Hello and welcome to Tech Syndicate, I'm Rooster here, and I want to start by saying that I have a bit of an "evil twin brother" who is also interested in tech. He's not as good-looking as me, but he's got his own thing going on. Let's just say we won't be comparing ourselves too much today.
As you can see, my desk has a new resident, the Mono Price 25 Watt Hybrid Tube Amp. I've been enjoying it for the past couple of days, and I have to say, it's been a great addition to my tech collection. This amp is exactly what it says on the tin - it's a hybrid amp that combines solid state and tube technology. It's got a two preamp stage, which gives it a warm sound that I think will appeal to many music enthusiasts.
Let's take a closer look at the front of the unit. You'll notice the power button, treble and bass knobs, as well as a headphone jack and a volume control with an LED meter that shows you the intensity of whatever you're listening to. There's also a CD or Bluetooth selector switch - yes, this amp has Bluetooth 4.0, which is great for connecting my phone and streaming music wirelessly. I have to admit, I'm not always a fan of Bluetooth audio, but I've been pleasantly surprised with how well this works.
According to Mono Price, the Bluetooth stream is improved thanks to the aptX codec, which reduces data loss and compression artifacts. I've used this amp with Bluetooth on my phone, and while it's not perfect, it sounds great - a bit warm, but definitely worth listening to. The only downside I can think of is that the low end suffers a bit, but for me, that's not enough to make me dislike it.
I want to talk about the preamp stage now, which is really doing its thing and adding warmth to the sound. The two 4-inch drivers on the speaker are also a great addition - they project quite well, despite being rated at only 50 watts each. I've been playing around with this amp for the past couple of days, and I'm pleasantly surprised with how it sounds.
One thing that's worth mentioning is that these speakers come with some fancy audio cables - they're 10ft long, and have excellent braiding on them. If you want to connect your speaker to a separate amplifier or receiver, these cables are a great option.
Now, let's take a closer look at the monitors themselves. They're bookshelf speakers, which means they're compact and don't take up too much space. The drivers project quite well, despite being only 4 inches in diameter - they're rated at 50 watts each, so there's more than enough room for the amp to really push out through these puppies.
The materials used to build these monitors seem a bit higher-end than I expected - the exterior is made of some kind of hardened plastic with a vertical texture on one side and horizontal on the other. It's not MDF, but it doesn't bother me too much - in fact, I rather like it. The 4-inch drivers are clearly visible through the grille, and they look pretty impressive.
Overall, I'm really pleased with these monitors - they're doing a great job of reproducing the sound from the amp. They come with two 25-watt drivers, which makes them perfect for this bundle package. If you want to get your hands on one of these amps and speakers, check out the link in the description below.
Thanks for watching, and be sure to check us out on the website, forums, and Twitter - we've got all sorts of tech-related goodies to share with you. Don't forget to like and subscribe for more content, and see you guys in the next video!
"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enall righty hey there guys rooster here for Tech Syndicate and just to get it out of the way those of you that may claim you see me before in some prior you know Tech syate content I have a bit of an evil bit manag of a twin brother and that's not me so even aspires to be just like me beard and all he's a little so let's not even wear about that go beyond that and focus on what we have here to talk about today so here in its final resting place on my desk um and I got to say I've enjoying it for the past couple of days is the mono price 25 watt hybrid tube amp now that's exactly what it is hybrid it's a bit of solid state and it's got a two preamp state it give you a bit more warmth you know Rich sound on depending what it is that you listen to so without further Ado let's go ahead and look at the front of the unit you get the ybas power button treble and Bas knobs you got your headphone jack your Vu or volume unit meter lets you know the intensity of whatever it is that you're listening to it's going to jump up and down and do all kinds of pretty stuff then you have your CD or Bluetooth selector switch that's right Bluetooth this actually has Bluetooth 4.0 along with an aptx codec according to Mono price which actually improves the Bluetooth stream I've never been much of a fan for Bluetooth audio myself you know there's a lot of loss of data there depends and you know the compression but I have to say I've enjoyed using this amp with Bluetooth on my phone and uh I got to say it sounds pretty freaking good and I can tell the low end suffers a little bit but not enough for me to really just give this a negative not enough for the Bluetooth on this device to be a con now I did say this is a hybrid amp solid state with the two preamp stage this