Monoprice Monolith Liquid Platinum - By Alex Cavalli

[ufospls2]

https://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=120&cp_id=12008&cs_id=1200801&p_id=33305&seq=1&format=2

Certainly very interesting if it is real. Does anyone have any further details on this???

The Cavalli/Monolith Liquid Platinum is a balanced version of the very highly regarded Cavalli Audio Liquid Crimson amplifier. The Platinum is fully balanced/differential amplification with 3.6W ( per channel balanced) into 50R. As an embedded tube hybrid (pioneered by Cavalli) the Platinum gives you the beautiful sound of tubes together with the grunt of solid state to drive the headphones. With multiple inputs and outputs for balanced and single ended operation, switchable gain, and easy front panel input selection, the Liquid Platinum will bring your music listening to new heights.

If this is real, I hope someone round these parts orders one. I remember the Liquid Platinum being talked about... ...hmm.... a year ago? There was a demo board with no case at Can Jam Socal or something last year maybe? Might have been the year before.

I need more power for an amp given my two headphones, so I won't be ordering one to test sadly, but man.....if this sounds good and is built well, then things just got interesting, and more competitive.

I thought that Massdrop had all the Cavalli design rights?

I'm just shooting out thoughts randomly. Don't take any of my word as gospel

 

[heliosphann]

Both these are legit.

Oh baby, I can't wait!

 

[palchiu]

Two CTH inside? interesting

 

[i20bot]

Hmmm was about to order a Lyr 3 and now this shows up.

 

[heliosphann]

I thought this news would bring some serious heat. If this is truly based on the Liquid Crimson AND balanced, it's going to be one hell of an amp for the price. @runeight

 

[wasupdog]

These are 6922 tubes, correct?

 

[Hansotek]

These are 6922 tubes, correct?

Yes.

 

[Hansotek]

Two CTH inside? interesting

Not two CTHs, it’s a balanced version of the Liquid Crimson, which is a totally different design. The other Cavalli products based on that fundamental design are EHHA, Liquid Fire, Liquid Crimson and Liquid Carbon. Platinum is closest to the Crimson, for sure, which many people felt was Alex’s best amp. I owned one for about a year and it was phenomenal.

 

[DRHamp]

Looks like it's projected to be 6/26/18 release

 

[ahmadfaizadnan]

OH MY! Might as well just grab one when it's out. Look at that price tho
What a great deal!

 

[Hansotek]

FYI - as exciting as the Platinum is, you guys are all sleeping on the upcoming Monolith Liquid Spark, which, once people hear it, is going to completely melt down the $99 price point:

https://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=120&cp_id=12008&cs_id=1200801&p_id=33304&seq=1&format=2

This is one of those rare products that is so damn good, that you should just buy it regardless of whether or not you need it. Because you will enjoy the living $&?@ out of it.

The Spark, for those who don’t know, was originally slated to be a $499 portable amp. Well, there was a bit of trouble getting it finished before Cavalli closed up shop (most of which had to do with the battery). Now the same design has been ported over to a compact desktop format (which took away much of the cost). It also allowed Alex to use higher voltage rails, which boosts the output power from the original 350mW to a generous 1.3W on the new desktop version. It’s quiet enough to run an Andromeda and powerful enough to run an HE1000.

Pretty nice piece of kit, if you ask me. I’ve been a longtime fan of the Spark since I first heard it at RMAF 2015, so I’m pretty excited that this design is finally seeing the light of day.

 

[dBel84]

As Hans noted, Platinum is a lower power balanced version of the Crimson. What few people know is that it was actually designed before the Crimson and the concept gave rise to the Crimson. Why wasn't it released originally? It would have been very expensive to manufacture as a high Class A balanced amp and it didnt make good business sense to have a direct competitor to the Lau, hence the Crimson came to be. Why now and why so cheap, well it is not because quality is compromised but running balanced you can lower the power of each section significantly and still achieve high power (3.6W) without the power requirements and heat management. The amp also uses a SMPS (power brick) to keep cost down.

This is a killer amplifier and with a clean power supply, will be hard to beat at several times its selling price

I would also second the comment on the Spark, this amp is likely to change the face of entry level and so much more.

Alex will have the amps at Canjam SoCal for anyone able to make it.

.. dB

 

[wasupdog]

did you guys also notice monoprice's upcoming headphone amps section?

 

[heliosphann]

Whoa. Monoprice don't mess around.

That THX Amp/Dac looks really interesting.

 

[Hansotek]

Whoa. Monoprice don't mess around.

That THX Amp/Dac looks really interesting.

Yeah, those THX amps are really nice. Super clean sounding. It's cool to see MP licensing designs from talented folk like THX and Cavalli and leveraging their manufacturing capabilities to make them available at a reasonable price.