Hello everyone. I’ve owned this unit for 2 months now and im very impressed with it overall, however I’m having a problem with my unit. I just contacted monoprice about this issue and this is what’s going on. The enter button has to be pressed a few times before it does my request. Also, the down/- button dosent work at all. I’m waiting on a reply from them so I was just wondering, dose anyone else have/seen this problem? Oh, as far as resetting to factory settings, I’m unable to because of the inop down button. Bogus
Don’t worry, they’ll replace it. You can ask hem to check the replacement unit before sending it back to you to make sure everything is in working order. Let us know how it goes
By the way, welcome to the community
Thanks. I’ll be sure to inform you guys with the final result.
This particular amp is currently on sale on Massdrop for $249.
Just bought one of these used for a pretty good price, should arrive later this week 
Had the awesome idea to velcro my es100 to the back of my thx portable, really like the idea and now my portable has a kickstand too while sitting on a table… Lol
Is there any downside with using the es100 with the thx portable? It should just be acting as a line out to serve the music from my phone to the portable. Mostly what I’m interested in knowing is whether the DAC in the thx or the es100 is active? Or does it even matter?
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I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong but your current connection is using the dac in the es100. That 3.5mm port is line in and optical so it could be digital if your source had optical out. Plugging into the usb at the bottom would use the internal dac of the THX.
On a side note, I would love to know what you think of this setup. I’m considering something similar.
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Ah okay. I just tried to connect through the es100 using a micro USB to micro USB cable and I could not get it to playback . Tried fiddling with settings on both the thx and the es100 app, there might be something I’m missing…
This is a pretty nice setup for portability, definitely beats strapping my phone to the back of the unit.
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Yeah I don’t think you can use the es100 to playback audio through its micro usb… The only other solution I was thinking was a micro usb to 3.5mm male adapter but I can’t find one that’s super short with right angles. I’m not sure that would work anyways :\
It’s really not that big of a deal breaker though, the DAC in the es100 is still very good, and for the added portability I’d say it’s a good trade off until I get me a dedicated dap to strap to it.
You’re correct, the micro usb on the es100 is only for charging.
it is also an USB DAC - I never used mine as USB DAC, but it should work- but not as output over Micro USB - just Micro USB-In Signal. The output as preout or line out is only possible over 3,5 or 2,5mm
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I vaguely recall Zeos recommending 3.5mm to quarter inch adapters somewhere else that have the quarter-inch socket in a separate physical piece to reduce pressure on the headphone jack. Anyone have a link for that?
Would you choose this amp over a jds labs atom and dac?
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i have the same question
No. The Atom is has more power, especially clean power. Combine it with something like a D10, and you have a better DAC and amp for $100 less. The THX portable is really only a good value if you plan on using it as a portable unit.
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Which one will you think it will sound better?
They will sound very similar. Both are neutral amps. If it were me, I would buy the Atom and wouldn’t think twice about it…unless you need portable capabilities.
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I was able to pick one up and had it for just about a day. I like it a lot, but I do have two questions (sort of) about it:
- Should this be able to power a HE-560? I got my hands on a HE-560 at about the same time and immediately tried that pairing out, but found the results very unsatisfactory. My other amps (including a Liquid Spark) had more power, and it seemed to fare much better. Was it down only to power?
- I bought this amp in part because I wanted to see if THX AAA tech was all it was cracked up to be, but how much does using teach me about its desktop siblings (the Monoprice 788 and the Drop 789). Should I expect a similar sound signature/noise level/etc, with the only real difference being more power?
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The portable really isn’t enough to feed the he560, since that’s a pretty amp dependant headphone. The desktop thx units have way more power, and would definitely be more suited to powering the he560. The portable will have a similar signature but be more capable