[alphanumerix1]

Here’s a review of this amp. It looks very promising:

Enjoy the Music review of the Monoprice Monolith Liquid Platinum

Not bad at all.

 

[sahmen]

Here’s a review of this amp. It looks very promising:

Enjoy the Music review of the Monoprice Monolith Liquid Platinum

It is a very richly and sensitively rendered review.. It brought expressions such as "labor of love" to mind... I like the comparisons to Liquid Crimson, although they were to be expected. Selfishly though, I would have liked his take on how the LP compares sonically with the Liquid Carbon, because it is the one Cavalli amp with which I am familiar (I have the LIquid Carbon v1, and it seems the reviewer also had it on hand for comparison, but I do not remember the review actually mentioning it)...

It has got me thinking that a good linear power supply is a must for this amp in order to optimize its performance... Personally, owning the LP without a good LPS will certainly have me second guessing it all the time, and that will not be kosher at all.

BTW, is that the review @Hansotek has been promising on this thread for some time now? It seems so, but I would like to have that confirmed, so that i can ask him questions about the sonic comparison of the LP and the Liquid Carbon I mentioned...

 

[heliosphann]

It is a very richly and sensitively rendered review.. It brought expressions such as "labor of love" to mind... I like the comparisons to Liquid Crimson, although they were to be expected. Selfishly though, I would have liked his take on how the LP compares sonically with the Liquid Carbon, because it is the one Cavalli amp with which I am familiar (I have the LIquid Carbon v1, and it seems the reviewer also had it on hand for comparison, but I do not remember the review actually mentioning it)...

It has got me thinking that a good linear power supply is a must for this amp in order to optimize its performance... Personally, owning the LP without a good LPS will certainly have me second guessing it all the time, and that will not be kosher at all.

BTW, is that the review @Hansotek has been promising on this thread for some time now? It seems so, but I would like to have that confirmed, so that i can ask him questions about the sonic comparison of the LP and the Liquid Carbon I mentioned...

Yea, that's @Hansotek. I'm not sure if he still has an original Liquid Carbon anymore.

 

[sahmen]

Yea, that's @Hansotek. I'm not sure if he still has an original Liquid Carbon anymore.

Yes, I am also not entirely sure, because on his profile page the LC is listed as sold... On the other hand, it appears in the review under the list of "Additional Equipment Used in This Review," and that makes it seem as if he had it on hand for comparisons at the time of the review...

I guess @Hansotek can clarify that issue of the status of the LC whenever he returns to this thread.

 

[Slim1970]

It is a very richly and sensitively rendered review.. It brought expressions such as "labor of love" to mind... I like the comparisons to Liquid Crimson, although they were to be expected. Selfishly though, I would have liked his take on how the LP compares sonically with the Liquid Carbon, because it is the one Cavalli amp with which I am familiar (I have the LIquid Carbon v1, and it seems the reviewer also had it on hand for comparison, but I do not remember the review actually mentioning it)...

It has got me thinking that a good linear power supply is a must for this amp in order to optimize its performance... Personally, owning the LP without a good LPS will certainly have me second guessing it all the time, and that will not be kosher at all.

BTW, is that the review @Hansotek has been promising on this thread for some time now? It seems so, but I would like to have that confirmed, so that i can ask him questions about the sonic comparison of the LP and the Liquid Carbon I mentioned...

You don't think the supplied power supply will be enough? I get that linear power supplies help in most cases but with the design and delays of this amp I hope it wouldn't be a necessity.

 

[Panimation]

Getting excited for this, seems to be ticking all the right boxes for me .

 

[LCMusicLover]

...Personally, owning the LP without a good LPS will certainly have me second guessing it all the time, and that will not be kosher at all...

I can relate to this sentiment.

 

[sahmen]

You don't think the supplied power supply will be enough? I get that linear power supplies help in most cases but with the design and delays of this amp I hope it wouldn't be a necessity.

Well, it seems well established that the supplied SMPS power supply will be "okay" for the LP, but just okay, which means not necessarily optimal... The point was well made by @Luckbad, earlier in this thread here:

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/mon...m-by-alex-cavalli.876406/page-3#post-14186600

I was was taking a gander at the Platinum yet again today and a couple of things stood out regarding the size:

• Offloading the power supply to external saves a ton of size/weight. It will also potentially cripple some of the amp's potential without some really good cleanup once inside the chassis. I'll be using a linear power supply with the Liquid Platinum for sure.
• Looking at an old shot of the Platinum seems to show two PCBs stacked on top of one another. Am I crazy? That's what I think I'm seeing in the shot, which would certainly account for most of the rest of the size difference.
  • Edit: Yep, looks like that 2017 prototype was stacked. See the last picture.
  • Edit #2: Actually, looking closer, I think that lower PCB is just an unpopulated board to keep it offset from the table. Shrug. I suppose there's some stuff going on underneath too, but I'm no amp designer.
• And, of course, shrinking (nearly) everything down to SMD components. The Liquid Crimson has a lot of electrolytic capacitors and through-hole components.
• Also found a Cavalli CanJam 2017 thread worth reading with comments from @runeight.

