Is the Monarchy DIP effective?

Postscript to my earlier post: I also had a Sigma II 24/96 and it had the CS8414 receiver chip. The results using a DIP with this DAC (coaxial digital - not toslink) were slightly noticable, but undramatic, and undetectable with a quality transport. By the way, the current jitter boxes still use PLL to some extent, so it should not be discounted as passe. The difference is that the new boxes use a high precision second reclocking stage that the DIP does not.

Would the Sony 7700 dvd be considered a good transport with low jitter?

I am not familiar enough with that machine to say. If you can ever get a response from them, you may want to try asking Sony or perhaps your dealer. Jitter is a more mainstream design issue than it was five or six years ago, so I would think all manufacturers consider jitter attenuation within their price point constraints. I have a CEC transport, which I know has low design jitter. By the way, don't overlook your cables as an additional jitter source. Improper cabling can add tons of it via reflection.

Happened to open my dac earlier and noticed that it uses the CS 8414.I'm using a Cardas 300b digital cable between the dvd and dac that was included in the sale. Haven't done any comparison yet but, considering the Better Cable ultra digital cable. What dac and digital cable are you using? Think I'll try to call Sony and find out the specs for the jitter. Thanks, Bradz

I'm presently using an Assemblage DAC 3.1 with D2D-1 connected with an I2Se cable. Transport to D2D-1 is a one meter Illuminations DV-75 RCA. I've actually got an extra DV-75 that I was considering selling, as I'm on the lookout for AES/EBU digital right now. Cardas makes a good cable, though. For the Sigma II, you don't need a super premium cable - a good one will do. Also, give some thought to trying an NOS 5751 in place of the 12AX7. A Raytheon 5751 really transforms this DAC. Tube World occasionally has them for around $20. A bigger pop than spending $300 on a digital cable. Also, clean the tube pins with DeOxit for an extra "tweak".