Well, I have now had the Squeezebox Touch playing through the Monarchy 48/96 Dip and then through my Cary 306 Pro Dac (24/96) for about 2 weeks .
The first few days I was convinced that the Monarchy unit was actually inferior to just running the Touch digital directly into my Cary Dac. I even called Monarchy asking if the unit requires some break in time. CC Poon said NO it is all digital "no breakin in time required".
Well, in my opinion it does need some break in. I let it play 24 hours a day for about 5 days playing a Purist Audio break in disc.
Now after 2 weeks I can say that the unit sounds much better. But I am not sure if it is still much of an improvement over just running the digital out from the Touch to my Dac.
Sometimes, I think there is a difference in the bass and soundstage presentation, but after switching back to the Touch direct to my Dac there was no loss of any improvements.
So, perhaps there needs to be more break in time, perhaps the Touch digital signal is so good that the Monarchy Dip is not necessary.
I will give it a few more days.
Anyone else have any thoughts or suggestions?
I will add that I am using a Morrow Dig4 cable to my Dac and Illuminati D60 from the Touch to the Monarchy Dip.
The first few days I was convinced that the Monarchy unit was actually inferior to just running the Touch digital directly into my Cary Dac. I even called Monarchy asking if the unit requires some break in time. CC Poon said NO it is all digital "no breakin in time required".
Well, in my opinion it does need some break in. I let it play 24 hours a day for about 5 days playing a Purist Audio break in disc.
Now after 2 weeks I can say that the unit sounds much better. But I am not sure if it is still much of an improvement over just running the digital out from the Touch to my Dac.
Sometimes, I think there is a difference in the bass and soundstage presentation, but after switching back to the Touch direct to my Dac there was no loss of any improvements.
So, perhaps there needs to be more break in time, perhaps the Touch digital signal is so good that the Monarchy Dip is not necessary.
I will give it a few more days.
Anyone else have any thoughts or suggestions?
I will add that I am using a Morrow Dig4 cable to my Dac and Illuminati D60 from the Touch to the Monarchy Dip.