Monoprice Monolith Liquid Platinum - By Alex Cavalli
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sahmen
Headphoneus Supremus
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For the record, he keeps calling it a "Tube amp," but he also raises enough for questions about that designation to show that he implicitly realizes that he is not dealing with a standard Tube amp, which is why he stresses the affinity of the LP's performance with SS amps, for example. He does not mention the word "hybrid," but he sounds savvy enough about the differences in performance between the different models to provide a strong sense that he realizes he is not dealing with a Tube amp in the regularly standard understanding of the term. He even scare quotes the designation of "Tube Amp" at one stage for the same reasons. Personally, that works fine for me. Also in most of the hands-on discussions of the LP in the video in which it is wired, I only see it connected via the XLR inputs and outputs, so he seems to know what he is doing sufficiently well.
The most important thing, however, is that he does not say anything about the actual performance of the LP that is widely or wildly off the mark to my ears. Actually, I find his remarks about the LP's capability in handling difficult to drive planars to be mostly spot on.
IOW, this is definitely not on the level of a normal Z review, for example... Joshua's review sounds a lot more helpful, in spite of obvious limitations in his expertise... Just saying
The most important thing, however, is that he does not say anything about the actual performance of the LP that is widely or wildly off the mark to my ears. Actually, I find his remarks about the LP's capability in handling difficult to drive planars to be mostly spot on.
IOW, this is definitely not on the level of a normal Z review, for example... Joshua's review sounds a lot more helpful, in spite of obvious limitations in his expertise... Just saying
InstantSilence
1000+ Head-Fier
Z reviews are definitely just a long drawn out unboxing, reviews they are not.For the record, he keeps calling it a "Tube amp," but he also raises enough for questions about that designation to show that he implicitly realizes that he is not dealing with a standard Tube amp, which is why he stresses the affinity of the LP's performance with SS amps, for example. He does not mention the word "hybrid," but he sounds savvy enough about the differences in performance between the different models to provide a strong sense that he realizes he is not dealing with a Tube amp in the regularly standard understanding of the term. He even scare quotes the designation of "Tube Amp" at one stage for the same reasons. Personally, that works fine for me. Also in most of the hands-on discussions of the LP in the video in which it is wired, I only see it connected via the XLR inputs and outputs, so he seems to know what he is doing sufficiently well.
The most important thing, however, is that he does not say anything about the actual performance of the LP that is widely or wildly off the mark to my ears. Actually, I find his remarks about the LP's capability in handling difficult to drive planars to be mostly spot on.
IOW, this is definitely not on the level of a normal Z review, for example... Joshua's review sounds a lot more helpful, in spite of obvious limitations in his expertise... Just saying
But I still click on his stuff for the comedy, I like his style.
When I want to get schooled on some product I look elsewhere through
Marlowe
500+ Head-Fier
I used to like Josh Valour a lot, but this review was so profoundly ignorant that I don't think I can watch his reviews anymore. He certainly seems like a fairly bright guy and it is quite possible that he knows about the LP's topology, but did not think it worthwhile to pass this information on to his audience, which is pretty much the same as the buffoon who calls himself Z. Still, the level of misinformation in this review (as much by omission than by what he actually said) is just startlingly monumental. I left a comment saying so and briefly noting the basic difference between a pure tube amp (like the Darkvoice that he briefly mentions) and a hybrid tube amp like the LP; he has not replied.
Brainiac9000
100+ Head-Fier
Great response to those who clearly didn’t watch the video but yet are so happy to spread hate on things they know nothing about and then ultimately now sound like the dumb ones.For the record, he keeps calling it a "Tube amp," but he also raises enough for questions about that designation to show that he implicitly realizes that he is not dealing with a standard Tube amp, which is why he stresses the affinity of the LP's performance with SS amps, for example. He does not mention the word "hybrid," but he sounds savvy enough about the differences in performance between the different models to provide a strong sense that he realizes he is not dealing with a Tube amp in the regularly standard understanding of the term. He even scare quotes the designation of "Tube Amp" at one stage for the same reasons. Personally, that works fine for me. Also in most of the hands-on discussions of the LP in the video in which it is wired, I only see it connected via the XLR inputs and outputs, so he seems to know what he is doing sufficiently well.
The most important thing, however, is that he does not say anything about the actual performance of the LP that is widely or wildly off the mark to my ears. Actually, I find his remarks about the LP's capability in handling difficult to drive planars to be mostly spot on.
IOW, this is definitely not on the level of a normal Z review, for example... Joshua's review sounds a lot more helpful, in spite of obvious limitations in his expertise... Just saying
YtseJamer
Headphoneus Supremus
Josh seems to be a cool guy, but you have to admit that he didn't do his homework on this one..