comes with 6 m2s and 6 p15 uh PRM tws for that warm richness that thanks to that stage as I said now I've been a musician for give or take 20 years and I've used a lot of tube and some more sopur guitars and we're talking el34s I believe or el84s I forget now it's been a while but we're talking power tubes versus just preamp so these I don't quite know off the top of my head but judging from what I've heard so far the preamp is really doing its thing it's really adding to the richness of the sound depending what you listen to now I do say that it's adding richness to the sound but that's going to be subjective it depends what you like and everyone's different they your ears your eyes how you perceive FPS in a game may not be such as person B but I have to say though thus far I'm really enjoying this amp so aside from the Bluetooth we do go ahead and turn around to the back and you have the one input which is going to be your CD auxiliary input whatever ever you really want it to be as long as you can get RCA in there and then you have all your terminals for your speakers for your outputs which this did come as a bundle by the way with mono Price's 4-in monitors which we'll talk about in a moment so you know I didn't say in the beginning which I did in like five other takes before this but this does have a great vintage classic feel you mixed with modern with a modern aesthetic and I really like that and it almost has some kind of sex appeal to it now the glossy nature of it though can be a bit of a fingerprint magnet and it's going to make dust stand out more but more than likely you're not going to be touching it all the time especially in the glossy areas you're going to be putting this somewhere like a desk bookshelf a small living area not a big living room to watch movies with and whatnot cuz this isn't that big of a booming system to be using that in that scenario it's not for that you know uh small living area Your Den it gets pretty loud it punches out pretty uh pretty well but I wouldn't recommend that this is going to replace your home stereo uh home theater system anytime soon so I did say this has Bluetooth the antenna is going to be in the back that is supplied in the package you going to go ahead and screw that in and uh just angle it upward it's not not so much like Wi-Fi you got to point it this way that way it doesn't really matter just point it up and you'll be fine granted you don't want to point it outward because you're going to be scooting up more than likely against something and that's just going to lessen the amount of area you have ah the taste of the blood of my fall enemies all right so I did say that this comes with uh this was in fact a bundle it comes with two 4-in monitors these are mono prices select 4-in two-way bookshelf speakers and it did come with some fancy schmancy 10ft Affinity audio cables which I got to say the braing on those things are just excellent I mean hey you have a younger little brother or something annoying little brother or cousin or something you want to tie him up on the weekend so he shuts up and leaves you alone go for it but yeah so here we have the monitors themselves they are bookshelf speakers they uh don't weigh that much really I wondered about the construction um at first the first glance when I unpackaged them they did seem not cheap but just I just I can't quite pinpoint the material I don't think it's MDF it just seems like a hardened plastic with this texture kind of vertical texture vertical here and then obviously horizontal on the top and you know after further scrutiny it doesn't really bother me that much I kind of like it but here you have your 4-in driver you got a tweeter but they do project quite a bit these are rated at 50 wats by the way so we have more than enough room there for that amp to really push out through these puppies so like I said I've been messing with this for the past couple of days and I'm pleasantly surprised with how it sounds uh the Bluetooth audio even that has really changed my mind as to what I expect from Bluetooth Bluetooth 4.0 granted the previous iterations probably a bit more data loss there so uh if you have an older device maybe you'll experience a little bit more I mean you know lesser quality than I have I'm not sure I don't have an older device to double check but um yeah paired with these monitors as this bundle with the cables these monitors this puppy's doing really nice and I like it I'm going to keep using it for a while till it blows up or something I don't know but yeah mind you they are tubes they do get a little bit warm but just don't be freaking touching them unless uh clearly they need to be replaced and the models of the tubes are on mono pric site so if you need to find that out it is right there so speaking of that all the perent information guys is in the description below but come hang out with us on the website tea.com say hey to us on the forums I'm there Logan's there we're all there and check us out on Twitter if you'd like as well you know tech support you know check out all these links click all that stuff and uh yeah so check it out monoprice.com 25 wat hybrid tube amp look for the bundle you'll see it with speakers and whatnot so see you guys in the next one and thanks for watching\n"