124 MACWORLD DECEMBER 2019
PLAY LIST REVIEW: MONOPRICE MONOLITH DESKTOP BALANCED HEADPHONE AMPLIFERSOLID BUILD AND SPECS
Monoprice has a well-earned reputation
for building high-quality devices and
selling them for reasonable prices.
Sometimes that means an unadorned,
plain Jane device that arrives in non-
descript packaging. That’s not the case
here. Monoprice treats its Monolith
balanced headphone amplifier like a
premium audiophile product. It’s beautifully
packaged and comes in a protective cloth.
The black brushed-aluminum enclosure
and all-metal face plate let you know that
Monoprice envisions this unit living
alongside high-class audio gear (alas, that
beautiful enclosure is prone to picking up
fingerprints).
The unit measures 8.7- by 7.8- by 2.0
inches. It will take up about half the space
on a typical audio shelf, but will be just as
happy sitting on a desk. The amp’s front
panel is Spartan, like most headphone
amps.
There’s a main display in the middle of
the unit showing you current volume level,
input, signal, and settings you’ve made.
The display has some lag to it. Turning the
volume dial, the volume kept going for a
half second to almost two seconds after I
stopped turning. From what I gathered
reading the user manual, this is expected
and welcome behavior. No matter how
hard I tried, I couldn’t accidentally raise the
volume to sudden, ear-deafening levels,
nor could I accidentally lower it. That said, I
do wish there was a mute button on the
front panel, for those times you need to
instantly pause the music.
I found the display easy to read,
provided I wasn’t looking at it in direct
sunlight. There’s a large volume knob
flanked by Menu and Enter buttons. The
Menu button doubles as the
power on/off ( just hold it down
for a few seconds), and it
doubles as a back button when
you’re in the main menu. The
Enter button switches the unit’s
generous input options. You’ll
get the hang of each button
after a few uses. Once you set
your menu options, you’ll rarely
need to go back.
The Monolith’s specs are
eye-catching. You’ll find dualThe Monolith has a slew of options to customize the
unit’s sound, including several PEQ filters.