Honestly the hype has already died down lol. The sp200 made waves already. Also monoprice would keep constant stock so I think prices will just be normal
Tis for those with OCD and don’t like things unsymmetrical. Also more than 2 gains. Basically a copy of the 789 which you don’t have to wait for.
True lolol
I mean…
Yeah Amazon Prime shipping changes everything. I canceled my 789 order fro Drop and went with the 887 in part because of the shipping delays… with free (Prime) shipping the price is effectively lowered a bit too.
Nobody is going to be able to tell the difference between the two and anyone who says they can is lying their asses off.
Yes it does measure better but as far as sound is concerned, there is no difference.
Personally I’d get the 789 and call it a day. It’s just better built.
The SMSL can go straight to hell with that borqed box.
1 Like
Lol I wonder who was responsible for the design choices on that one
1 Like
SATAN
…10charmin
2 Likes
So… My THX 887 just died. I hear pop while using my Blon B20s and now the amp is smelling like something did not survive. Less than 3 weeks with the amp and complete failure. So now I’m waiting to see what the Monoprice RMA experience is like (purchased direct).
Hmmm. I wonder why it died, was everything normal and it just popped?
Ouch! I hope you get a replacement with no trouble.
1 Like
Yup. I heard a pop in the left speaker and then heard the relays shut down. Stuck my nose up to the back power port and it smelled like burnt silicon. I’m glad I have my Magni Hersey as a backup but I was hoping to finally use the Blon B20’s on a balanced cable (amp died 30 minutes before Amazon dropped off the cable). I will report in the experience but I had to share since I have not seen a 789 have a similar issue yet.
Yeah that’s unfortunate, I wonder why that happened
A new review from Joshua Valour.
1 Like
So the protection circuits on the 887 are not the greatest it seems which can ruin the unit. I don’t know if the unit can be restored or what… but I can say the warranty service from Monoprice has been superb! 1 week turn around door to door. I was actually worried when I got my amp back that I accidentally ordered something else and forgot.
So now I have my balanced cable for my Blon B20’s I can actually use and my LCD X’s… this amp does something weird compared to Schiit Magni Heresy. The B20 sounds brighter and super sweet if you’re listening to BB King and Eric Claptan. LCD X’s by comparison only sound… kinda dark. On the Schiit Heresy that difference was not nearly as noticeable (maybe related to LCD X break in too making things slightly darker).
Regardless, this amp is nice. Monoprice warranty is superb so that alone makes it something to compare against the 789 if people are cross shopping.
I bought one of these and paired with my SMSL SU-9 via balanced XLR.
Sounds great, very clean and linear. makes everything a brighter and a bit clinical though, not brain piercing bright but just to the point you notice it getting sharp on the highs.
Randomly mine also died. red light on the front is fixed and no sound. it seemed me accidentally touching the connectors when swapping headphones triggered the protection circuit.
some improvements would be a digital protection circuit that switches back off when you restart as well as a manual to work out which gain is ‘low’ and ‘high’.
So… why not pull a thread up from the dead to stir the pot a little?
So the THX is out and while the amps have talked to death on the forum and now considered to be old news because the A90 hype train… I HOPEFULLY can have a discussions about the truth about this amp without worrying about fan boys.
So… THX 887…
Is it worth $400? For me, I think not except for that sweet warranty. The single ended performance is bad and honestly the single ended performance is less than that of the Schiit Magni Heresy which has a similar sound and handles the highs better. I had 1 amp die on me (I got the RMA turn around faster than when I bought it the first time). So warranty, design, how it feels, size… it seems $400 ish but the sound is not on par with other options. When the THD numbers are done, remember that’s at 1khz and this DAC starts having problems above 12kHz particularly with transients. It’s gets these really fast grainy sounds that as I used it more and my ear got trained more… it got bad. However right now with my Sagra DAC and my Eikons it sounds good (Eikons on solid state seems to be warmer and take the bite out of the high frequencies).
I will say this Airist R2R sounded a bit Dark on the this DAC. Bifrost 2 had a character that I like but does NOT treat the highs very well. On the Spring 2 the detail retrieval is pretty smooth but still causes that transient issue. Oddly, the Sagra is smooth on this DAC to the point of making it mostly pleasurable. The only other DAC I own that I’d pair with the THX is the Schiit Modius, it’s so smooth that the issues with the grainy or whatever that sound is with the transients seems to be smoothed over but a definite loss of detail compared to the other DACs.
Is it end game? I mean if you think the SMSL SU-8 or SMSL-9 or Modius is an end game DAC because it’s smooth with a balanced out put… I guess? Overall the balanced inputs are a waste on this amp because it’s not actually a balanced amplifier which maybe in the most sensitive designs may cause a problem. But it has features at a price that looks good (prior to the existence of the Schiit Magnius). I’ll comment on the sound differences after hearing my GS-X mini at the end.
Why is there hype? At the time it superseded the original Schiit Jotunheim that I never got a chance to hear. But the Monoprice THX 887 was a late comer to the game after the Drop THX 789 and the Benchmark THX amp were out. Tied for the 789 with just a more recent and barely cleaner design… I bought it thinking this should sound good and thinking balanced made a difference (see WaveTheoy’s post on balanced or unbalanced). And on this amp… the balanced is the only reason to use the amp and at the time I didn’t have any headphones that were balanced… just like many other that bought it.
