doomlordis
Banned
- Joined
- Jul 26, 2004
- Posts
- 394
- Likes
- 10
OK I had a Monolith II and loved it but it did have a few shortcomings, usb 1.1 only etc.
Today I have just bought a 1gb Monolith Premium from AMP3.co.uk.
Contents
The Player comes with the following :
Monolith Premium 1GB MP3 Player,Installation CDROM,Instruction Manual,Extension USB Cable (USB port built into main unit),Earphones,Earphone Pads,Direct Encoding Cable and a leather hand strap.
No case with this one which is disappointing.
Features
Deluxe Aluminum Tube Body of X-PROTECT 1.55mm,2 colors and 16 levels’ next generation organic EL display,Intelligent FM timing record system,Voice Recorder,animation GIF Logo Editor,LYRICS,Text viewer , Navigation in unlimited folders, Direct Encoding, Multi-Codec (MP3/WMA protected and unprotected, OGG) player,Language study function,Electronic clock function(alarm etc),Lithium ion Battery 18hrs playback,Portable storage through USB 2.0.
NEW FEATURES
Recording can now be done up to 320kbps , it is now USB 2.0, playlisting is improved, navigation is quicker . Audio output is 56MW!!! 28 each channel , this baby is loud!
SRS wow has been added, new hot keys can be assigned to various functions.
Now has a Text Viewer.
It now has an all track shuffle instead of just folders.
All in all a worthy upgrade and at a cheaper price , I paid £119 for mine that’s only 20 quid more than a shuffle!
This player isn’t gapless but is the closest without being I have heard it took me ages to tell it wasn’t , the gap is tiny almost inaudible.
Build Quality
This player is as solid as the Monolith II , the guys who build it have another video of them driving repeatedly over this one , again it survived intact! It is aluminium with a mirrored glass screen and solid buttons.
The screen is now at the top of the player.
The USB cover is a solid hinged flap , much better than the usual rubber cap.
Overall very solid player.
Control
The player is mainly controlled with a jog dial , this provides volume changes when playing a song and is also used for navigating folders, it can be pressed in to select songs or enter folders. The menu button above is used to switch to FM radio when playing and when held to enter the options. When navigating it is used as a back button.
The other buttons present are Tempo - used to change the speed of a song, bookmark - used for a-b bookmarking , a record button - used to record radio, voice or line in sources.
There is the usual hold button and power button.
The premium has a hot key button, a single press of the power button can change EQ, Playmode or Study mode.
Navigation is straight forward enough if you are used to folders on PCs , ID3 is supported for displaying Titles etc but not browsing by artist etc.
As said earlier navigation is faster than the Monolith II.
The Options are EQ (full five band and usual classic,pop etc and SRS wow), playmode – shuffle modes – folder and all tracks, recording options, playlist (pick 30 favourites to play back), Booking - for setting up timed FM recordings,File - for deleting stuff, Power - set time, world clock etc, settings - scroll speed, contrast, intro settings,balance and more.
I found it easy to use after about 10 minutes of playing around but you may need to refer to the manual occasionally - this is no ipod!
Sound Quality
This sounds as good as the Monolith II but louder!
The big one for me, i have had a LOT of MP3 players , Ipods, Creatives, Irivers and Sonys , i have noticed a big difference in sound quality between them all. I currently have an Ipod Nano 2gb (white to avoid scratch horror!) a black Sony 20gb HD5 and now this.
I thought that my HD5 was almost perfect with line out through my amp , a little bass heavy but great detail and tight treble. The Monolith is better , much better, it is sooooo detailed i can pick up things that my HD5 simply ignores or muffles. The Nano has been a diappointment to me sound wise , sure it is easy to use but the treble is splashy , invading the mids and the bass is boomy with little control, again the monolith destroys it , it is so easy to pick the monolith when playing back certain songs (tropicalia by Beck is a favourite).
The packaging points out that it has a 24bit Wolfson Sigma Delta DAC , i know Wolfson they are based in my Home town Edinburgh, Scotland and they produce a lot of Codecs and Dacs , my brother has an Arcam Solo and it also has a Wolfson 24bit sigma Dac (sounds amazing) , Ipods use wolfson chips also but im not sure if its Dacs or Codecs but if they are Dacs they are poor cousins to the Monoliths daddy chip! (update – it is the Wolfson wm8750 chip – also used in the Qoolqee K7 and Mpio 100)
Best sound i have heard from a DAP, Simple.
