[jsnyc]

wondering if anyone anywhere has heard these two tube dacs and can give me any impressions of their signatures compared to each other. please. i'll be your best friend forever.

 

[mrarroyo]

I wonder if any here would have both. They are not cheap at $1,000 and $1,600 respectively. I have the NM24 and I am very happy w/ it, it does everything I could as for and then some more.

 

[Zorlac]

I am interested in possibly buying one of these DACs.

Are they both NOS?

Doesnt the NM24 support 24bit sources as well as 16bit sources?

Anyone have some comparisons yet?

Thanks!

 

[mrarroyo]

The NM24 supports up to 24/96.

 

[ciphercomplete]

Wow, these were my final two as well. The only reason I picked up the Monarchy was because I got a super deal on it. I don't think you will be disappointed with either. I'd be very interested in hearing the impressions of someone who has heard both.

One plus for the Monarchy is that you are basically getting two DACs: a solid state and a tube dac. I prefer the tube DAC but the solid state is no slouch and is good to have as a reference once you start tube rolling.

 

[Zorlac]

I have looked on Monarchy's website and have emailed them, but I cannot seem to get a solid answer. Is the NM24 a non-upsampling/non-oversampling DAC?

 

[ciphercomplete]

Its non-upsampling, but you can use a upsampler between your source and the DAC. Up to 24/96.

It is a oversampling DAC.

 

[Zorlac]

I would really like to find a <$1,000 NOS DAC (non-upsampling/non-oversampling) that supports 16/44.1, 16/48 and 24/96. Seems like most NOS DACs do not support 24bit word length (aka bit depth).

 

[sacd lover]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrarroyo /img/forum/go_quote.gif I wonder if any here would have both. They are not cheap at $1,000 and $1,600 respectively. I have the NM24 and I am very happy w/ it, it does everything I could as for and then some more.

Monarchy has been selling the NM24 direct for $1080 for many months.

http://www.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cls....M24-tube/solid

 

[mrarroyo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sacd lover /img/forum/go_quote.gif Monarchy has been selling the NM24 direct for $1080 for many months. AudiogoN ForSale: Monarchy Audio NM24

I remember that ad, when I did a query prior to posting above I could not find it. Thus what I posted.

Guys the Monarchy is also a tube Line Stage. Whatever a line stage is.

 

[Zorlac]

Yeah, I just found out that price via email today. Very tempting now!

Oh, and CCPoon from Monarchy also said you can totally remove the tubes if you only use the Solid State DAC. I thought that was interesting. *shrug*

 

[jsnyc]

Don't think you want to remove those tubes. I originally configured my system to use the tube dac only. I liked it so much that instead of feeding my line out from my pre-existing preamplifier to my amplifiers, i fed it through the line stage in the monarchy and then ran from that line out to the amplifiers. that means my old preamp acts largely as a switch but its remote control also governs the system's volume, even though the monarchy has a master volume control.

so now all my sources -- phono, tuner, even casette deck -- are kissed by one set of tubes and the music server (apple tv) by both sets in the monarchy. this is the only real modification i've made to my system in more than 20 years and i'm really really pleased with it.

 

[howlndog]

FWIW, I have the Monarchy and absolutely love it.

 

[Zorlac]

I really wish the Monarchy was NOS.

Do you NM24 owners feel that the tubes need to be upgraded like a lot of Havana owners seem to be doing?

 

[ciphercomplete]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jsnyc /img/forum/go_quote.gif Don't think you want to remove those tubes. I originally configured my system to use the tube dac only. I liked it so much that instead of feeding my line out from my pre-existing preamplifier to my amplifiers, i fed it through the line stage in the monarchy and then ran from that line out to the amplifiers. that means my old preamp acts largely as a switch but its remote control also governs the system's volume, even though the monarchy has a master volume control.

Nice! I am currently planning a speaker rig and had not thought of a configuration like this.

Is your pre-existing preamp active or passive?