well, i've been DAC-less for several months due to a very tactless move - I plugged my MSB to a vintage amp that has 110v running on the RCA input jacks !?&%$#! and burned the DAC!
after agonizing the loss for several months, I finally scored a Monarchy Audio 22B DAC last Dec and was able to pick it up from a friend in the US last week.
okay, here's some info on it and the reviews. i didn't really believe everything said on the reviews until i finally heard the unit for myself. it's all true!!!
http://www.monarchyaudio.com/DA22.htm
here's my set-up
Pioneer LDP (1995) -> Monarchy Audio DIP -> Monarchy Audio 22B DAC -> Audible Illusions Modulus I (1985) -> amp
digital cables: used an MSB optical, Monarch Audio coax and vdHul 1st coax
Impressions:
boy oh boy, huge 3D sounding with deep bass i never expected from my CDs. depth and layering all there. wow, what i've been missing all these months and years! but then, the MSB didn't sound as good, maybe just half as good. detail, transparency and dynamics....name it.
i spent a marathon 15 hours yesterday while burning out my jet lag, playing and listening with no digital fatigue! and am craving for more!
for amps, i used:
- Eico HF87 35wpc EL34's PP
- Dynaco ST70 with Sound Valves board and KT66 tubes (!!!)
- Dynaco ST35 17wpc EL84's PP
all these driving the SF Concerto which played very nicely even with the ST35. also tried the mini-Voigt Pipe using the 6"RS drivers and the JMLabs experimental Voigt using the Sony 4.5"
awesome DAC! i'm !
v d