I purchased a Sony ES player back in the 80's....done good player. But I got back into Hi End about a year ago. I felt that there had to be improvements made...so I wanted to keep my Sony 707 as a transport...A stand alone DAC was next on the list. Tubes or SS...well I read everything I could on the net...my Budget being about 1200....I chose a Monarchy dac....hooked it up....very good. I changed out the stock tubes for NOS Amperex...now that was a significant upgrade. The best was yet to come....swithed out the coupling caps....that did the trick. I'm done...as this dac now produces silky smooth,dynamic and crystal clear sound...all for 1500 not bad.
What the benifit of using a separate dac?
Hi, I have a Sim Audio Moon Exclipse Cd Player, my question is what's the benifit of using a separate DAC, when do you know that your player is out dated to the point that you need to upgrade or are you better to use a external dac.Using the digital out put of the cd player are you by passing all internal clock and dac's etc, then the player becomes just a transport? Is there is a benifit to be gained by doing this, what sort of dac would you look for, what the differance between the better brands? I currently have Pass labs X1 pre and x350.5 power, mit 3.1 speaker cables, 2.2 interconnects and Talon firebird speaker, Iam only interested in red book, would be great if any body could shed some light on this subject for me.