[starmartyr]

Ladies, gents, and all yall nonbinaries. I present the volume knob mod.

A bit of sticky rubber stuff leftover from some 3m rubber feet. Cut up and used so you can control the volume infinitely with one finger.

The rubber feet came in a square piece of rubber with the round feet bits punched out. I just used a bit of the excess and viola!

Ive been using this since close to day 1 and just realised I should share. The rubber feet are about 1inch to give you a sense of scale.

One of those small tweaks that make for a massive quality of life differences. Adjusting volume and navigating the menu is nowhere near as much of a chore.

Funny, I knew exactly what this was as soon as I saw it. I'm well versed in those little rubber feet too, haha. I use the excess rubber for lots of things as well, it's nice and grippy.

Though, I don't have a problem with spinning the knob, i just run my finger around the outside to turn it rapidly. I find turning up or down volume just fine this way unlike the initial complaints of it being too slow.

I too hear the faint "pops", depending on what I'm listening to. Just figure it's a part of digital volume control. Doesnt bother me tho

 

[CFGamescape]

I just experienced the "overcurrent protect" feature when listening to my Argon MKIII plugged in with a balanced XLR. It seems anything louder than -28.00db will trigger the protection. It's a little annoying, but I guess it's a good thing? I ensured the cable was plugged in correctly. It happened when listening to a track at -25.00db for a couple mins, then the music stopped/notification popped up. Anyway around this if I want to listen to louder than -28.00db?

 

[starmartyr]

I just experienced the "overcurrent protect" feature when listening to my Argon MKIII plugged in with a balanced XLR. It seems anything louder than -28.00db will trigger the protection. It's a little annoying, but I guess it's a good thing? I ensured the cable was plugged in correctly. It happened when listening to a track at -25.00db for a couple mins, then the music stopped/notification popped up. Anyway around this if I want to listen to louder than -28.00db?

That's pretty bizarre, I've only had that happen if I've unplugged headphones while something is playing. Are those particularly hard to drive or something?

 

[CFGamescape]

That's pretty bizarre, I've only had that happen if I've unplugged headphones while something is playing. Are those particularly hard to drive or something?

Yeah, they’re pretty hard to drive but it shouldn’t have happened. I emailed tech support and they weren’t very helpful. What was helpful was replicating the issue with the volume a bit louder at -20.00db, which resulted in the amp shutting off. When I restarted it, I didn’t get the issue anymore. Weird.

 

[Gun21]

Bad news for prospective UK buyers. I contacted Monoprice UK and got this back.

Hello, Thank you for reaching out and your interest in Monoprice! Unfortunately, we are no longer expecting the Monolith by Monoprice Desktop Balanced Headphone Amplifier and DAC with THX AAA Technology (Dual AKM 4493 DACs & Dual AAA-788 Modules) to arrive in our Stores. It might be available in 2021, but there is still no confirmed information. I am very sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for understanding. In case you have any further questions, please let me know. Kind regards, Diana Customer Success Team Monoprice

 

[Baten]

Bad news for prospective UK buyers. I contacted Monoprice UK and got this back.

Hello, Thank you for reaching out and your interest in Monoprice! Unfortunately, we are no longer expecting the Monolith by Monoprice Desktop Balanced Headphone Amplifier and DAC with THX AAA Technology (Dual AKM 4493 DACs & Dual AAA-788 Modules) to arrive in our Stores. It might be available in 2021, but there is still no confirmed information. I am very sorry for the inconvenience and thank you for understanding. In case you have any further questions, please let me know. Kind regards, Diana Customer Success Team Monoprice

If you want one soon, you can also order @ audiophonics. But it costs a pretty penny

 

[nishan99]

WARNING!!!

I am on the latest firmware and there is a bug while using the USB input (maybe to all digital inputs) and the RCA preamp outs. While on MUTE there is a chance this fuking unit to send a FULL FUKING SIGNAL blowing your ears off!.

My ears still hurt and I have a bad headache right now. !@#$ you Monoprice!!!!!.

 

[starmartyr]

WARNING!!!

I am on the latest firmware and there is a bug while using the USB input (maybe to all digital inputs) and the RCA preamp outs. While on MUTE there is a chance this fuking unit to send a FULL FUKING SIGNAL blowing your ears off!.

My ears still hurts and I have a bad headache right now. !@#$ you Monoprice!!!!!.

