[Ludachris]

I received the amp on Tuesday. I am burning in now with the intent of comparing to Woo Audio WA7 Fireflies and Massdrop CTH + SDAC using Focal Utopia and Audeze LCD-X.

A question to Mr. Cavalli: if I want to get the best of this amp, what would bring the biggest improvement (in which order):
A. Replace stock tubes
B. Replace single-ended cable with balanced one
C. Upgrade to linear power supply (36V/1.5A is hard to come by!)

Thank you.

Hello tommy does your liquid platinum run warm after 15mins of use? My tubes get warm first then the whole amp from top to bottom get warm when im using unblanaced or balance cables for music sessions. I was wondering this is normal because the first online review claim that the amp runs cool then warm after several hours. If this isnt normal the I would have to contact monoprice. Please let me know when you get the chance. Thanks.

 

[runeight]

I received the amp on Tuesday. I am burning in now with the intent of comparing to Woo Audio WA7 Fireflies and Massdrop CTH + SDAC using Focal Utopia and Audeze LCD-X.

A question to Mr. Cavalli: if I want to get the best of this amp, what would bring the biggest improvement (in which order):
A. Replace stock tubes
B. Replace single-ended cable with balanced one
C. Upgrade to linear power supply (36V/1.5A is hard to come by!)

Thank you.

Agree with MattTCG. Balanced cable will easily give most benefit bc then you are using the full capability of the amp.

 

[snip3r77]

Hello tommy does your liquid platinum run warm after 15mins of use? My tubes get warm first then the whole amp from top to bottom get warm when im using unblanaced or balance cables for music sessions. I was wondering this is normal because the first online review claim that the amp runs cool then warm after several hours. If this isnt normal the I would have to contact monoprice. Please let me know when you get the chance. Thanks.

First time tube amp user?

 

[runeight]

Hello tommy does your liquid platinum run warm after 15mins of use? My tubes get warm first then the whole amp from top to bottom get warm when im using unblanaced or balance cables for music sessions. I was wondering this is normal because the first online review claim that the amp runs cool then warm after several hours. If this isnt normal the I would have to contact monoprice. Please let me know when you get the chance. Thanks.

It is normal.

 

[DRHamp]

Hello tommy does your liquid platinum run warm after 15mins of use? My tubes get warm first then the whole amp from top to bottom get warm when im using unblanaced or balance cables for music sessions. I was wondering this is normal because the first online review claim that the amp runs cool then warm after several hours.

After mine has been on for about an hour, the top surface temperature is 105 to 110 degrees F, and the front and side panels are 100 to 103 degrees F. I believe that's normal.

 

[Ludachris]

First time tube amp user?

Yup this is my first tube amp and hybrid.

 

[Ludachris]

After mine has been on for about an hour, the top surface temperature is 105 to 110 degrees F, and the front and side panels are 100 to 103 degrees F. I believe that's normal.

Does it warm up after 15mins or stays cool for first hour?

 

[Ludachris]

It is normal.

Thank you

 

[DRHamp]

Does it warm up after 15mins or stays cool for first hour?

It starts warming up immediately and takes about an hour to reach those temps.

 

[atomicbob]

Liquid Platinum surface temperatures - hard data: 40 ± 4 °C
after 2 hours power on time.

Left side

Top surface

Right side

EH6922 plate temp

Front surface

Liquid Crimson top surface for comparison

Lyr3 top surface for comparison

These temperatures are normal and not cause for concern.
Some 2A3 amps achieve much higher temperatures.
Some tube plate temperatures can rise to 150 °C or more.

 

[Liu Junyuan]

@MattTCG Could you please compare the LP to the Mjolnir 2, just so I can have a point of reference? They are similar in price, both hybrids, and both benefit from balanced output, thus warranting a comparison that I think many would appreciate, including me.

 

[alphanumerix1]

Liquid Platinum surface temperatures - hard data: 40 ± 4 °C
after 2 hours power on time.

Left side


Top surface


Right side


EH6922 plate temp


Front surface


Liquid Crimson top surface for comparison


Lyr3 top surface for comparison


These temperatures are normal and not cause for concern.
Some 2A3 amps achieve much higher temperatures.
Some tube plate temperatures can rise to 150 °C or more.

