Liquid Gold X Balanced Headphone Amplifier from Monoprice by Alex Cavalli

Never mind it was the eBay app so I didn’t think caching was an issue. But when I add to cart it says 999$. I’ll clean up these posts later.

 

Dang, bummer they did not keep the rock bottom ebay pricing in place, I also got it at $570 plus tax as they sent a 5% off offer after a few days on the watch list. They must have known we were on to them! haha.

I can confirm the built-in DAC is crapola, sounds muffled and blurry, at least via USB from my laptop. Reminded me of plugging in a mediocre cell phone 3.5mm out into a nice amp. That makes it a bigger bummer that we are likely to never see the Liquid Platinum BAL DAC that was being worked on, would have been a nice office/bedroom stack.

Now that I shipped out the LSA Warp 1 loaner I can finally give this amp some real listening time. Testing with Yggdrasil BAL to Freya+, SS buffer to SE in on the Liquid Gold (BAL out being used for mono aegir currently and I am too tired/lazy to shuffle cords this morning), and BAL out to Auteur. Hopefully the SE input are not too gimped, I always headcased about that when I had the Liquid Platinum. Fun day of listening ahead!

 

Great to see some reviews on this finally coming out! Maybe this one should be creeping back into my radar.

Pricing fluctuates quite a bit on this and the Liquid Platinum. They seem to have a normal price of $1k and a sale price which has been slowly creeping down. What's strange is the sale price isn't always consistent and sometimes its not on sale on monoprice, but is on ebay.

So right now it's $800 @ monoprice's website and $600 at shop.com, fulfilled by monoprice.


https://www.shop.com/Monolith+Liqui...+Ended+Headphone+Outputs+-1869330080-p+.xhtml

 

You just beat me to posting the shop.com link. I impulse purchased it, worst case if I don't like it, someone here can benefit from the deal I got.

 

I cannot keep up with all the outlets that Monoprice uses to sell the same products at wildly different prices.

 

Place is clearly being run by the Joker.

 

Yeah, I guess with Monoprice we have to use google rather than their web site to ensure we get the best deal. It's annoying but at least their weird practices are being documented so we know.

 

The other thing I wonder is do purchases through ebay or shop.com or any other non-Monoprice website come with the warranty? Lots of Liquid Platinum owners benefited from that warranty coverage. I'm not buying one, though I'd like to hear it, just curious about this because Monoprice's practice of putting the same item for sale on different outlets at different prices feels fishy.

 

ditto on the impulse purchase

I certainly hope so... its being sold & fulfilled by Monoprice (not a 3rd party) and no where on the sales listing do they indicate anything that would make you think the product information (warranty, new/refurb, etc) is different than what is on their product page.

 

Welp, impulse bought the shop.com. I figure with it having an AKM chip, now's the time to buy (the Liquid Spark DAC is no longer sold due to having an AKM chip).

 

RD deserves a commission for all these impulse purchases!

 

At the same time, at least on shop.com, there's nothing to indicate the warranty is included either that I could see.

And the warranty section of the ebay page lists the standard 1 year warranty, whereas on the Monoprice site it lists a 5 year warranty. It is possible that Monoprice is not being sticklers for this stuff if they are the seller regardless of the marketplace used, but it would give me pause is all.

 

My understanding: Only if it's sold by Monoprice via the other vendors. So, if you purchase on Amazon, the warranty only applies if Monoprice is the seller.

 

I just hope the volume pot isn't a turd. The first LP I got was unusable.

 

The volume pot on mine is not as "good" as my first run Liquid Platinum, but not as bad as some of the later LPs with bad imbalance issues. Mine basically exhibits the same behavior as @rhythmdevils where it kind of jumps around 9 o'clock, but does not seem to have major imbalance issues. Still not a good pot, but acceptable.

 

@rhythmdevils, thanks for posting the review. What's the ETA on you getting to compare the Liquid Gold to the DSHA-3F?

 

Have you heard the spl phonitors? Not saying they are the bestest, but I wonder how they compare because I actually can't imagine it being beat by "a long ways". Seems hyperbolic but if it does indeed, it would be a steal at the price.

 

Im just trying to steer away from hyperboles. That's all. I mean he said over any price range and i dont see mplg beating out the mha100 either. Also synergy matters even if the dsha3f is >>> prob worse match with an hd800. That's why big blanket statements for fotm hype is what im trying to nitpick.