Monoprice Monolith Liquid Spark - By Alex Cavalli
Feb 18, 2020 at 7:42 AM Post #423 of 625
Also matches well with Hifiman HE500- nice little amp)
Matches well with anything that needs some taming (bright/overly aggressive). I found it to be too much of a good thing when paired with darker HP's like zmf aeolus, audeze lcd2, audioquest nightowl
 
Mar 1, 2020 at 8:56 PM Post #424 of 625
Greetings fellow Head-Fiers

Very late to the party so apologies, I bought the Spark during Christmas after a lot of debating myself on the Chi-Fi setups like Topping and SMSL (DAC/AMPs, lots of QC issues from OLED to going dead and other issues plus output impedance etc. to even subjective ESS tuning being too harsh) and then JDS Atom, Magni and finally settled on this due to my gear HD6XX and Triple Driver Heavy low end IEMs at low sensitivity, mostly wanted a warm sound not brighter one plus has plenty of power to help the Senns and one looks good, classy and usage must be simple. I ended up getting this little powerhouse, the switches on the front, not bright led vs Magni 3 plus the volume pot being superb as mentioned all over, also automatic Pre-Amp for my Stereo powered speaker system.

Was very happy with the purchase. However had some unusual volume pot on one of the unit and returned it to Amazon (The curvature wasn't that perfect and the paint job as well more rougher as I had another unit which came early because Amazon missed the package) now that's out of the way.

I forgot to ask you fellas about the AMP's main part. The power on, off, do you guys hear a pop(s) while powering up and powering down ? I used to get it powered down too, but then I moved the power brick from the Tripplite strip to a wall socket and it went away, but I cannot get this power up one gone. So as a mitigation in order to avoid damage, I first power-up the AMP, (Modi 3 gets turned on coz no switch), so then I power up the speakers (They have a remote) and if I'm using the IEMs or my Senn cans I would just wait until this powers up it avoids that annoying pop altogether.

Thanks, So far very happy. As a desktop system this does the job very well for my Foobar setup.

And @SigmaOrionis , I just tested it with my IEMs - my AMP is always plugged in (since it's connected to a wall socket) but turned off when not in use, so with that and Modi 3 plugged in and PC running, I tried to look for that hum or such, I don't hear any hum.
 
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Mar 1, 2020 at 9:18 PM Post #425 of 625
Greetings fellow Head-Fiers

Very late to the party so apologies, I bought the Spark during Christmas after a lot of debating myself on the Chi-Fi setups like Topping and SMSL (DAC/AMPs, lots of QC issues from OLED to going dead and other issues plus output impedance etc. to even subjective ESS tuning being too harsh) and then JDS Atom, Magni and finally settled on this due to my gear HD6XX and Triple Driver Heavy low end IEMs at low sensitivity, mostly wanted a warm sound not brighter one plus has plenty of power to help the Senns and one looks good, classy and usage must be simple. I ended up getting this little powerhouse, the switches on the front, not bright led vs Magni 3 plus the volume pot being superb as mentioned all over, also automatic Pre-Amp for my Stereo powered speaker system.

Was very happy with the purchase. However had some unusual volume pot on one of the unit and returned it to Amazon (The curvature wasn't that perfect and the paint job as well more rougher as I had another unit which came early because Amazon missed the package) now that's out of the way.

I forgot to ask you fellas about the AMP's main part. The power on, off, do you guys hear a pop(s) while powering up and powering down ? I used to get it powered down too, but then I moved the power brick from the Tripplite strip to a wall socket and it went away, but I cannot get this power up one gone. So as a mitigation in order to avoid damage, I first power-up the AMP, (Modi 3 gets turned on coz no switch), so then I power up the speakers (They have a remote) and if I'm using the IEMs or my Senn cans I would just wait until this powers up it avoids that annoying pop altogether.

Thanks, So far very happy. As a desktop system this does the job very well for my Foobar setup.

And @SigmaOrionis , I just tested it with my IEMs - my AMP is always plugged in (since it's connected to a wall socket) but turned off when not in use, so with that and Modi 3 plugged in and PC running, I tried to look for that hum or such, I don't hear any hum.
The only noise I hear is the click when the LED goes from red to white.
 
Mar 6, 2020 at 1:50 PM Post #427 of 625
Hi all, first time poster here. Recently picked up some new gear including a pair of audeze lcd 2C as well as the liquid spark. I’m having some trouble with hum in the headphones when I plug into the amp even without any sources plugged in. It seems to be some kind of grounding issue since the noise disappears if I touch the amplifier and depending on where I have the power source plugged in it gets better or worse.

