[bobeau]

Hey Guys,

I'm thinking about giving the Ack! Dack! a go, but I need a toslink input and some jitter reduction/upsampling couldn't hurt either.

I know the Monarchys can be had used for a bit more than $100 but I can't find any now, and would feel a bit foolish paying the $250 new.

Any other products like this I should look for?

 

[kontai69]

FWIW,
I tried a Monarchy DIP Classic between my cheap Sony DVD player and Ack! dAck! 2.0. I used coax cables throughout. I was disappointed to find that the DIP noticably "compressed" the sound, to my ears. The 24/96 upsampling version may be better.

 

[clarke68]

The Theta Time Linque Conditioner is the same type of thing...no upsampling, tho. Good review here.

As you'll read in the review, it has a grounding issue that reduces it's effectiveness when you use a coaxial input, but for toslink in/coaxial out it has the best jitter performance of the bunch.

I actually have one in quite good condition I could let go for around $100, drop me a PM if you're interested.

 

[elnero]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobeau Hey Guys, I'm thinking about giving the Ack! Dack! a go, but I need a toslink input and some jitter reduction/upsampling couldn't hurt either. I know the Monarchys can be had used for a bit more than $100 but I can't find any now, and would feel a bit foolish paying the $250 new. Any other products like this I should look for?

Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of having a non-oversamling DAC?

 

[bobeau]

I dunno, does it?

Maybe the upsampling does, but handing it bit-perfect stream with less jitter should be no different than using a better transport, no?

 

[elnero]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobeau I dunno, does it? Maybe the upsampling does, but handing it bit-perfect stream with less jitter should be no different than using a better transport, no?

Sorry, I was referring mainly to the Upsampling.

 

[bobeau]

Quote:

Originally Posted by elnero Sorry, I was referring mainly to the Upsampling.

Well this Theta unit looks good so I'll give it a go. My main concern is simply being able to use the DAC. It will be interesting to see what kind of effect it will have on my Dialogue II while I wait for a used Ack! 2.0 to hit the market.

 

[elnero]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobeau Well this Theta unit looks good so I'll give it a go. My main concern is simply being able to use the DAC. It will be interesting to see what kind of effect it will have on my Dialogue II while I wait for a used Ack! 2.0 to hit the market.

This will be good, I can live vicariously through you.

I'll definately be interested to hear the results of not only the Theta but the Ack Dack 2.0 as well. I've been trying to get some feedback to get an idea of how the Dialogue II performs and whether it might be worth it to try and save some pennies to upgrade to one of the other NOS DAC's.

 

[bobeau]

Interesting... a used V2.0 hi-rez Ack just showed up on Audiogon and I snatched it up.

I appear to be leaking money like a sieve, but I'm pretty sure the A3 is going back on the used market and that action will recoup a substantial portion (I have a buncha other stuff I need to dump as well). Oversampling DACs just aren't my style.

So then, how will a $200 Taiwanese NOS DAC compare to a $900 US one...

 

[Carl]

Isn't the Monarchy just an asyncronious sample rate converter chip in a box?

 

[bobeau]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carl Isn't the Monarchy just an asyncronious sample rate converter chip in a box?

And reclocker... but as I said my main reason is so I can interface with with an Ack! Dack! I am using PC as a transport.

 

[Jeff]

The GW Labs DSP does that all too. I use one, and it does add a bit of air to the upsampled stream. Though that can be considered a bad thing, because it could just be some added distortion.

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeff The GW Labs DSP does that all too. I use one, and it does add a bit of air to the upsampled stream. Though that can be considered a bad thing, because it could just be some added distortion.

I've found that the Monarchy DIP and GW Labs DSP actually work very well together. They use different methodologies to reduce jitter, and the combination does a much better job than either alone, at least in terms of final sound quality. A Monarchy DIP needs to come first if using them as a chain. Note: Monarchy makes a resampler that does the same thing as the GW Labs DSP. My suspicion is that the same series of components would worth using that. If a unit reclocks the signal, put it after a jitter reducer.

I've had good and bad results using a Monarchy DIP alone. I suspect that a lot depends on decent power, and how well it combines with other components in the chain.

I was never able to really the Theta Time Linque do anything. I sold mine several years ago. It would be interesting to hear one again, with newer higher resolution DAC's.

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bobeau And reclocker... but as I said my main reason is so I can interface with with an Ack! Dack! I am using PC as a transport.

The Monarchy DIP does not reclock. For that, you would use the DIP upsampler, which appears identical to the GW Labs DSP. See my post above.

The information on using these devices together came directly from Monarchy, and I found that using them as described did indeed produce the best results.