Improve sound - 67SE bypass DC1?

How about one of the Monarchy DACs with a volume control ... I think the 22C is the good one. I have an old old 22A attached to my 67SE and it's a substantial improvement. However, as I said in the other thread the improvement is only realized with the addition of the Monarchy DIP, since the 67SE digital output has too much jitter in its raw form. Unless you get either a DIP or a reclocking DAC the 67SE makes a lousy transport in my experience.

Phil --

I'm not personally familiar with the 67SE, but I'd say that you should DEFINITELY bypass the DC-1. I have a DC-1/S9000ES combo, and I get much better results not using the Lexicon for 2-channel playback.

What I did is to use the 9000ES's internal DACs (which are pretty good) and send its analog output to a Channel Islands VPC-1 passive preamp ($220 new), then feed that to the amplifier. The nice thing about the passive preamp is that it's simple to integrate with the Lexicon for HT playback -- just turn the volume on the VPC-1 up the whole way, and it disappears from the signal chain, allowing the Lex to drive all the volume just the way it should. The VPC-1 has two inputs (one for the 9000ES, one for the L/R main outputs from the Lexicon). If you have more than one 2-channel source, though, you'll need a preamp with more inputs.

Pat