Monoprice Big Bang II of 2018: two Open-Backs and two Cavalli Amps

Surprise, surprise, Monoprice is back with Big Bang II! Their first big bang of 2018 gave us two closed-back planar-magnetic headphones and a quarter of headphone amps from the tiny to the twenty-pounders! Their second Bigg Bang of 2018, the Spring edition, brings two curiously named headphones and a couple of …Alex Cavalli co-branded amps!

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Monoprice Headphone Big Bang at CES 2018

Monoprice revealed so many new headphone products at CES 2018 that I am putting them in their own posts, otherwise they would overwhelm our Headphones at CES 2018 round-up…

MONOPRICE AT CES 2018 SUMMARY

  • M1060C and M565C Closed-Back Planar Over-Ears
  • new Stage Right studio headphones
  • Monoprice portable USB DAC/amp
  • Monolith THX portable head-amp
  • Monolith Desktop THX DAC/amp
  • Monster 20.5lb Tube Headphone amp

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Unboxing the Google USB-C Headphone DAC/amp

After betraying microSD fans, Google decided to betray the 3.5mm headphone jack as well with their 2017 Pixel 2 smartphones, making it the most high profile Android phone without a headphone jack. With that, the need for a USB-C headphone adapter (DAC/amp) for anyone wanting to use their 3.5mm headphones became mordant 😉

So Google released one such adapter of their own, taking USB digital audio and converting it to analog. After initially pricing it higher than Apple’s Lightning adapter (SAD!), Google brought the price all the way down to $9 with free shipping to boot at their own store.

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Unboxing the M-Audio Bass Traveler Portable DAC/amp

We now have another long delayed unboxing post. This was a review sample of the portable M-Audio Bass Traveler DAC/amp combo. It takes one 3.5mm input and has two 3.5mm outputs, a Bass Boost selector, and a volume control knob. Perhaps its main differentiation from other budget portable DAC/amps is the two outputs, essentially a powered splitter.

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Unboxing the Monoprice Desktop Headphone Amp (PID 11567)

We have a brand new detailed unboxing post for you today! I purchased this with mine own money (that’s a GRRM-ism) when it was on sale at the Monoprice website. It is the Monoprice Desktop Headphone DAC/amp, with the unceremonious model name number of 11567. PID is just Product ID, it is not part of the name 🙂

The unboxing post below is in timeline order. We start with a sealed box and proceed to remove things out of boxes. Because there are many boxes 🙂 Opinion on how it performs and other measurements (weight, cable length, etc) will be in the upcoming review. Please feel free to yell at me if it doesn’t get posted in the future 🙂

On the pictures: please forgive the “potato pictures”. If I wait until I can take perfect pictures, nothing will ever get done and posted 🙂 I am using a lighting contraption with an LED light strip up top ~ you see that in the second picture below. I left it in the picture so you’ll know it’s that ~ you see parts of it in some of the other pictures below that may appear strange and out of the blue 🙂

QUICK NAVIGATION

+ Outside the Box
+ Inside the Box
+ The actual Monoprice DAC/Amp

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