mhdt havana vs. monarchy nm24
Mar 3, 2009 at 11:24 PM Post #16 of 27
Quote:

Originally Posted by Zorlac /img/forum/go_quote.gif
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?



Don't let your previous experiences with oversampling DACs turn you off to the Monarchy. I had the same concerns coming from my old setup with a Zero DAC as I was sick of that "over-samply" sound. The Monarchy is the real deal and significantly under-priced considering everything you get IMHO.
 
Mar 4, 2009 at 1:50 AM Post #17 of 27
Quote:

Originally Posted by ciphercomplete /img/forum/go_quote.gif
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?



it's active. it's a 22-year-old meitner preamp. never saw a need to replace it since it sounds great with meitner monoblocks and has a good mc phono stage. but i find that adding another tubed layer through the monarchy line stage warms up my digital sources in particular.
 
Mar 4, 2009 at 3:04 AM Post #18 of 27
Quote:

Originally Posted by Zorlac /img/forum/go_quote.gif
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?


The Monarchy ships w/ NOS JAN tubes and I have not had a desire to swap them, even though I have a bunch of NOS 6DJ8/6922/6H23-EB tubes.
 
Dec 29, 2009 at 7:59 AM Post #21 of 27
My wife will not like your post...
smily_headphones1.gif
 
Mar 31, 2010 at 5:59 PM Post #23 of 27
Quote:

Originally Posted by himynameis /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I don't like digging up buried threads but in this case I think it's better this way.

Anybody out there that got a chance to compare the M24/NM24 with Havana (with a good tube)?


They are both great. I auditioned the Havana with a terrible tube and it still sounded pretty good. My friend whom I borrowed it from recently bought a Bendix(?) tube and while I have not tried it in my system it does sound very good in his system.

Both Dacs are warm both have slightly rolled off (or natural given your preference) top ends. Both have outstanding bass. I'd give the NM24 the very slight edge with midrange though.

The Monarchy is imo not as tube sensitive as the Havana but the thing is that you will be hard pressed to find a tube that sounds bad. The only tube I didn't like after long term listening was the JJ Teslas - too warm.

I can't see you being disappointed with either. Just pick the one that you can get the cheapest, unless you also need a pre/line amp which you would choose the Monarchy. The pre amp in the Monarchy is quite good.

Customer service-wise you will have to ship the Havana overseas if something goes wrong. With the Monarchy you just ship it to San Franciso --Mr. Poon the owner, is replacing a blown capacitor in mine for free -- and I bought it second-hand.
 
Mar 31, 2010 at 9:36 PM Post #25 of 27
Havana is 16bit DAC. so its 16/44~48?! I'm pretty sure.
In any case, I probably gonna get the NM24.
But I was also looking at the Northstar 192.... Looks pretty sweet as well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarKu /img/forum/go_quote.gif
@Zorlac
Havana is a Non-upsampling, non-oversampling up to 24/96. Combined with a Tube amp you will have a very analog, pleasing, fun to listen sound. I will never let go my Havana, love it
biggrin.gif



 
Apr 1, 2010 at 1:31 AM Post #26 of 27
Quote:

Originally Posted by btbluesky /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Havana is 16bit DAC. so its 16/44~48?! I'm pretty sure.
In any case, I probably gonna get the NM24.
But I was also looking at the Northstar 192.... Looks pretty sweet as well.


I think you are right. The Havana can recieve up to a 96khz signal but the dac chip it uses is definitely 16 bit.
 
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