$150 Monoprice tube/SS hybrid amp w/ Bluetooth

[drew_t]

http://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=13194

http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-miracle-of-a-150-or-less-tube-amplifier-1445452602

Anybody order one of these yet? The description is a little short on details, but presumably it's essentially a combination of a chip amp with a bluetooth module and one of the four tube preamp boards, with power supplies for both and packaged pretty nicely.

 

[Barrington]

I wonder if it's "out of stock" because its not available yet or is it sold out? Would be very interested to hear an AKer review!

 

[TEA FOR ONE]

Monoprice shows ETA of 11/15/15.

 

[CKDC]

It looks like the Nobsound ms 10d which is available on Ebay and Amazon. The Monoprice version has a Bluetooth connection though.

It has been around for some time now but I don't recall seeing a critique here on AK.

 

[prighello]

I know it's cheap but the specs look terrible. I'd pass.

 

[soundmig]

Spec's look terrible? I've owned units with similar specs that produced state-of-the-art sound. In general - spec's have little, if anything, to do with how something sounds. The late Richard Heyser proved that with his near perfect specification amplifier that produced (surprisingly) unintelligible sound. I know nothing about this particular unit from Monoprice, but I don't think I would indict it as unworthy solely based on the specifications. Sorry, I'm not bring to be argumentative - really, just encouraging us all to be careful with specifications - as they don't tend to translate well to how a unit sounds.

 

[prighello]

Specs are pretty much all we have to go off most of the time since you can't listen to these things in a store. That or buy and find out with fingers crossed.

 

[robgmn]

Spec's look terrible? I've owned units with similar specs that produced state-of-the-art sound. In general - spec's have little, if anything, to do with how something sounds. The late Richard Heyser proved that with his near perfect specification amplifier that produced (surprisingly) unintelligible sound. I know nothing about this particular unit from Monoprice, but I don't think I would indict it as unworthy solely based on the specifications. Sorry, I'm not bring to be argumentative - really, just encouraging us all to be careful with specifications - as they don't tend to translate well to how a unit sounds.

Take the results of the Heyser Box with a large grain of salt. It was meant as an example of why measurements should not be considered the only factor in determining whether a component is good or not. It only proved that something can measure well, yet sound like utter shite.
i don't think many (if any) manufacturers are putting the effort into making crappy sounding equipment measure well.
It'd be cheaper to make it sound good (or at least passable), especially in this day of components that cost almost nothing.

"The Heyser Box has one input and one output. When measured on a test bench, it has no distortion, no phase shift, ruler-flat frequency response, wide bandwidth, and all the other attributes we consider ideal performance. Indeed, the box appeared on the test bench to be a piece of wire.

But when you put music through The Heyser Box and listen to it, the sound is so distorted that the music is unintelligible.

How could something measure perfectly and sound so horrible? The secret is that a circuit inside the box identified the steady-state nature of the sine waves used in bench testing and closed a relay connecting the input to the output. The box was indeed a piece of wire. But when the circuit detected the continuously changing dynamic nature of music, the relay opened and closed quickly, chopping up the waveform and rendering the signal unlistenable.

 

[prighello]

Seems like the box was nothing more than a trick and has no place in the discussion of the OP's amp. Thanks for clearing the air

 

[Dingman]

Seems like the box was nothing more than a trick and has no place in the discussion of the OP's amp. Thanks for clearing the air

There must have been some VW engineers working on that box.

 

[robgmn]

Seems like the box was nothing more than a trick and has no place in the discussion of the OP's amp. Thanks for clearing the air

Yeah, it comes up in discussions all the time (usually by people who argue that you can't measure differences in sound caused by cables, amps, tubes, etc., etc.). the phrase is often something like "it's been proven that measurements mean nothing" when it comes to sound produced by a system.
It rarely gets mentioned what the test was REALLY about.

 

[soundmig]

Like I said, I'm not trying to be argumentative. I checked out the spec's and they don't look that bad. I've had integrated amps (in the past) with similar measurements that sounded really good. I'm sure that I shouldn't have said that either, but ….

 

[w1jim]

You can get a more feature laden model on aliexpress (alibaba) for a little less money. (Though you may get hit with import duties - though I've bought a bunch of stuff from there and never had those fees).

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Nobs..._73_74_75,searchweb201527_5,searchweb201560_9

or

http://www.aliexpress.com/store/pro...ier-Support-Usb-Music/339392_32391907645.html

 

[drew_t]

It does appear that they are sourcing these from Nobsound, or whatever entity that supplies, or is behind Nobsound.

I think I would prefer buying from Monoprice -- quicker shipping (once it's in stock) and easier to return it if there is a problem.

 

[shrinkboy]

i just got one of these, and i'm thinking of a tube upgrade, if only i knew what tubes they are. the larger ones look like 12ax7 to me, but the smaller ones? has anyone tried an upgrade?

 

[shrinkboy]

ok, figgered it out. 2 6j15, 2 6n1. what upgrades should i look for? anybody? i'm no tube expert, although i've owned a few tube amps in the past.

 

[nj pheonix]

a 6n1 is similar to a 6922 or a 6dj8
I'm not sure what a 6j15 is?

 

[nj pheonix]

If this were a 3116 and a 3 tube little bear equivalent nice and neat like that with blue tooth, i'd be in on it. Specs don't bear that out. It doesn't mean it doesn't sound good. I'd like to hear back and see the impressions.

 

[drew_t]

The Monoprice page says 6p15

 

[shrinkboy]

i set my new amp up in my office system and right away, the right channel was out. a little investigation showed one of the 6n1 tubes cracked. dammit. but rather than get my panties all in a wad about UPS and their shipping (they also delivered the box to my porch where it got rained on) i just ordered a new set of Shuguangs from ebay for 9 bux. we'll see.