At the moment, I’m considering trying an ebtech hum eliminator or someone also suggested to me to try a ups (uninterrupted power supply) to power the spark.

Any advice is much appreciated!

Thanks
 
Mar 6, 2020 at 4:41 PM Post #428 of 625
Hi all, first time poster here. Recently picked up some new gear including a pair of audeze lcd 2C as well as the liquid spark. I’m having some trouble with hum in the headphones when I plug into the amp even without any sources plugged in. It seems to be some kind of grounding issue since the noise disappears if I touch the amplifier and depending on where I have the power source plugged in it gets better or worse.

At the moment, I’m considering trying an ebtech hum eliminator or someone also suggested to me to try a ups (uninterrupted power supply) to power the spark.

Any advice is much appreciated!

Thanks

Welcome to Head-Fi from another Canuck. Those LCD2 C's seems interesting. I love my Liquid Spark. I bought an open box for $80.00US. I am sure someone more knowledgable will tune in with a solution. Mine is quiet, but I run DAP to DAC to LS.

Shane D
 
Mar 6, 2020 at 11:05 PM Post #429 of 625
Welcome to Head-Fi from another Canuck. Those LCD2 C's seems interesting. I love my Liquid Spark. I bought an open box for $80.00US. I am sure someone more knowledgable will tune in with a solution. Mine is quiet, but I run DAP to DAC to LS.

Shane D

Thanks for the welcome Shane.

As it turns out, I picked up a UPS with surge protection and EMI/RFI filtration and plugging my system into that I believe has solved my problem. Background on my headphones is now dead quiet.

I listen mainly to vinyl on my setup and was a very happy camper tonight when I listened to a few sides with no hum.
 
Mar 6, 2020 at 11:26 PM Post #430 of 625
Thanks for the welcome Shane.

As it turns out, I picked up a UPS with surge protection and EMI/RFI filtration and plugging my system into that I believe has solved my problem. Background on my headphones is now dead quiet.

I listen mainly to vinyl on my setup and was a very happy camper tonight when I listened to a few sides with no hum.

It really is a great little amp. What do you think about the LCD2 Classic's?
 
Mar 7, 2020 at 7:25 AM Post #431 of 625
It really is a great little amp. What do you think about the LCD2 Classic's?

I enjoy them a lot. A lot different from the Sennheiser 598 which were my main HP before. The 2C’s sound for me is very full and smooth while still retaining excellent clarity. I find them great for rock/pop.

Occasionally, depending on the music, the presentation can come across as a slightly dull and lacking some texture. I wonder if a higher end amp would bring a bit more resolution and sparkle to the sound.

As for comfort, they are good but no candle to Sennheisers!
 
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Mar 7, 2020 at 5:11 PM Post #432 of 625
I enjoy them a lot. A lot different from the Sennheiser 598 which were my main HP before. The 2C’s sound for me is very full and smooth while still retaining excellent clarity. I find them great for rock/pop.

Occasionally, depending on the music, the presentation can come across as a slightly dull and lacking some texture. I wonder if a higher end amp would bring a bit more resolution and sparkle to the sound.

As for comfort, they are good but no candle to Sennheisers!

I tried the LCD2's a few years ago and found them boring, but I have been hearing a lot of good stuff about the LCD2 Classic's. Brands like Audeze ands Sennheiser really do scale well with better gear. I am not a huge fan of either brand but they can do some amazing stuff. I almost bought an open box LCD1 just to check it out, then I backed off. If I am really going to try the brand out I need to at least go a bit higher up the tree. :relaxed:

As of right now I prefer the HD58X's over the HD600 (currently own) and the HD6XX's (owned a few years ago and they were the most comfortable headphone I ever owned until recently). But they say the higher end Senn's really sing with a tube amp.

Just a quick edit: I got a tube amp and it really does elevate the HD600's. It cost me six times what the LS cost and is a much better amp. But it is NOT six times better. It just excels at all the stuff the LS does. For the price, you can not beat this amp.
 
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Mar 28, 2020 at 7:53 AM Post #433 of 625
The only noise I hear is the click when the LED goes from red to white.

Same here. Just a click when the pilot light on the Liquid Spark goes from red to white.
 
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Apr 7, 2020 at 8:19 AM Post #434 of 625
i wonder if a different DC power supply can provide any improvement in sound
333043_1200x1200.jpg


I have seen some noise spectra in the web showing residual power supply noise.
I had a similar issue with a 12VDC smsp feeding a dac ... a change of the psu solved the problem
 
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Apr 7, 2020 at 8:38 AM Post #435 of 625
For what it's worth, I've read of a few LS owners trying upgraded power supplies. The general consensus is that it's a marginal improvement and that the stock power supply is more than adequate.
 

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