[OldDude04]

I love mine! I use it to watch movies late at night with headphones because of the Dirac feature. It never really worked well with music, sounds better with the feature off, but after trying it with movies I find that it really helps to make it sound theatre like. Paired with my z1r it sounds brilliant

Are you talking about the Monoprice Monolith THX AAA 788 Dac/Amp combo? I only ask because this is the thread for the THX 887 Amp, a different device that doesn't have any DIRAC features due to it not having a built in DAC.

 

[Adamtl]

Are you talking about the Monoprice Monolith THX AAA 788 Dac/Amp combo? I only ask because this is the thread for the THX 887 Amp, a different device that doesn't have any DIRAC features due to it not having a built in DAC.

Oops! Yes that’s the one I have.

 

[OldDude04]

Oops! Yes that’s the one I have.

All good bro. And welcome to the site!

 

[ls13coco]

I've been planning on going to the HPA-4 from my 789, but after my research it seems there really isn't enough difference in sound itself to warrant such a price jump.
So, here I am asking if anyone here has thoughts on the 887 vs 789 and if they could perceive any sound differences at all.
I'm okay with losing a bit of money selling the 789 for the 887 if it seems there might be the slightest improvement.

This will be paired primarily with Empyrean, Arya, k 712 pro and HD6xx and Airist R2R and Topping D90.
I have my colored sounding amp plans already, trying to keep clean as possible with my SS.

 

[phthora]

I've been planning on going to the HPA-4 from my 789, but after my research it seems there really isn't enough difference in sound itself to warrant such a price jump.
So, here I am asking if anyone here has thoughts on the 887 vs 789 and if they could perceive any sound differences at all.
I'm okay with losing a bit of money selling the 789 for the 887 if it seems there might be the slightest improvement.

This will be paired primarily with Empyrean, Arya, k 712 pro and HD6xx and Airist R2R and Topping D90.
I have my colored sounding amp plans already, trying to keep clean as possible with my SS.

To each his own. To me, the jump in price was well worth it. The HPA4 comes with a lot of more than just an increase in sound quality.

 

[protoss]

After months with this small amp.

I found it to have a very small sound-stage and very narrow sounding. Bright and smooth. The smoothness will sound warm to people. And thats where the coloration I notice it has that some here alluded to.

But i can not believe how narrow and small the sound-stage is sadly.

 

[Celty]

Odd, not my experience with the 887 at all. That is with extensive listening with the ZMF Auteur, HD6XX, HE4XX, and even the Moondrop Starfield IEM. The 887 has been excellent with all.

Given the perfect frequency response curve (curve in this case being a ruler straight line) of this amp, describing it as "colored" would be rather misleading. If anything, the 887 is more like transparent glass. What goes in is what comes out. Very true to the source material and DAC, and drives your headphones with tons of power and an extremely low noise floor (as in dead silent).

The same goes for soundstage and imaging. It is faithful to both the recording and the native characteristics of the headphone being used.

 

[protoss]

Odd, not my experience with the 877 at all. That is with extensive listening with the ZMF Auteur, HD6XX, HE4XX, and even the Moondrop Starfield IEM. The 887 has been excellent with all.

Given the perfect frequency response curve (curve in this case being a ruler straight line) of this amp, describing it as "colored" would be rather misleading. If anything, the 887 is more like transparent glass. What goes in is what comes out. Very true to the source material and DAC, and drives your headphones with tons of power and an extremely low noise floor (as in dead silent).

The same goes for soundstage and imaging. It is faithful to both the recording and the native characteristics of the headphone being used.

No problem with that. 887 is what it dose.

But I find it very narrow and having a very small soundstage. This is what I am noticing

 

[OldDude04]

Narrow and small is definitely not what I've experienced with the 887. I find the amp's stage to be quite wide when paired with my Emotiva DC-1 DAC.

 

[angelus55]

which amp and dac out of the following would you recommend?

i was interested in getting a asgard 3 with modi 3 dac, thx amp thx 887 with the modi 3 or 788 amp/dac combo, since i cant seem to find any good priced balanced dac to go with the 887 to equal the same price as the 788 thx combo if you think balanced is worth it, but i dont like the idea of buying new balanced cables for my headphones

i have the lcd2 classics and i might get the hd 800s later this year if i can save enough for it if it matters

and i currently have the magni 3 amp that came out before the + and heresy models connected to my pc, and no dac

 

[TJ Max]

which amp and dac out of the following would you recommend?

i was interested in getting a asgard 3 with modi 3 dac, thx amp thx 887 with the modi 3 or 788 amp/dac combo, since i cant seem to find any good priced balanced dac to go with the 887 to equal the same price as the 788 thx combo if you think balanced is worth it, but i dont like the idea of buying new balanced cables for my headphones

i have the lcd2 classics and i might get the hd 800s later this year if i can save enough for it if it matters

and i currently have the magni 3 amp that came out before the + and heresy models connected to my pc, and no dac

I use a 887 with a SMSL SU-8 for my desktop. I own a Modi 3 also and I can say that a 887 and Modi 3 combo will also be a good match. If balanced output is not a priority then I would suggest looking at a JDS Labs Atom and Modi 3 combo.


Its my opinion that the Magni 3 is not a good performer. I had channel imbalance issues and experienced distortion when the volume is >%70

 

[omegaorgun]

which amp and dac out of the following would you recommend?

i was interested in getting a asgard 3 with modi 3 dac, thx amp thx 887 with the modi 3 or 788 amp/dac combo, since i cant seem to find any good priced balanced dac to go with the 887 to equal the same price as the 788 thx combo if you think balanced is worth it, but i dont like the idea of buying new balanced cables for my headphones

i have the lcd2 classics and i might get the hd 800s later this year if i can save enough for it if it matters

and i currently have the magni 3 amp that came out before the + and heresy models connected to my pc, and no dac

Its like a unicorn but my Matrix Audio HPA-3B is lovely. Especially with the right opamp. It has 3.8 watts @32 but double the power of a 789 @ 300600 ohms.

Burson v5i have a weird noise thing going on but I'm running opa1656 on mine.

EDIT: I have the 789 its very similar and a great amp and also had the 788.

I would say for convenience get the 788 but something like an SU-8 or SDAC-B with the 887/789 will yield better results and power.

There is only analog out from the 788 so that lovely internal DAC had limitations.

The 789 has dropped to $300 with massdrop branding. You could get it and the SDAC-B for $450 and even a DAC like the topping D-10 works good.

 

[etroze86]

I have a 887 on the way and will be pairing with the 788. I will let you guys know what I think of the combo and if I get a wild hair I will do a pairing with the modi 3 as well.

 

[wizzman121]

I have a 887 on the way and will be pairing with the 788. I will let you guys know what I think of the combo and if I get a wild hair I will do a pairing with the modi 3 as well.

You already have a great amp/DAC combo the 788. I am not sure you are going to realize any noticeable sound improvement with the 887.

 

[etroze86]

You already have a great amp/DAC combo the 788. I am not sure you are going to realize any noticeable sound improvement with the 887.

I might not but I do want to try it with my Audeze CBs. They seem to enjoy power and I like to keep equipment at a lower volume level. What i think I may get is a wider sound than I have now and i don't expect more clarity as the 788 is the cleanest combo I've heard. The other thought I have is I live in Japan and have access to Fostex and playing with those balanced could be really fun.