Damn that's crazy. I happened to have mine turned down to mute just the other day when I tried some really sensitive IEMs on it; I realize I've never had it turned all the way down before as any sound on my over ears typically fades out long before that. Also I never turn it down that far because it's like 800 turns of the volume dial. Sounds like a bad flaw that should be reported to Monoprice though.

 

[Gun21]

I have output coming out of both the XLR and the 1/4" SE at the same time. The manual states otherwise. Kind of like it tbh.

 

[BIGGRIMTIM]

Just got my unit last week. Loving it so far paired with my HD6XX via balanced cable. I installed the drivers from the Monoprice site to get all the supported formats. I am having a strange issue however. Occasionally all of my sound cuts out. I have to power the unit off and power it back on to get it working again. My unit has 1.04 firmware which I noticed is not available on the Monoprice site. Is anyone having this issue?

Thanks.

 

[Gun21]

Just got my unit last week. Loving it so far paired with my HD6XX via balanced cable. I installed the drivers from the Monoprice site to get all the supported formats. I am having a strange issue however. Occasionally all of my sound cuts out. I have to power the unit off and power it back on to get it working again. My unit has 1.04 firmware which I noticed is not available on the Monoprice site. Is anyone having this issue?

Thanks.

My unit is 1.04 in the settings too. I wondered about that when I first got it, seeing as only 1.03 is listed on Monoprice's website. That must be the way they roll, and is confusing as best. I'd get in touch with Monoprice about your issue. This unit has been rock solid for me.

PS: check your USB settings, if indeed you are using Windows. Sometimes USB ports go into sleep mode to save polar bears. I'd at least try setting power saving to 'off' in Windows Control Panel for that particular port. Give it a try.

 

[starmartyr]

My unit is 1.04 in the settings too. I wondered about that when I first got it, seeing as only 1.03 is listed on Monoprice's website. That must be the way they roll, and is confusing as best. I'd get in touch with Monoprice about your issue. This unit has been rock solid for me.

PS: check your USB settings, if indeed you are using Windows. Sometimes USB ports go into sleep mode to save polar bears. I'd at least try setting power saving to 'off' in Windows Control Panel for that particular port. Give it a try.

^^Same on both counts for me. Still no idea what 1.04 revision fixed. But I also haven't had any problems with mine either, and I've certainly never had issue with sound cutting out.

As Gun21 suggests I'd look at turning off all power saving modes completely including diving into all of the advanced power settings which is where you'll find those "USB suspend" settings among others. May as well turn all power saving options off. PCs/laptops are plenty efficient now; most of those settings are holdovers and just cause issues. Windows can be such a pain with all of that. Also disable any "fast startup" settings which I've found can cause graphics stuttering issues and can cause other problems as well. With a solid state drive the fast startup settings are redundant anyway. Windows is always trying to (and I suppose they have to) be compatible with everything including 10+ year old hardware so things invariably get messy.

Anyway if you exhaust all of the settings tweaks you could contact Monoprice to try another unit while you can, otherwise it may be a good idea to backup and do a clean wipe of your PC and start over to alleviate any windows issues.

Best of luck, and don't discount this unit yet. I'm loving it still myself. I'm currently enjoying using the DAC out to my Lyr as it's an excellent & plenty capable DAC, and I have no idea why it catches the usual flack like other all-in-ones. There's zero need to get a standalone DAC unless maybe you need balanced out or MQA decoding for whatever reason... and the amp itself is dead silent and very powerful of course. I appreciate that even more now after adding a tube hybrid that isn't nearly so quiet and noise free. I don't feel the need to chase any other solid state amps at all.

Hope yours cooperates and gives you plenty of enjoyment too!

 

[BIGGRIMTIM]

Thanks for the info and suggestions. One thing I forgot to mention was I am running this through a powered usb hub. I can't imagine this has any effect but I will take it out of the loop and see how it goes.

 

[starmartyr]

Good call. I am running mine on a powered USB hub as well, no issues for me but you never know... each one is different, and audio gear is usually recommended to run straight off a mobo USB port. But of course my laptop only has 2 damn normal USB ports!

 

[Gun21]

Thanks for the info and suggestions. One thing I forgot to mention was I am running this through a powered usb hub. I can't imagine this has any effect but I will take it out of the loop and see how it goes.

All depends if the USB hub is, in turn, attached to the USB port on your PC that has polar bear saving enabled ofc. Let us know how you get on. GL.