Problems
None so far ! all issues I had with Monolith II have been resolves and they have made it cheaper – HURRAH for estarlabs!
I would give it – 9/10
Today I have just bought a 1gb Monolith Premium from AMP3.co.uk.
Contents
The Player comes with the following :
Monolith Premium 1GB MP3 Player,Installation CDROM,Instruction Manual,Extension USB Cable (USB port built into main unit),Earphones,Earphone Pads,Direct Encoding Cable and a leather hand strap.
No case with this one which is disappointing.
Features
Deluxe Aluminum Tube Body of X-PROTECT 1.55mm,2 colors and 16 levels’ next generation organic EL display,Intelligent FM timing record system,Voice Recorder,animation GIF Logo Editor,LYRICS,Text viewer , Navigation in unlimited folders, Direct Encoding, Multi-Codec (MP3/WMA protected and unprotected, OGG) player,Language study function,Electronic clock function(alarm etc),Lithium ion Battery 18hrs playback,Portable storage through USB 2.0.
NEW FEATURES
Recording can now be done up to 320kbps , it is now USB 2.0, playlisting is improved, navigation is quicker . Audio output is 56MW!!! 28 each channel , this baby is loud!
SRS wow has been added, new hot keys can be assigned to various functions.
Now has a Text Viewer.
It now has an all track shuffle instead of just folders.
All in all a worthy upgrade and at a cheaper price , I paid £119 for mine that’s only 20 quid more than a shuffle!
This player isn’t gapless but is the closest without being I have heard it took me ages to tell it wasn’t , the gap is tiny almost inaudible.
Build Quality
This player is as solid as the Monolith II , the guys who build it have another video of them driving repeatedly over this one , again it survived intact! It is aluminium with a mirrored glass screen and solid buttons.
The screen is now at the top of the player.
The USB cover is a solid hinged flap , much better than the usual rubber cap.
Overall very solid player.
Control
The player is mainly controlled with a jog dial , this provides volume changes when playing a song and is also used for navigating folders, it can be pressed in to select songs or enter folders. The menu button above is used to switch to FM radio when playing and when held to enter the options. When navigating it is used as a back button.
The other buttons present are Tempo - used to change the speed of a song, bookmark - used for a-b bookmarking , a record button - used to record radio, voice or line in sources.
There is the usual hold button and power button.
The premium has a hot key button, a single press of the power button can change EQ, Playmode or Study mode.
Navigation is straight forward enough if you are used to folders on PCs , ID3 is supported for displaying Titles etc but not browsing by artist etc.
As said earlier navigation is faster than the Monolith II.
The Options are EQ (full five band and usual classic,pop etc and SRS wow), playmode – shuffle modes – folder and all tracks, recording options, playlist (pick 30 favourites to play back), Booking - for setting up timed FM recordings,File - for deleting stuff, Power - set time, world clock etc, settings - scroll speed, contrast, intro settings,balance and more.
I found it easy to use after about 10 minutes of playing around but you may need to refer to the manual occasionally - this is no ipod!
Sound Quality
This sounds as good as the Monolith II but louder!
The big one for me, i have had a LOT of MP3 players , Ipods, Creatives, Irivers and Sonys , i have noticed a big difference in sound quality between them all. I currently have an Ipod Nano 2gb (white to avoid scratch horror!) a black Sony 20gb HD5 and now this.
I thought that my HD5 was almost perfect with line out through my amp , a little bass heavy but great detail and tight treble. The Monolith is better , much better, it is sooooo detailed i can pick up things that my HD5 simply ignores or muffles. The Nano has been a diappointment to me sound wise , sure it is easy to use but the treble is splashy , invading the mids and the bass is boomy with little control, again the monolith destroys it , it is so easy to pick the monolith when playing back certain songs (tropicalia by Beck is a favourite).
The packaging points out that it has a 24bit Wolfson Sigma Delta DAC , i know Wolfson they are based in my Home town Edinburgh, Scotland and they produce a lot of Codecs and Dacs , my brother has an Arcam Solo and it also has a Wolfson 24bit sigma Dac (sounds amazing) , Ipods use wolfson chips also but im not sure if its Dacs or Codecs but if they are Dacs they are poor cousins to the Monoliths daddy chip! (update – it is the Wolfson wm8750 chip – also used in the Qoolqee K7 and Mpio 100)
Best sound i have heard from a DAP, Simple.
Problems
None so far ! all issues I had with Monolith II have been resolves and they have made it cheaper – HURRAH for estarlabs!
I would give it – 9/10