Reviewers must have made a killing on selling these amps because the 789 was constantly out of stock. Going into the pandemic… these were considered THE amp to get for the budget reviewers stepping things up a tiny bit. And the measurements… the measurements were all the cats meow. It was a perfect storm for the audio community that can only be explained a year afterwards with Game Stock Stonks… that nutty but without crazy markup (mostly).
Why is there hate? For me personally… this amp and getting the Blon B20 made something happen… it showed me that the measurements lied to me, the hearing of the reviewers I trusted with my time and wallet were either bad or paid for, the lack of a better word circle jerk was just wrong. But at the same time there are some people on this forum that showed me what to look at and cautiously I experimented and was pleasantly surprised.
But that’s why there is hate. The THX amps (I haven’t heard the Benchmark one so ignore that) flat out sound inaccurate. They sounded good enough and performed well enough with nice paper that the winners were the shops and the reviewers that made money in the process. That’s not entirely bad because it pays for this forum and a solid odd dock in the community with a sub-community that trust their ears and not reviews AND staying mostly positive and helpful. But it was a wake up call to me and a few others that were on the bandwagon hype and felt disappointed. This amp (and ones like it) was the straw that broke the camels back.
When you’re starting out in this hobby, you follow the reviewers and trust them because the time you spend with them (many are very entertaining and they do flash A LOT OF STUFF). You go “that’s awesome, I want to hear what they hear and feel what they feel”… but they have to pay bills. And simply this amp, with all that hype… did not deliver the goods and neither did it’s peers. You get the THX amp and now A90 and you’re expecting end game performance cheap and I can say listening to this amp right now… not even close. And the power? It has power but when you push it with a Diana Phi for example… you see this amp is “end game with compromises not worth making”.
Is the sound clear? 2 simple questions to ask when getting started and buying an amp. Does it sound clear/transparent/good/not shitty and can it power my headphones/speakers/hopes and dreams? And for this answer… the THX 887 is clear with with one giant asterisk that is the size of the moon (things you can ignore for half the lunar calendar). The sound is clear but it’s filtered. I can tell there is a lot of capacitors to squeeze the power out of that op amp in there.
But filtered to be soft… this amp has another dirty trick that over time music off of youtube or crappy cheap tier Pandora won’t show you. The sound is oddly compressed. This is the same dirty trick done in a lot of old VCR’s with the sound due to lack of dynamics on VHS to normalize audio. Now this can be desirable to some people in which case, hell yeah this AMP is amaze balls. But if your friendly sound engineering mastering movies or music has anything to say… the compression can undo their hard work and change how you experience your audio. Granted, totally worth watching Star Wars with this thing. 10/10 you feel like you get a pure experience and I don’t regret it.
Timbre… going with that filtered with capacitors sound on lower powered headphones or warmer headphones that mask some of the issues of the amplification stage. This amp in my experience I just call a tab bit cold. Maybe a bit dark. The timbre to me leaves me feeling like its analytical and kind up like vinyl/rubber coated is the best I can explain. I feel like the amp gets loud but the music doesn’t feel like it comes through the amp some of the transients just die. SUPER fast decay to the point of it being unnaturally fast and dampened. It’s as if the finest Sony Walkman has filtered the sound for your moderate displeasure.
Overall highs get harsh unless you have a warm headphone (Eikon on here balanced and Blon B20 are perfect examples on this amp) that can actually in my opinion make this amp sound pretty awesome. But if you have neutral, neutral bright, bright, or straight up analytical monsters… you’re going to hear the harshness on the highs. And the more power the headphones need, the worst it gets. Conversely my limited exposure to IEMs actually sound pretty amazing on the THX, but again limited exposure and lower powered stuff sounds better on this amp.
Finally… I have to say that out of all the gear I’ve owned… DACs seem to impact the THX the least. All the reviews of using the THX amps to try DACs… I get it, the smoothest most lifeless DACs will win everytime except a few VERY detailed and smooth presentation DACs (this Sagra as an example actually is pretty good given this amp). If anyone yells that “DACs don’t matter!” then look at their gear if it “measures” well. You will learn a lot more from people that have a bright amp, resolving amp, and a nice warm amp without compression. Someone with an RNHP will give you a lot information except for on impact and slam than I can right now with a THX. And finally, I’ll admit I bought the GS-X Mini and after listening to it, I feel like I got the amp I was promised with THX 887.
Sorry for the word salad stuck to the wall. Enjoy your music.
2 Likes
I make a huge bump on this topic because I just got myself a used THX 887 for 200€. I can compare it to my SMSL HO100.
My setup is as follow DX3 pro V2 (as dac) → RCA → monoprice → RCA (passthrough) → HO100
With that wiring, both amps are fed simultaneously with the same DAC.
I must say I’m quite happy with my purchase: the THX is flatter than the HO100, giving a better sense of space. So a 400€ amp of 2019 is still better than a 150€ amp of today 
there are 2 things that I notices though: dynamic range seems bigger with the HO100 (but it could be a byproduct of the FR), and if cymbals are less harsh on the THX, the “sh” and “ss” sounds can be way more sibilant. On the dynamic range subject, it can be a plus though, as the listening is easier.
So all in all, the THX887 is not quite a perfect amp yet; I hope using it balanced (in and out) will help with those defaults.
Edit: the controls feel way better on the HO100 (but it is subjective as I’m a sucker for those aviation style switches).