Monoprice 50w Hybrid Amp

zingo

The reviews on these amps have been mixed, but seem to be improving as Monoprice has tweaked them over the last few years. I had eyed them out of curiosity, but never felt like spending $200 for a maybe.

But today, Monoprice emailed that the unit is currently 20% off. I went to their website to check the reviews again, and the flash page offered a 20% code. I applied it assuming it wouldn’t work, but it did! I clicked checkout and it applied free one-day shipping; with tax and one-day shipping the unit cost me $136.

I’ll try the unit out and compare it to my Denon PMA-2000, but I see a great value in a Bluetooth integrated amp for under $150 with a warranty.

https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=16153

zingo

smglbrth

"Bluetooth audio for grown-ups", had to chuckle at that on their website...

Conradicles

Thanks for the link. I just bought one for $127.99. Can always send it back if it sounds like garbage...

zingo

It’ll sound better than a “wireless bluetooth speaker”, so that’s good enough, and might make a nice desk amp for work.

mark090852

Conradicles wrote: »

Thanks for the link. I just bought one for $127.99. Can always send it back if it sounds like garbage...

I might try one out for myself for a little living room system. How are folks seeing a price lower than $159.99? That's the price I see when I add it to my cart.

Conradicles

Use coupon code GOAL20.

delkal

I'm not getting any popups for another 20% off. I only see $200 minus 20% so $160. It seems like the price is variable.

I always run an adblocker with no tracking cookies. I think that is why I'm not seeing the deals. I disabled adblocker for the monoprice site (but still have no third party tracking) but no popups. No one wants to be tracked but I think if they see you looking at all these other audio sites and amps that is when they give you a deal.

If the reviews are good I might have to turn everything off for a while.

Conradicles

You put the coupon code in at checkout.

Conradicles

The coupon is on the home page.

mark090852

Conradicles wrote: »

Use coupon code GOAL20.

Thanks so much for the code! I applied it at checkout and my price dropped to $127.99. Order placed.

delkal

Conradicles wrote: »

You put the coupon code in at checkout.

Conradicles wrote: »

The coupon is on the home page.

Thanks. I see it now.

Now the real dilemma........What to do at that price,

mhardy6647

The 25 watt morph is... so-so.
Manage your expectations.

zingo

I can’t find a ton of info on the 50w version as most of the info seems to be about the 25w as that was the original.

I plan on testing it with a pair of Klipsch bookshelves and a pair of custom transmission line monitors.

mhardy6647

Sounds good... it'll be interesting to see what you think of it.

Not to bias your assessment or anything but (FWIW) -- the 25 watt morph is kind of hard sounding, and gets kind of congested/muddled with more complicated music at moderate volume (on 104-ish dB sensitive loudpspeakers). I need to try it on some other speakers than the two I've tried so far, though.

I have this urge to throw a pair of 6922s in place of the two Chinese twin triodes that are in the amp. It's not 100% clear to me that 6922s are a proper substitution -- but it looks like they might be. I really should check first and see if the filament voltage in the amp is - as was reported in early "reviews" of the 25 watt amp under another brand name - higher than 6.3 VAC. I don't really want to cook even a cheap pair of 6922s in the pursuit of knowledge.

As a not completely unrelated aside -- I really (really) wonder whether the AF power pentode tubes in these amps* actually do anything?

____________________
* The tubes in the amp (at least in the case of the 25 watt morph) are Chinese "6P15". The 6P15 is reported to be equivalent to EL86 or 6CW5.

zingo

mhardy6647

thoughts?

tonyb

My thoughts are.....plastic tables melt.

mhardy6647

Yeah -- but wooden ones burn.

mhardy6647

Not sure if this is a good time to mention it, but Monoprice is actually also selling a pure-play little all vacuum tube mutant variant of these "hybrid" amps. Looks to be PP EL84 (i.,e., somewhere in the 10 to 14 wpc neighborhood depending on operating points). EDIT: Monoprice website sez 10 wpc. Not nearly as cheap, though, of course, as the two hybrids.

https://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=109&cp_id=10919&cs_id=1091903&p_id=27222&seq=1&format=2

PS is it just me or is that Monoprice site kind of tedious to navigate?

mhardy6647

Those are cute little loudspeakers.

zingo

mhardy6647 wrote: »

Those are cute little loudspeakers.

I need to finish the cabinets, thinking glass gray paint and leaving the cherry wood horn raw, but they have been fun and sound great; the tweeter is the Vifa dual ring radiator horn loaded and the woofer is a 7" Dayton reference TL loaded.

tonyb

Well, it should be noted your operating under safer conditions than someone else I know....cough....cough.

A fireplace right behind it makes for an easy push should things go south.

Toolfan66

The promo code is expired, I would have tried it for that..

zingo

After an hour of listening in 24 hours, it would be hard to beat for the price and has a warranty. I will be taking the unit apart to see the build quality and how it's constructed.

Pros-
-Build quality well exceeds its price
-sound quality well exceeds its price
-all in one integrated with bluetooth, line in, and line out
-tone controls boosted the bass slightly without degrading the sound

Cons-
-Bass shy (I don't know if that a design issue, or the limited power)
-Stock Chinese tubes are the cheapest (maybe contributes to the bass response?)
-volume is a little unbalanced at the bottom of the pot

Conradicles

Got mine today. Very nice looking unit for the money. Build quality is great. Now to figure out which speakers to pair it with...

mhardy6647

tonyb wrote: »

Well, it should be noted your operating under safer conditions than someone else I know....cough....cough.

A fireplace right behind it makes for an easy push should things go south.

There's a handy window behind the one here.

mhardy6647

zingo wrote: »

show previous quotes

mhardy6647 wrote: »

Those are cute little loudspeakers.

I need to finish the cabinets, thinking glass gray paint and leaving the cherry wood horn raw, but they have been fun and sound great; the tweeter is the Vifa dual ring radiator horn loaded and the woofer is a 7" Dayton reference TL loaded.

Not sure why you'd even want to finish the cabinets; they look great as is (at least in the photo).

Did you make the horns yourself?

zingo

The cabinets are MDF which always looks unfinished to me if you don’t do something with it. Is that weird?

The cherry horns were turned by a gentleman much more talented than I.

mhardy6647

Nope, not weird at all I couldn't tell what the cabinets were from the photo; at the size Vanilla reproduced your image, they look nice!

I didn't click to see it at higher resolution.

The horns are classy.
Sorry to go all Lt. Columbo on you, but what drivers do the horns have on them?
Is there a thread elsewhere on the loudspeakers?

I'll stop now, I promise!

rooftop59

The speakers look really cool from a distance, but zooming in I see why you’d want to finish them. I agree about mdf. If they were Baltic birch or something like that I would say poly and be done.

Did you build the crossovers or does parts express have a kit?