Liquid plat and liquid crimson comparison incoming?

 

[MattTCG]

@MattTCG Could you please compare the LP to the Mjolnir 2, just so I can have a point of reference? They are similar in price, both hybrids, and both benefit from balanced output, thus warranting a comparison that I think many would appreciate, including me.

The hallmark of the mjo2 is macrodynamics. The dynamics with the mjo 2 are some of the best I've heard. The amp has reasonably good tone when NOS tubes are included. It also offers abundant power/driving capacity. But the sound stage has somewhat of a compressed aspect creating a wall of sound of sorts. And the mjo 2 is only average at producing the delicacy of fine details that I crave when I listen to music. Overall, I find the mjo 2 very good with Orthos but mostly average with dynamic driver based headphones.

The Liquid Platinum is able to match the mjo 2 on it's ability to drive headphone with authority and exceeds with further control. Unfortunately, the LP has a fixed gain which I find somewhat too strong and is one of it's real weak points. This can be overcome with a pre-amp with volume control (ie Saga or Freya). Tone is an area where LP is exceptional. Whereas the tone of the mjo 2 can be average to good, the LP can offer tone that is downright captivating...drawing you into the music, letting it effect you on a different level. The staging on the LP is simply better. And not just width and depth. Depth cues are easily detected and instruments are able to breath in their own space. With the mjo 2, the stage can sometimes sound like instruments and voices are blobbed together. LP does room acoustic well also. Notes trail off convincingly giving the listener a physical image of the stage and what it might be like to be there during the performance. LP is able to drive both dynamic and Othos both with aplomb, which makes for a great all rounder of an amp. The SE output of the LP is somewhat gimped therefore if you want to hear the best of this amp you'll need to buy a balanced cable or at least reterminate your current cable.

The mjo 2 gets quite hot as does the the LP. The stock tubes that ship with the LP are better than those that are included with the mjo 2 but not by a large margin. Both amps benefit from tube rolling where NOS variants can get very expensive but also rewarding. Features and options are fairly similar as is the price.

 

[Phantaminum]

@runeight I had some strange behavior with the protection kicking in. On Friday, I had it kick in repeatedly. It kicked in after approximately 45m of listening, and then it happened 3-4 more times. After I noticed it happened, I turned everything off for a while and and still happened.

Then today, I decided that I'd try it out and it hasn't had any issues all day. Same DAC and same headphones. (LHLabs Geek Pulse Infinity balanced out, Ether C headphones balanced)

On Friday, I actually had the volume turned down on the LHLabs, so that the volume on it's headphone output would match the LP. This meant that the volume had to be at 2 o'clock or so, since the DAC was at -34dB output. I started this morning with the DAC at -0dB and the LP at 9 o'clock, then experimented shifting it back to the other way and it didn't have any issues. It's temp is right in the same ballpark temp as it was yesterday too.

Is this just a "glitch" or the tubes burning in and creating some initial DC offset?

Overall, I'm really enjoying it. Though worrying over the weekend that there was an issue wasn't much fun.

I’m now running into this issue. Really strange as there’s no rhyme or reason. I have the loaner Ananda hooked up to the LP and this will happen 30 minutes into it turning on the amp or 4 hours after. At times the amp turns on but doesn’t seem to give power to the tubes then 6-7 minutes later you can see the glow of the EH tubes while the power light finally turns red to white. I’m around 30 hours of break in and hope this will work it’s way out. I could of been done with burn in today but I kept finding it turned off when I got home from work.

 

[runeight]

Is anyone experiencing issues with the


I’m now running into this issue. Really strange as there’s no rhyme or reason. I have the loaner Ananda hooked up to the LP and this will happen 30 minutes into it turning on the amp or 4 hours after. At times the amp turns on but doesn’t seem to give power to the tubes then 6-7 minutes later you can see the glow of the EH tubes while the power light finally turns red to white. I’m around 30 hours of break in and hope this will work it’s way out. I could of been done with burn in today but I kept finding it turned off when I got home from work.

There is a slow start sequence. Should last about 1 min if there is no audio in. The heaters have a slow warmup, about 10s. Pls check these times.

Pls describe your rig, esp the burn in rig and what the vol pot setting, etc. are. Thx.