dac choice

I'm using the Monarchy M24 now and have also recently put in Siemens NOS goldpin tubes (after about 3 weeks of the stock Sylvania tubes). This DAC has surprised me and may stay in my system. I have not tried the linestage and probably won't as running it through my passive preamp is working well at this time.

While I find the build quality to be very good overall, I think the push buttons on the front have a cheezy feel to them. I also leave the blue light that illuminates the sampling rate off. The sound on the top end still appears to be ever so grainy and bright, especially versus my non-os DAC, but the Monarchy does quite a bit more things right that outweigh this very minor detail.

Hello , what means " a new benchmark Dac 1 "

I think they changed op amps in March of 2006.

I am very interested in this thread. Has no one heard the VAC2?

Also - and I've asked this before - the Pacific Valve modded Lite Audio DAC 62 is based on the same platform as the Monarchy M24. It uses a different DAC, but a well-regarded one. It omits the preamp section and volume control, and sells for $750. Unlike Monarchy Audio, both Channel Islands and Pacific Valve offer 30-day return options (100% from CI and through several of its mail order sellers, and 97% refund from Pacific Valve).

For me, the problem is that the Monarchy seems to be almost universally favored over other DACs in this price category, but I am afraid that I will be unhappy once I get it into my rig - something that has happened before. I kknow the resale value of the M24 is quite high, but still, it makes me more nervous than a good return policy (i.e., little or no restock fee).

Actually the M24 and Lite DAC 50 (no longer in production I believe) share more in common.

http://www.positive-feedback.com/Issue25/monarchy_m24.htm

I was a bit hesitant to try the M24, as CC Poon indicated there was a 15% restocking fee if I returned it. However, I'm glad I did. This is an excellent DAC for the money and a steal used. The new version has both the tube and solid state output so you can switch between both.