I think we have our answer to: "How can a balanced Liquid Crimson be smaller than the single-ended Liquid Crimson?" Stacked PCBs (actually think that's not true), outboard power supply, smaller components, intelligent layout.

This is a gut shot of a Cavalli Liquid Crimson:

Here's a picture from about a year ago of the Platinum:

 

[Roscoeiii]

My main questions after reading the review:

1) Re: "Dr. Cavalli has also included a protection circuit on the Platinum just to help ensure against damage. I accidentally triggered it a couple of times trying to plug in headphones with the volume up and bassy music playing. Oops. Triggering the protection circuit will cause the light on the front to turn red and music will stop playing for about 30 seconds while the amp takes a little siesta." I'd love to know more details about what headphones and what volume levels we are talking about that triggered the protection circuitry. Was this anywhere close to normal listening levels? And would having an LPS impact the likelihood of triggering the protection circuitry? I don't imagine it would, but that is really just a barely educated guess.

2) As comes up again and again, how would an LPS change the sound?

3) Tube rolling. How well does this amp respond to swapping in different tubes. My impression from the CTH thread is that the CTH sound wasn't significantly changed by tube rolling. But this of course is a different topology.

As with everyone here, looking forward to the release and additional impressions.

 

[Hansotek]

It is a very richly and sensitively rendered review.. It brought expressions such as "labor of love" to mind... I like the comparisons to Liquid Crimson, although they were to be expected. Selfishly though, I would have liked his take on how the LP compares sonically with the Liquid Carbon, because it is the one Cavalli amp with which I am familiar (I have the LIquid Carbon v1, and it seems the reviewer also had it on hand for comparison, but I do not remember the review actually mentioning it)...

It has got me thinking that a good linear power supply is a must for this amp in order to optimize its performance... Personally, owning the LP without a good LPS will certainly have me second guessing it all the time, and that will not be kosher at all.

BTW, is that the review @Hansotek has been promising on this thread for some time now? It seems so, but I would like to have that confirmed, so that i can ask him questions about the sonic comparison of the LP and the Liquid Carbon I mentioned...

Yup. That's me. Sorry, busy day coincided with the release of the review. I'm on here, and open to follow up questions.

On the power supply, I think that this amp + a $200-$300 power supply is going to measure up very well against stuff that's in the $1,500-$2,000 range for under $1K total spend. Speculative, of course, but if one is experienced in such things, it seems like a safe bet. I'd love to hear it with an LPS against the iFi Pro iCan (which is $1,699, IIRC). I think that comparison would be very, very interesting.

Yes, I am also not entirely sure, because on his profile page the LC is listed as sold... On the other hand, it appears in the review under the list of "Additional Equipment Used in This Review," and that makes it seem as if he had it on hand for comparisons at the time of the review...

I guess @Hansotek can clarify that issue of the status of the LC whenever he returns to this thread.

Yes, I had a Liquid Carbon for a little bit during the beginning of the review because @MTMECraig loaned me his while I was reviewing the HeadAmp Gilmore Lite MkII. I should have compared them in more depth when I had the opportunity to listen to both. The Platinum is a little bit better, but not as big of a leap as the Crimson. It's a slightly more neutral take than the LC, I think, which runs a tad on the warmer side. Both are very, very good amps, to be sure. Again, I really feel like the SMPS is the limitation between a very good sounding amp and something that is absolutely spectacular. I think if someone plugged $200-$300 into getting the power supply to the next level this amp would be just a hair or two away from the actual Crimson.

 

[Hansotek]

You don't think the supplied power supply will be enough? I get that linear power supplies help in most cases but with the design and delays of this amp I hope it wouldn't be a necessity.

It's not an absolute necessity. But I would sink my money in there before spending it on some NOS tubes, if you're itching for an incremental upgrade. It's a very good value at $699, I just can't help but feel there is some scalability left.