It works nice with a D5000 (Lawton level 2) and also a TH-610. I have a TH-900mk2 coming in tomorrow but I'll have to break in the drivers for a while before being able to respond properly - but I suspect it will work nicely too.
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Marlowe
500+ Head-Fier
I disagree. I watched the review and the ignorance and misinformation in it was jaw dropping. It's also pretty clear that most of the commenters here did watch the review and their comments are correct, so I'd be more careful about calling people dumb.
Slade01
1000+ Head-Fier
I agree with this. Josh from the get-go with his title pretty much had one intent - that the LP can drive planar magnetic headphones. I think he makes that case pretty clear, despite not going into the semantics/science and being in a sense politically correct of actually calling it a tube hybrid. From an absolute basic consumer point of view, the LP is foremost, a headphone amp. It's got tubes sticking out of it so people will expect that its gonna color sound to some degree. It's got power to drive harder planars. My impression is that Josh really dumbed this "review" down plain and simple. I think @sahmen makes a valid point that regardless of how it was said, Josh was still fairly on point with its capability.
Ham Sandwich
Headphoneus Supremus
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The Cavalli embedded/blended hybrid amps are solid state amps that have an embedded/blended tube section. The majority of the sound character is the solid state side. I consider them to be something like 75% solid state sound and 25% tube. The majority of their sonic character is fixed by the solid state portion of the amp. The tubes only change the character of that 25% portion to various degrees. I had someone describe the Liquid Fire to me as a tube amp for people who like solid state. I would agree. The imaging and layering and separation and sense of space is from the solid state side of the amp. The tube side adds some sonic density and some depth (2nd harmonics from tubes add soundstage depth). The tube side of the embedded/blended hybrids mostly affects the sonic density and imaging density in the midrange, somewhat in the bass, less in the treble. The result is a denser midrange that fills in and a bass that is denser (but less than the midrange) and a treble that is softer. Changing tubes will change the degree of all that, but will not change the character of the solid state side of the amp which provides the sense of imaging, layering, and separation. That solid state side accounts for around 75% of the sound character. They're predominately solid state amps in their sound. They're also solid state amps in how they're able to deliver power and current. And planars love power and current. The Cavalli embedded/blended hybrids have always been great amps for planar magnetic headphones.
Need to transport Joshua Valour back to 2009 to listen to a DIY Cavalli Stacker II amp with a Hifiman HE5 to learn the history of these amps. That amp with the HE5 was my first experience hearing a Cavalli hybrid. And I was hooked on the Cavalli sound. Then around 2010/2011 Cavalli demoed preproduction and then production versions of the Liquid Fire. An evolution of the Stacker II design. And then came Liquid Crimson, then Liquid Platinum. The Liquid Fire was used by several planar magnetic headphone companies as one of their reference amps. These amps have always done especially well with planar magnetic headphones. I bought the LCD-2 because of the Liquid Fire, and bought the Liquid Fire because of the LCD-2. There was synergy going on. The original Abyss 1266 was designed using the Liquid Fire as one of the reference amps.
I agree. While footage, lighting etc are great if not brilliant, the so called expert apparently missed the homework he should have done long time ago. When one is reviewing a product and pose as an expert there is a responsibility attached to it. I wouldn't care at all if the person would start every review with a statement that he is actually not an expert in the field but then his business model would probably fall apart quickly and income would decrease. Which brings another important topic: if somebody is making money out of pretending to be an actual expert I don't see anything fair in such business model.
Few other points I'd like to address:
- he did not say anything that previous reviewers wouldn't say either, but this does not make any criticism less valid
- the fact that he did used XLR connections may have nothing to do with reviewers knowledge as he may or may not sell such cables in next reviews, the argument is not valid therefor. Looking at this from different angle I haven't noticed the amp to be connected to power when XLR connections are exposed. While I am far from drawing such conclusion following XLR argument one could argue that he does not know how to connect power source to amp
but please do let us not explore this path further.
I know, ignorance is a bliss and this is a great example.
There is a brilliant book that touches this topic perfectly well:
The Death of Expertise: The Campaign against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters
Seledor
New Head-Fier
I've had this amp for a while now and the thing is its seems like a bright amp to me. Is this normal? Did I get a bad one? I've tried a bunch of tubes on it and nothing seems to bring down that brightness. Any recommendations? I got some bright headphones I'd like to bring the treble down on. Like the Aiva, Arya and GL2000. thanks!
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Guidostrunk
Headphoneus Supremus
You can grab two of these first.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1PC-12AU7-...-/282951829690?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292
Then grab a pair of these.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1MP-CV4003...-/203258727121?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292
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George Chronis
100+ Head-Fier
What’s the difference between a CV4003 and CV4004? (I know, one digit, but really...)
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