For sale today is a Monica2 DAC that I built.
Condition: Pristine, I finished the final case work last night. It had been housed in a temporary case for testing and burn-in.
DAC Specs: Philips 1545A based non-oversampling DAC w/ all hand matched components. All of the recommended premium parts used including Wima, OsCon, Panansonic FM and Blackgate caps (in the signal path). Wiring is Belden teflon-coated, silver-plated copper for all of the signal wiring and silver bearing solder was used for all the connections on the PCB. Also, both the DAC and oscillator are mounted on gold dip sockets so you can roll in other components if you want to play around.
Power Specs: Runs off a 12V wallwart regulated by a TREAD for good, clean power.
How's it sound?: Well, to my ears pretty darn fantastic for the price (more on that later). I've been listening to one of these for the last couple of months and had one out on loan to a friend to try as well. We were both able to compare the DAC to $1000+ DVD players and found that Monica held her own. I currently use one as my home source with my modded Toshiba 3950 as the transport and I have to say that I like it quite a bit. I like it enough that I've ended my search for a source.
Pictures:
INTERNAL WIRING
FRONT PANEL (power switch, blue signal lock led, red power led)
BACK PANEL (analog outputs, digital input, DC in)
WORKING LIKE A CHARM
Price: $200 shipped (CONUS) using whatever payment method the buyer would prefer. This is the cost of the parts that it took to build it. Couple this DAC with any cheap transport and you should have a killer budget rig.
Please PM with any questions and as always feel free to check my feedback.
Nate
Condition: Pristine, I finished the final case work last night. It had been housed in a temporary case for testing and burn-in.
DAC Specs: Philips 1545A based non-oversampling DAC w/ all hand matched components. All of the recommended premium parts used including Wima, OsCon, Panansonic FM and Blackgate caps (in the signal path). Wiring is Belden teflon-coated, silver-plated copper for all of the signal wiring and silver bearing solder was used for all the connections on the PCB. Also, both the DAC and oscillator are mounted on gold dip sockets so you can roll in other components if you want to play around.
Power Specs: Runs off a 12V wallwart regulated by a TREAD for good, clean power.
How's it sound?: Well, to my ears pretty darn fantastic for the price (more on that later). I've been listening to one of these for the last couple of months and had one out on loan to a friend to try as well. We were both able to compare the DAC to $1000+ DVD players and found that Monica held her own. I currently use one as my home source with my modded Toshiba 3950 as the transport and I have to say that I like it quite a bit. I like it enough that I've ended my search for a source.
Pictures:
INTERNAL WIRING
FRONT PANEL (power switch, blue signal lock led, red power led)
BACK PANEL (analog outputs, digital input, DC in)
WORKING LIKE A CHARM
Price: $200 shipped (CONUS) using whatever payment method the buyer would prefer. This is the cost of the parts that it took to build it. Couple this DAC with any cheap transport and you should have a killer budget rig.
Please PM with any questions and as always feel free to check my feedback.
Nate
