Just saw this too. I guess the Liquid Platinum wasn't selling well at its list price. I figured when Monoprice started heavily discounting the LP recently, that they were clearing the remaining LP stock out. I wonder if the Liquid Spark will be discontinued too, and if Monoprice has a new lineup of Cavalli products in the pipeline?
Just saw this too. I guess the Liquid Platinum wasn't selling well at its list price. I figured when Monoprice started heavily discounting the LP recently, that they were clearing the remaining LP stock out. I wonder if the Liquid Spark will be discontinued too, and if Monoprice has a new lineup of Cavalli products in the pipeline?
It would not surprise me if they were also going to discontinue the Liquid Platinum DAC. It currently has a pretty sizeable discount on it. Anyways, this is quite a shame; I was planning on getting the Liquid Platinum as my next headphone amplifier . I really hope that Monoprice is working on a comparable model which will eventually replace it
It would not surprise me if they were also going to discontinue the Liquid Platinum DAC. It currently has a pretty sizeable discount on it. Anyways, this is quite a shame; I was planning on getting the Liquid Platinum as my next headphone amplifier . I really hope that Monoprice is working on a comparable model which will eventually replace it
I don't think the LP dac sold well. It was supposed to be introduced in late 2019 but there were delays, then Covid came along with its supply chain issues, which seemed to seal the fate of the LP dac. Moreover, even though it cost the same as the Liquid Platinum headphone amplifier, the LP dac only included a one year factory warranty instead of the LP's 5 year one; which did nothing to encourage possible buyers.
The real bargain was the LP amplifier for $339. Some people bought one recently at this discounted price in addition to a $50 rebate for a total pretax price of $289. An absolute steal. You might be able to find a few left at other retailers' websites including Amazon but not at that price. Best of luck!
Not going to buy it from retailers. It would be great if they release a successor of the LP with better design, but I doubt it considering 0 responses of their customer service. Monoprice probably is on the red so they need to cut costs.
Not going to buy it from retailers. It would be great if they release a successor of the LP with better design, but I doubt it considering 0 responses of their customer service. Monoprice probably is on the red so they need to cut costs.
A successor would be nice, however, I don't know if Alex Cavalli has a deal with Monoprice beyond the products he has already contracted to
design for them. And as you say , Monoprice may be in financial difficulty, so the company is facing an uncertain future. I'm just glad that I purchased my LP
and LS when I did.
So does anybody here know what a good alternative to the Liquid Platinum would be? I am not too well versed in the world of hybrid tube amps, and the only alternative I can think of is the Schiit Lyr. However, from what I understand the Lyr doesn't sound that similar to the Liquid Platinum, and has a more colored tonality.
Also, I've been thinking about the Liquid Gold as well. I understand that the Liquid Gold amp/DAC is solid state, but does it still retain *some* of the Liquid Platinum's tonality?
So does anybody here know what a good alternative to the Liquid Platinum would be? I am not too well versed in the world of hybrid tube amps, and the only alternative I can think of is the Schiit Lyr. However, from what I understand the Lyr doesn't sound that similar to the Liquid Platinum, and has a more colored tonality.
Also, I've been thinking about the Liquid Gold as well. I understand that the Liquid Gold amp/DAC is solid state, but does it still retain *some* of the Liquid Platinum's tonality?
Garage1217 builds some nice sounding hybrids for under $500. If you like a nice tubey sound, yet want
the benefits of solid state, a Project Sunrise or Horizon may suit your needs. Both are Class A bias circuits
which give these amplifiers a very pleasant tone. If you need more power, a Project Ember (class AB circuit) might be a better choice.
Garage1217 builds some nice sounding hybrids for under $500. If you like a nice tubey sound, yet want
the benefits of solid state, a Project Sunrise or Horizon may suit your needs. Both are Class A bias circuits
which give these amplifiers a very pleasant tone. If you need more power, a Project Ember (class AB circuit) might be a better choice.
Thanks for the recommendation! Unfortunately I also value aesthetic as much as I do sound quality, and the design of those amplifiers does not really speak to me very much (I'm a bit of a weirdo haha). I'd also prefer more power than what even the Ember can dish out as I'm looking to get some rather demanding headphones in the future.
Just some random thoughts to the previous posts ....
No SE input in the LP? Disagree here. I have one heavily modded D/S balanced dac, the MMB1 and MMB2 and a couple SE Chinese RTR/NOS dac's. I like the SE MMB or the modded D/S dac run SE sound the best a large portion of the time. All balanced thins the timbre, resolves flaws I would rather not hear and for lack of a better term is not as musically enjoyable to me. Balanced makes me not like my Jan Sylvania 6922's making them to thin and slightly edgy sounding. Balanced I use the Reflector 6N23P 70's vintage.
No LP SE output I agree .... the balanced output is clearly better especially with harder to drive planar's. So SE in / balanced out for me.
No dac in the LG agree. A gain switch for just high/low gain would be very useful on either MP amp.
