Monoprice Monolith Two-Channel Stereo Power Amplifier - Black with 2x200 Watt Per Channel, XLR Inputs, for Home Theater & Studio

The amplifier offers great quality for a great price. Extremely low distortion Class AB 7 channel solid-state amplifier. I has to massive toroidal transformers the unlike may other the circuit board an wiring is clean and well organized. It is well passively cooled as long as you leave proper airspace around it. The only down side is it weighs a lot, probably to heavy for most in wall rack mounts but fine for most floor standing av shelfs. you may need a second person to help you lift out of the box and on to a shelf. As far as people saying that the amplifier has a low hum distortion. They probably have a ground loop hum. It can caused by many things. I had one originally it traced it to my tv coax cable connecting to my cable box the ground loop was being carried from the coax line to my cable box and carried over to my receiver and then to my amplifier causing the hum on my speakers. I fixed it by putting a ground loop filter between my coax line and my cable box. Another step you can take to prevent ground loop hums it to run a ground wire from the ground terminal screw on the amp to the ground terminal screw on your receiver or preamp. The amp sounds great and has a lot of power, I originally was running MA700 Marantz mono block amps rated at 200 watts rms but even though the monolith amp is rated at 200 watts rms per channel as well i had to lower my volume by 10 -15 db as was much louder at the same volume level, too loud like it hurt my ears loud at the same volume level, and this is coming from some one who plays their movies in their home theater loud, usually get asked by other viewing with me to turn it down some.

I bought the 2 channel version to accompany my Marantz SR7009 if I want to have a stereo session. I used Pangea 14se mk2 power cables for both this amplifier and my Marantz. This amplifier is heavy, you can see the toroidal transformer and a giant heat sink for each channel through the top peephole. Definitely a quality amplifier that is made (designed and assembled) in the USA. It is easily driving my Dynaudio dm3/7 which is a hard speaker to drive with 4ohm impedance, 86db sensitivity, and IEC power handling of >200W+. This unit does not get hot at all, even after hours of usage. This is definitely an audiophile quality amplifier. The power remote cable is convenient feature, it is connected to my Marantz so I don't have to keep turning both units on and off. I was comparing this to Schiit Vidar, I ended up returning my Schiit Vidar and I am not looking back.Update1:I swap my source to MacBook pro/ps audio gcd and this amp sings beautifully. This amp is only as good as the source that you put in. This is definitely an audiophile-grade amplifier. My reference is Luxman 550axii & McIntosh ma252.Update2 (3/2/2020):I have changed my setup to a near field desktop setup, I am using this amplifier with Sonus Faber Chameleon and Aune T1 with Siemens cca tube buffer. My Marantz SR7009 was the bottleneck as it could not deliver a higher resolution sound. I have finally found synergy with the above combination. Depending on what you are looking for in a sound as an "audiophile", this amplifier can deliver a sound resolution that matches 5x the price. I do not have a single regret buying this amplifier.Update 3 (5/19/2020):I just acquired magnepan 1.7i recently and two of my integrated amplifiers (mcintosh & luxman) did not seem to bring the 1.7i to life. I swapped it with monoprice and its sheer power brought my 1.7i to a whole new different level. I use schiit sys as preamp and htpc with evga nu audio pro installed as source.

I bought the 3-channel version to drive the 4-ohm THX-ultra main LCR speakers for my home theater project. It does exactly what it should: delivers clean, distortion free power at reference volume levels.An AVR’s class D amplification can be great for 8-ohm loads and surround channels, but just isn’t up to the task of driving 4-ohm loads at the power levels needed for front speakers.This class A-B amp has headroom to spare, powers on and off without any trace of thump or pop, and does its job for hours on end without breaking a sweat. After a recent 10-hour movie marathon, this amp was barely warm to the touch, a testament to the importance of construction and mass (about 70 pounds.)Although not a cheap solution, this amp is a good value compared to its peer class A-B amps of this caliber.In my setup, the Audessey calibration showed only a -2db volume adjustment was needed for the fronts using this amp, so the reference level of amplification was perfectly matched for my application.If you’re building a home theater, don’t scrimp on the power source for your main speakers. Adequate power makes all the difference to the experience of your theater, and the performance and longevity of your speakers.

I rate this amplifier quite highly for its performance. If it didn't have a hum from the left channel I would rate it 5 stars. For full disclosure, I contacted Monoprice on 12/19/2022 and they will replace the unit but the expected date to have replacements is December 5, 2023. I'm not certain why they won't have me return it for repair. Only replacement. Now on February 2, 2023 the right channel quit working. I can't return it through Amazon and the manufacturer has no replacement. Pretty awful if you ask me. I’m left holding a100 pound paper weight that cost me more than $2,400.