I’m not saying these headphone amps sound bad, it’s just that they are not
at a level of resolution found in a properly appointed mastering facility.
The Little Labs MONOTOR is designed with what I call a zen circuit
topology. Only a single state of the art active stage is used at its optimum
gain, in the circuit path of each headphone ear, with all else, straight wire
passive (this includes all the mono functions as well). All passive components
in the audio path were selected for sonic neutrality, this includes dale/
vishay resistors, nichicon muse series caps and specialized polystyrene
film decoupling caps. The MONOTOR uses a full voltage state of the art
super low noise internal linear regulation system (4 uVrms) with massive
capacitance for power on demand on each rail. Just one internal filter
capacitor used (there are 6) is bigger than a whole USB dongle digital to
analog converter/headphone amp. This allows for a noticeably improved
dynamic range over other headphone amps. You will also be able to drive
even high impedance phones to full volume without any strain whatsoever,
and no detectable hiss even at the highest volumes. The MONOTOR when
I say it is state of the art, it truly is, and could not have been built just a
year ago. I’m proud to say, this is not a rehashed old analog circuit, with
this labor of love, we’ve taken analog to another level.
The MONOTOR paired with a good set of headphones will give you a
reference at the highest resolution, so in imperfect environments you’ll
quickly be able to evaluate as you only could in the best mastering facilities.
You might be wondering what I use for headphones, (the headphone field
has become huge in the last ten years) but the reference I use with the
MONOTOR is the relatively reasonably cost Sennheiser HD600 with a
Cardas cable (cable given to me by Bernie Grundman’s Mastering facility
and ex A&M super tech Beno May, thanks Beno)! This simple set up will
set you back less than $1000 usd (slightly more with the Cardas cable) and
give you performance you could spend easy 10 times that trying to achieve,
with most likely worse resolution. This doesn’t mean your own favorite
headphones aren’t suitable for the MONOTOR, it will drive almost any
Summary of Contents for MONOTOR
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