[Shroomalistic]

do you guys think this would be a good replacement for my emotiva basx a-100. I need something with power to drive my fostex t50 thunderpants mod. only thing i have that can really drive them fully is the basx. Plus it drives the lcd2pf great too. but the space it takes on my desk is insane. I want a good stack, right now my chains are the monoprice 788 driving my basx and darkvoice but thats such a huge desk hog. Would love to have more power in smaller formfactor.

 

[etroze86]

Does you 788 drive them? Single ended I think it wouldn't be a big improvement over the 788.

 

[Shroomalistic]

its does an ok job but the 887 has a lot more power then the 788 and mine likes to overheat protect when I crank it high too long, specially when its 110+ degrees in my garage.

the 788 its 3.1w at 32 ohms and the 887 is 6w, while emotiva is 12w+ at 32ohms. So double the 788 and half the emotiva but clean.

 

[etroze86]

Single ended you won't see 6w on the 887. So really if you're looking for that kind of power I'd probably say look at the Asgard 3. I have the 788/887 they do well balanced but really they weren't meant to be power houses single ended. If I'm perfectly honest I enjoy my JDS Labs EL ll amp more single ended than either THX offering.

Edit: 788 has 1.3w @32 ohms and 887 has 1.6w@32 ohms single ended. I think you wouldn't be thrilled with price to performance compared to other amps on the market.

 

[Shroomalistic]

everything i have is balanced except for my beyers, sorry i should have stated that

 

[Voxata]

It should do just fine though. Monoprice usually has open bot 887's for pretty cheap too. Drop has the 789 for $299 though and if you sign up to email you get a $10 discount. For the price the 789 wins out.

 

[etroze86]

everything i have is balanced except for my beyers, sorry i should have stated that

Interesting, are you running speaker taps from your basx as balanced?
In the case of running balanced yes it should work very well. I don't have insane hard to drive headphones so please take it with a grain of salt. What I do know is I can drive every one of mine on high gain and the knob is less than the 12 o'clock position. Where the 788 I'd be cranking it to -12 db sometimes, which isn't much headroom before distortion starts coming from it.

 

[parrot5]

Does a manual or spec sheet come with your 887? Mine doesn’t come with it, and I’m interested in the specs and what’s the optimal input level etc....

 

[etroze86]

Does a manual or spec sheet come with your 887? Mine doesn’t come with it, and I’m interested in the specs and what’s the optimal input level etc....

Could use an o'scope to figure it out but I think the least expensive one I saw is like 80 bucks. With the 788 don't go past 0 db or you will get clipping and it's very noticeable. Also I believe of you run through the dac you won't have issues with source input.

 

[Shroomalistic]

Interesting, are you running speaker taps from your basx as balanced?
In the case of running balanced yes it should work very well. I don't have insane hard to drive headphones so please take it with a grain of salt. What I do know is I can drive every one of mine on high gain and the knob is less than the 12 o'clock position. Where the 788 I'd be cranking it to -12 db sometimes, which isn't much headroom before distortion starts coming from it.

I use a 1/4 to xlr adapter for the basx, so its not balanced. Just ment the headphone are.

 

[wizzman121]

The 887 is on sale for $330:

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=39359

 

[equalspeace]

So impressed with this Monolith 887. I’m left stunned at the performance everytime I listen w the Sony MDR-M1ST. The sound is so full, clear and effortless - just hits it out of the park with any file I throw at it. The Drop 789 seems to get more attention but this badboy here is the ONE. Paired it with the DX7 Pro and this combo is absolutely fantastic!

 

[Infoseeker]

For a solid state it sounds great with my Seinhesser Hd800s.

Does not emphasize any of the peakiness.

 

[ezduzit2500]

Hi all. I've been lurking on this thread, soaking in the impressions. I have a new Topping A90 that I'm not entirely sold on. I find it linear, powerful, and feature rich but it sometimes doesn't reproduce micro details and is missing some upper treble air and transparency. My basx a-100 has all the power, is effortless, and detailed from 20hz-20khz, but the soundstage is not as wide and it doesn't have the overall smoothness of the a90. I just bought an '887 to see if I can get the air, micro details, and soundstage back with ample power for my Hifiman Arya and other cans. How does the '887 stack up to the a-100? All are welcome to respond.

 

[Traveler843]

Hi all. I've been lurking on this thread, soaking in the impressions. I have a new Topping A90 that I'm not entirely sold on. I find it linear, powerful, and feature rich but it sometimes doesn't reproduce micro details and is missing some upper treble air and transparency. My basx a-100 has all the power, is effortless, and detailed from 20hz-20khz, but the soundstage is not as wide and it doesn't have the overall smoothness of the a90. I just bought an '887 to see if I can get the air, micro details, and soundstage back with ample power for my Hifiman Arya and other cans. How does the '887 stack up to the a-100? All are welcome to respond.

I have Arya cans, and HAD the Monolith 887 which I sold for the A90. I can't comment on 'air' or 'micro details', but I MUCH prefer the build quality on the A90 vs the 887. The 887 to me felt cheap, and I also got clipping with my SMSL M400 when set to max output. On the other hand, the A90 feels very solid, doesn't clip with my M400 and has plenty of power for my Arya headphones. If I was going to get a new amp I'd seriously look at the SMSL SP400, which JUST came out in the last couple of weeks.