The garage 1217 amps are really nice for the money especially if you can pick one up used. I am sort of disappointed with the Sunrise though. Not enough power for my M1070. Sounds great with the M1060 though. The Ember is really good with a 7N7 tall bottle input tube and any of my headphones. The Sunrise is noisy with the 7N7 or 6F8G so I stick with Sylvania black plate 5670/ 2C51's and the MP M1060 90% of the time. I have a Solstice too and I like to use a Tung Sol BG RP 12SN7 which gives me excellent sound and enough power for my M1070's.
Just some random thoughts to the previous posts ....
No SE input in the LP? Disagree here. I have one heavily modded D/S balanced dac, the MMB1 and MMB2 and a couple SE Chinese RTR/NOS dac's. I like the SE MMB or the modded D/S dac run SE sound the best a large portion of the time. All balanced thins the timbre, resolves flaws I would rather not hear and for lack of a better term is not as musically enjoyable to me. Balanced makes me not like my Jan Sylvania 6922's making them to thin and slightly edgy sounding. Balanced I use the Reflector 6N23P 70's vintage.
No LP SE output I agree .... the balanced output is clearly better especially with harder to drive planar's. So SE in / balanced out for me.
No dac in the LG agree. A gain switch for just high/low gain would be very useful on either MP amp.
The garage 1217 amps are really nice for the money especially if you can pick one up used. I am sort of disappointed with the Sunrise though. Not enough power for my M1070. Sounds great with the M1060 though. The Ember is really good with a 7N7 tall bottle input tube and any of my headphones. The Sunrise is noisy with the 7N7 or 6F8G so I stick with Sylvania black plate 5670/ 2C51's and the MP M1060 90% of the time. I have a Solstice too and I like to use a Tung Sol BG RP 12SN7 which gives me excellent sound and enough power for my M1070's.
I have a generation 1 Project Starlight that I use with my planars. What I like about the Starlight is the ability to roll
op amps as well as tubes. As for tubes, I finally settled in on a 6H30 (spoke to Jeremy at Garage1217 to get his advice
and he said the tube would work fine), which sounds quite nice with the Starlight. It's a great company and Jeremy
is both very knowledgeable and a pleasure to deal with.
Just some random thoughts to the previous posts ....
No SE input in the LP? Disagree here. I have one heavily modded D/S balanced dac, the MMB1 and MMB2 and a couple SE Chinese RTR/NOS dac's. I like the SE MMB or the modded D/S dac run SE sound the best a large portion of the time. All balanced thins the timbre, resolves flaws I would rather not hear and for lack of a better term is not as musically enjoyable to me. Balanced makes me not like my Jan Sylvania 6922's making them to thin and slightly edgy sounding. Balanced I use the Reflector 6N23P 70's vintage.
No LP SE output I agree .... the balanced output is clearly better especially with harder to drive planar's. So SE in / balanced out for me.
No dac in the LG agree. A gain switch for just high/low gain would be very useful on either MP amp.
The garage 1217 amps are really nice for the money especially if you can pick one up used. I am sort of disappointed with the Sunrise though. Not enough power for my M1070. Sounds great with the M1060 though. The Ember is really good with a 7N7 tall bottle input tube and any of my headphones. The Sunrise is noisy with the 7N7 or 6F8G so I stick with Sylvania black plate 5670/ 2C51's and the MP M1060 90% of the time. I have a Solstice too and I like to use a Tung Sol BG RP 12SN7 which gives me excellent sound and enough power for my M1070's.
Also, I've been thinking about the Liquid Gold as well. I understand that the Liquid Gold amp/DAC is solid state, but does it still retain *some* of the Liquid Platinum's tonality?
The Liquid Gold retains much of the Cavalli style liquid sound that is in the Liquid Platinum. They are very much the same family of amps and are much more similar than different. The main difference with the Liquid Platinum is that the tubes add some additional density to the midrange which makes the midrange sound a little bit for forward compared to the Liquid Gold. But the Cavalli liquid sound character is very similar in both amps. That liquid sound character comes from the solid state part of the Liquid Platinum, not the tubes. And the Liquid Gold has that same thing going on.
In general I prefer the LCD-2 and LCD-X with the Liquid Platinum where the additional midrange density helps fill in the Audeze style midrange. And in general I prefer the Liquid Gold with headphones that more closely follow the Harman target midrange (like the Audeze MM-500). If you EQ the headphones to match the Harman curve then the Liquid Gold may pair up with more headphones. Otherwise the Liquid Gold can be a little more picky about headphones pairings than the Liquid Platinum is.
The Liquid Gold has enough free space inside to be able to fit a DAC board. So they did.
The Liquid Platinum does not have enough free space inside to add a DAC. So they didn't.
I consider the DAC inside the Liquid Gold to be more of a convenience DAC for when I have the amp away from the main system and my main DACs. My other DACs sound better and I like them better. The only times I use the internal DAC with the Liquid Gold is when I'm using the amp away from the main system.
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. I really hope that Monoprice is working on a comparable model which will eventually replace it
