADC functionality, so I'm still waiting to buy a balanced solid state dac/amp combo to pair with HD800S.

I have the Massdrop=txaa version coming in oct. so I decided to get this. After awhile I will try the onboard dac but the RME has eq. So I gotta find an EQ app for the ipad and then try it.

 

[Rod]

This seems to be based on the cayin ha-1a, with some changes including the addition of an onboard dac. Output is probably transformer coupled, good output transformers are expensive, so I don't know how they got around that. Value seems to be very good, they have included quite a bit of hardware for the price.

I'm waiting for the upcoming THX amp with balanced output and AKM based DAC, but release dates don't stop moving forward. I would go for the RME ADI 2 Pro but I don't like that it doesn't include 4 pin XLR headphone output and I don't really need the ADC functionality, so I'm still waiting to buy a balanced solid state dac/amp combo to pair with HD800S.

Looks like they used a mass producing pc case manufacturer, probably helped with some of the cost for other parts. Other than that?

 

[watchnerd]

I don't see any transformers.

Is it using a boost converter or something?

NVM, I see the transformer now, it's just not as big as I was expecting.

 

[derp1n]

This seems to be based on the cayin ha-1a, with some changes including the addition of an onboard dac. Output is probably transformer coupled, good output transformers are expensive, so I don't know how they got around that. Value seems to be very good, they have included quite a bit of hardware for the price.

I'm waiting for the upcoming THX amp with balanced output and AKM based DAC, but release dates don't stop moving forward. I would go for the RME ADI 2 Pro but I don't like that it doesn't include 4 pin XLR headphone output and I don't really need the ADC functionality, so I'm still waiting to buy a balanced solid state dac/amp combo to pair with HD800S.

You don't need balanced for the HD800s... it won't do anything useful.

 

[watchnerd]

P.S. Your RME ADI-2 DAC must be thinking it has done something really awfull in the previous life as it has been punished to drive this tube device with such ridiculously bad specs. Yet, I believe the SQ is just fine.

No kidding, given the ADI has a pretty bad ass headphone amp built-in already....

 

[Jimmy]

Well, I don't think that monoprice produces anything by themselves, they seem to outsource both product design (if any) and obviously production, in fact many of the products they offer can easily be traced to their original oems, but I'm not saying that as a criticism, since they usually offer good products at reasonable prices.

In this case the case seems to be a little less fancier than the cayin one, but the internals shown perfectly justify the price, and It will likely pair well with high impedance headphones.

For me, I've used tube amps for years, but (at least in my experience), cheap tube gear can't rival the clarity and transparency of good solid state, and these are qualities that I value over usually the warmth and added soundstage that tube gear (artificially) adds.

 

[watchnerd]

I have the Massdrop=txaa version coming in oct. so I decided to get this. After awhile I will try the onboard dac but the RME has eq. So I gotta find an EQ app for the ipad and then try it.

I'm kind of confused....

Given the RME has EQ, is using the iPad + tube amp just for the purpose of getting that fat 2nd order harmonic distortion from the tubes that the RME doesn't have?

 

[watchnerd]

By the way, UA makes some really great tube emulation plugins that will work with an external interface:

https://www.uaudio.com/uad-plugins/all-plugins.html

 

[watchnerd]

The Twin Finity is also pretty cool because it lets you dial between solid state / tubes. I've used one with my bass and powered headphones out of the Hi Z socket:

https://www.uaudio.com/hardware/mic-preamps/710-twin-finity.html

 

[Rod]

I'm kind of confused....

Given the RME has EQ, is using the iPad + tube amp just for the purpose of getting that fat 2nd order harmonic distortion from the tubes that the RME doesn't have?

Ya thats it. Your so smart.

 

[Rod]

Also the amp in the RME certainly has that analytical bite in the mids. The RME amp can be upgraded easily. It isn't great. The dac is good.

 

[derp1n]

Also the amp in the RME certainly has that analytical bite in the mids. The RME amp can be upgraded easily. It isn't great. The dac is good.

It isn't?