HELP: is Monarchy Audio DAC a good idea?

I am currently using the 18B with a meridian 500 transport with excellent results and running it directly to the amp. I would say that the sound is good, however i prefer when I have a preamp hooked up. I am not an expert, but I think the extra amplification of the signal the preamp gives makes it sound better to me. A little deeper, more refined and more dynamic with my preamp.

Keep in mind that this is system dependent and to answer your question: Will the 18B offer great preformance? YES. Will it be better than a high end preamp like a rowland synergy or anything like that? To me, NO. It seems to lose a bit.

I think that what one gains by using an active preamp is dynamic headroom and the potential for "better" loading. Much of this can be negated and bypassed if the output of the DAC or CD player is rated for the same appr voltage that a preamp would produce i.e. way above 2 volts AND the impedances between the DAC and input of the amp are taken into account.

Even though most amps would be roaring with 2 volts fed into them from a normal line level output on a steady state basis, that does not mean that the simultaneous peaks that may last microseconds would be reproduced at full amplitude. That is, if the output of the one box player or dac is limited to 2 volts as a max output level. In other words, the dynamic status of music "may" require higher output than what a standard line level output may be able to provide on a short term basis. Adding an additional gain stage between the DAC and amp and the associated headroom that comes with further amplification ( the active preamp ) may be why things sound more dynamic. The fact that this also alters the impedance that the source sees and adds a "buffer" in terms of the signal that is modulated back to the source from the amp may also come into play. I say this as i've read more than a few statements to the effect of things sounding "cleaner", "more focused", "more resolving", "increased body and weight" etc.. with a preamp hooked up.

Keep in mind that all of this is just an educated guess. I arrived at these conclusions from playing around with a DAC that can provide 4.5 volts rms. This DAC has standard line outs to feed a preamp along with another set of outputs that are fed from a stepped attenuator for direct feed to an amp. I could hear no difference in performance when switching from "direct drive" with the DAC & built in stepped attenuators feeding directly into the amp and when i went to the dac using the outputs that bypassed the stepped attenuators into the preamp and amp. This tells me that the dac had no problems driving the amp and there were no problems with loading. It also tells me that the preamp is extremely faithful to the source and did not contribute or detract from what it was being fed. Both situations made me happy to say the least. I kept the preamp hooked up as the added versatility of multiple inputs was a necessity for me in that system. Sean
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Thanks for Phild's response. I never thought of matching input/output issue before! From Platsolos and Sean's reply it looks like Monarchy 18B is ok in terms of directly driving power amps.

OK, I will go with 18B.

Interestingly, Monarchy Audio company is right in the neigherhood of where I work in South San Francisco! I can almost see their building from my office. A couple weeks ago I went to their office and briefly talked to their chief engineer C. C. Poon and auditioned the 18M. Frankly speaking I can't tell it sounds good or bad since my ears are NOT well trained (yet). But the build quality is obviously excellent! I trust all the user reviews and the advices from you guys. (plus it is on sale for $299 new!)

Again, big thanks to Sean, Phild, Platsolos, Tacs, Billhansen !!!!!! You guys are cool.

Abe

I would auditon a Monarchy DIP at the same time. I have a monarchy 22 DAC which I drive from the SPDIF output of my Marantz CD67se. The Monarchy DACs do not reclock the input to remove jitter, so when I added the DAC to my CD player there was not much improvement (since the marantz players have quite poor jitter measurements, and the jitter is really the limiting effect on sound quality). However adding the DIP between the CD67 and the 22DAC really improved the clarity and imaging. IF you can do an audition USING YOUR EXISTING DVD player then you might want to try adding the DIP.

As an added bonus the DIP will convert toslink to SPDIF (RCA) to drive the DAC.

Bear in mind that if you audition this (non-reclocking) DAC using an expensive transport then it will likely sound much worse when you take it home and drive with your DVD player due to the jitter on the output of the DVD. The performance gap may be significantly closed by using a DIP. I would strongly suggest auditioning using your DVD player.

I used to be really skeptical of "tweaks" like the DIP, but not any more.

Seandtaylor99:

Thanks for the tip. I am still skeptical about this jitter and DIP thing. I am an electrical/computer engineer and haven't been 100% convinced technically yet. Still searching for 'truth' and probable will convert soon :-)

Abe