 

[Hansotek]

My main questions after reading the review:

1) Re: "Dr. Cavalli has also included a protection circuit on the Platinum just to help ensure against damage. I accidentally triggered it a couple of times trying to plug in headphones with the volume up and bassy music playing. Oops. Triggering the protection circuit will cause the light on the front to turn red and music will stop playing for about 30 seconds while the amp takes a little siesta." I'd love to know more details about what headphones and what volume levels we are talking about that triggered the protection circuitry. Was this anywhere close to normal listening levels? And would having an LPS impact the likelihood of triggering the protection circuitry? I don't imagine it would, but that is really just a barely educated guess.

2) As comes up again and again, how would an LPS change the sound?

3) Tube rolling. How well does this amp respond to swapping in different tubes. My impression from the CTH thread is that the CTH sound wasn't significantly changed by tube rolling. But this of course is a different topology.

As with everyone here, looking forward to the release and additional impressions.

Hey buddy! Too bad we didn't have one of the Chicago meets while I had this one. Would have loved to know what you thought!

1. Good question. Triggering the circuit only happened to me twice while I had the amp. It happens to me pretty frequently on the CTH, IME. It happens when you are actually plugging in a headphone that is trying to draw a lot of current immediately with the volume up. I was comparing the subbass on a couple amps with the Denon D2000 - while it's an easy headphone to drive, generally speaking, it can draw a lot of current for subbbass, especially with the volume way up. These were not normally listening conditions. This is me being an idiot seeing how far I can push the power supply. If I turned down the volume pot, there wouldn't have been a problem. I left it up to volume match. I actually plugged in some higher current draw headphones like HE500 just fine w/o triggering the circuit. It really only kicks on if you're acting like a moron like me.

2. A good LPS should theoretically lower the noise floor- removing some level of grain from the treble, making the staging seem a little more precise, and making the sound more clear/transparent. I should also give the bass more balls and impact. It will move the "total build" of the amplifier closer to that of a Liquid Crimson by giving it a more hearty power source to draw from.

3. On tube rolling - yes! I did explore this. I rolled in some Amperex Bugle Boys and the difference was small but noticeable. If you've rolled tubes in the CTH, I would say you can expect a relatively similar amount of change. For those who want incremental improvement on the sound though, I would say, save up a little $$ and change out the power supply first. I have heard several people say the same thing about the CTH, as well.

 

[Roscoeiii]

Hey buddy! Too bad we didn't have one of the Chicago meets while I had this one. Would have loved to know what you thought!

1. Good question. Triggering the circuit only happened to me twice while I had the amp. It happens to me pretty frequently on the CTH, IME. It happens when you are actually plugging in a headphone that is trying to draw a lot of current immediately with the volume up. I was comparing the subbass on a couple amps with the Denon D2000 - while it's an easy headphone to drive, generally speaking, it can draw a lot of current for subbbass, especially with the volume way up. These were not normally listening conditions. This is me being an idiot seeing how far I can push the power supply. If I turned down the volume pot, there wouldn't have been a problem. I left it up to volume match. I actually plugged in some higher current draw headphones like HE500 just fine w/o triggering the circuit. It really only kicks on if you're acting like a moron like me.

2. A good LPS should theoretically lower the noise floor- removing some level of grain from the treble, making the staging seem a little more precise, and making the sound more clear/transparent. I should also give the bass more balls and impact. It will move the "total build" of the amplifier closer to that of a Liquid Crimson by giving it a more hearty power source to draw from.

3. On tube rolling - yes! I did explore this. I rolled in some Amperex Bugle Boys and the difference was small but noticeable. If you've rolled tubes in the CTH, I would say you can expect a relatively similar amount of change. For those who want incremental improvement on the sound though, I would say, save up a little $$ and change out the power supply first. I have heard several people say the same thing about the CTH, as well.

Too bad indeed. Thanks for the quick clarifications there. Hope to see you again at a Chicago event before too long!

 

[Hansotek]

Here are the new reviews for both the Liquid Spark and Liquid Platinum in one place, by the way.

Platinum:
http://enjoythemusic.com/magazine/e...iquid_Platinum_Headphone_Amplifier_Review.htm

Spark:
http://enjoythemusic.com/magazine/e...h_Liquid_Spark_Headphone_Amplifier_Review.htm

I've said it before and I'll say it again, don't sleep on the Spark. It's super good! Link for that thread here:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/monoprice-monolith-liquid-spark-by-alex-cavalli.876407/

 

[Slim1970]

It's not an absolute necessity. But I would sink my money in there before spending it on some NOS tubes, if you're itching for an incremental upgrade. It's a very good value at $699, I just can't help but feel there is some scalability left.

Got it! That's does seem like a small price to pay to improve upon the sound. Especially considering the starting price of the LP.