[Astonish]

Damn that’s weird some people aren’t hearing any buzzing and some are and one member even heard it on a different amp altogether. Makes it hard to tell if it’s a defect or the amp bringing out a flaw in the recording, either way it doesn’t sound good to listen to. I have new rca cables coming tomorrow so will try those. Thanks for the replies all

 

[GearMe]

...For a <$100 little amp, the Spark really delivers in Spades, and that is impressive. It has tripled my curiosity about the Liquid Platinum, and what differences it, too, is going to bring to the table, relative to both the Spark and Carbon).

FWIW, the spark sounds pretty clean (as does the Carbon), and I do not detect any noise, in the form of a hiss, hum or static... It is as clean as a whistle. So far I have been doing all listening and comparisons with the Hifiman He-1000.

Agreed, nice amp...great value! No noise issues. Haven't tried the pre-outs yet.

 

[sahmen]

Just tried that track on Tidal with my Spark and HD600. Sounded great, no buzzing. Maybe it's something else in your chain is contributing to the buzzing if it's also doing this on your CTH.



I'll bust out my HEK and also compare the Spark with the LCv1 when I have a chance. If anything Alex has been able to translate the Cavalli house sound thought their line-up very consistently. When I had a Liquid Crimson, I A/B'd it to the Liquid Carbon v1 and although the Crimson was technically superior in most areas, the LCv1 sounded very similar tonally.

I would certainly be interested in hearing about how your Spark and LCv1 head-to-head goes.

 

[tim0chan]

yea, I'm gonna give them back... But first I'm gonna make sure I call them because I've been trying to get the cracked wood fixed on my m1060s for mad long, but they don't answer....yet they **** up an order and they send you out a return label real quick, weird huh?

Even so, I still believe in being a good person

Well, my Spark has suddenly developed a buzzing sound as well, though mine is persistent. This is on top of the faulty preamplifier output. To make matters worse, Monoprice seems to have no record of my purchase attached to my account and they have not bothered to respond to either of my two support requests. I'm thinking this will be my last Monoprice purchase.

@Astonish you should send some to @Hyp0xia

 

[Astonish]

@Astonish you should send some to @Hyp0xia

Yea, I don't think it works that way. They will charge if you don't send them back

 

[DRHamp]

I have just over 50 hours on the Spark, listening primarily through pre outs to Vanatoo Transparent Zero speakers. It has been really clean with no noise, static or buzz. Listened to the Haley Reinhardt track on Tidal and heard no buzz. I've also given it a good listen with my Aeon Flow closed and am very impressed with this $100 amp. Maybe I'm one of the lucky ones, but I'm very happy with the purchase

 

[Rattle]

Spark has been flawless for me. It's extremely quiet runs barely warm and seems to go into standby or something with volume down all the way ? It's cool when I come back but warm if I don't turn it down all the way for a couple hours, tried a couple times with same results so it seems like it's in standby or something. Can anyone comment or know for sure ? Not important but cool non the less

I've had it on about 30 hours since Friday and about 8 hours listening on HD600 and HD6xx. Did some back and forth with Valhalla 2 on Zappa and Fleetwood Mac and it really is amazing for being so little of a footprint.

 

[fljoe]

Can someone please recommend a DAC to go with this Liquid Spark headphone amp. Need to use it with my Dell XPS15 laptop. Would prefer the DAC somewhere in the $100 range please. Thanks!

 

[smallcaps]

Can someone please recommend a DAC to go with this Liquid Spark headphone amp. Need to use it with my Dell XPS15 laptop. Would prefer the DAC somewhere in the $100 range please. Thanks!

Topping D10, Grace SDAC are a couple off the top of my head you can take a look at.

 

[Zachik]

Can someone please recommend a DAC to go with this Liquid Spark headphone amp. Need to use it with my Dell XPS15 laptop. Would prefer the DAC somewhere in the $100 range please. Thanks!

Schiit Modi 3 for $99 is pretty good entry level DAC. The previous generation (Modi 2) was my very first desktop DAC

 

[Odin412]

Another tidbit of info: Yesterday I decided to try my Focal Elear with the new Liquid Spark and to my ears that is a combo that has great synergy.

 

[Wildcatsare1]

My Spark is still burning in, but it is pitch black, music arising out of the darkness, no buzzing, rattling or sonic garbage. I gave it a go with my Focal Clear, think they may be quite synergistic.

 

[amnesiac75]

I’m only 3 hours into the liquid spark paired up with schiit uberfrost and the sound so far is the best I’ve heard in this price range I’m sure break in will only make it better even if it’s only getting used to the sound signature. I’ve gone back and forth with high/low gain with my sennheiser hd600 and I’m still not sure which sounds better but I do know that at least for now the schiit Asgard 2 has an edge at higher volume but that’s always the case imo with more expensive amps. I can’t do a direct comparison to the magni or magni 2u since I haven’t owned them in years but I do know the gap between the entry and mid level is much closer with the liquid spark.

 

[Hyp0xia]

I'm apparently an idiot. I didn't realize I somehow have two Monoprice accounts, which is why I haven't been receiving a response from Monoprice and also why my purchase wasn't appearing under one of those accounts. To be fair to Monoprice, I'll have to delete some of my comments above. My unit is still defective, but I was able to get my RMA request resolved.

 

[trellus]

I'm apparently an idiot. I didn't realize I somehow have two Monoprice accounts, which is why I haven't been receiving a response from Monoprice and also why my purchase wasn't appearing under one of those accounts. To be fair to Monoprice, I'll have to delete some of my comments above. My unit is still defective, but I was able to get my RMA request resolved.

Thanks for the update, that’s a relief in a way... and I feel your pain, I did the same thing with NewEgg accidentally and couldn’t figure out why my order had vanished until I realized I inadvertently had created two accounts with them.