I was HIGHLY skeptical about the Monarchy DIP but recently tried a DIP Classic (no upsampling) in my system and was very impressed with the results. I use a Monarchy DAC 24 with Matsushita tubes, Ayre AX7e and Green Mountain Europas, either an inexpensive Integra player or Cambridge audio DVD player for transports.
The results were as dramatic as changing tubes. The separation and clarity was increased, vocals in harmony became much clearer, cymbals more sonorous, and room reverberation or reverb sounded much more integrated. I did not experience this as a softening of transients, more like a layer of grit being scraped away. Another audiophile describes this as a window that had been cleaned.
As I said, I was very skeptical and spent a lot of time doing real time switching comparisons with a variety of music.
It does seem as though this function should be built into a well designed DAC. My understanding is that the newer DAC chips that parellel inputs do not have significant jitter issues.
The results were as dramatic as changing tubes. The separation and clarity was increased, vocals in harmony became much clearer, cymbals more sonorous, and room reverberation or reverb sounded much more integrated. I did not experience this as a softening of transients, more like a layer of grit being scraped away. Another audiophile describes this as a window that had been cleaned.
As I said, I was very skeptical and spent a lot of time doing real time switching comparisons with a variety of music.
It does seem as though this function should be built into a well designed DAC. My understanding is that the newer DAC chips that parellel inputs do not have significant jitter issues.