[JoshG1217]

Its on sale right now, FYI. After doing more listening and in absolute terms compared to higher priced units It is flat sounding, especially in the lower mid bass. Its quite musical, but lacks slam. Not a bad thing in the right setup. The 4499 is very different from the other velvet sound DACs, so be aware of that. I think the biggest disappointment is this does not have the Cavalli house sound. Its a great dac at $499, though!

Yeah, I bought on sale plus coupon code. Was $425! I haven't heard 4499. My current dac has 9068 chip. I tend to like saber. Will see. I can mix and match as I'll have an smsl stack and a LP stack.

 

[jonathan c]

Its on sale right now, FYI. After doing more listening and in absolute terms compared to higher priced units It is flat sounding, especially in the lower mid bass. Its quite musical, but lacks slam. Not a bad thing in the right setup. The 4499 is very different from the other velvet sound DACs, so be aware of that. I think the biggest disappointment is this does not have the Cavalli house sound. Its a great dac at $499, though!

Why would you expect a DAC to have the ‘house sound’ of an amplifier designer?

 

[audioguru1]

Why would you expect a DAC to have the ‘house sound’ of an amplifier designer?

Because in my listening experience, the analog output components typically play a significant role in the overall sound.

 

[JoshG1217]

Lp arrived yesterday! Now I've got my LP stack and it sounds darn good! Interestingly, I have to turn the knob on the amp way down vs my smsl, which I kept around 50, and then maxed out LP amp. The LP dac doesn't have a preamp, so knob stays about 12 o clock on amp now. As far as the 4499 akm dac vs the 9068 ess dac, I'm not sure I notice much. I need to do more A/B. It seemed like akm maybe had more distortion on the bass, but I don't know of that even makes sense for a DAC (definitely not part of thr audio science crowd that reviews measurements rather than enjoying music). I'll test some more, but I like them. Also upgraded tubes yesterday. Not sure I can tell much difference there either. I guess I'll just need ro burn everything in for 7000 hours and buy a $800 usb cable. That will probably do the trick.

 

[Poimandres]

Not a whole lot of info out there on these. Likely due to the delay(s) and cost. With the current sale and promo you can snag this for a little over $400 plus tax.

Anyone have additional thoughts to share on this dac?

 

[dweekie]

Not a whole lot of info out there on these. Likely due to the delay(s) and cost. With the current sale and promo you can snag this for a little over $400 plus tax.

Anyone have additional thoughts to share on this dac?

No additional thoughts, but now it's even cheaper with the 20% coupon.

 

[audioguru1]

Not a whole lot of info out there on these. Likely due to the delay(s) and cost. With the current sale and promo you can snag this for a little over $400 plus tax.

Anyone have additional thoughts to share on this dac?

Even with the coupon price (thanks! A great coupon) the Topping L70 velvet has the newer AK4499EX, and isn’t much more money.

 

[eeagle]

So I decided to take the plunge and pick up this Monolith by Monoprice Liquid Platinum Balanced DAC during the recent discounts mostly to match my Platinum Amp. I will admit I have a difficult time telling DACs apart let alone the turning available on most of them. I use the DAC with a PC via USB to play hi res FLAC files and was surprised when I fist hooked it up the display showed only the USB 44.1 bit rate; then I realized I needed to go into Windows Audio Properties for the driver (that was automatically loaded), and set it to the max (in my case) bit rate of 24-192 and the display on the Platinum showed 192, but when I played lower bit rate files it stayed on 192.

What am I missing? Is there a better driver I should be using? Other DACs I have show the audio files actual bit rate being played on their display, and I expected the Platinum to do the same.

 

[koikoikoi]

You're seeing the bitrate set in Windows - you will only see the audio files' bit rate if you're bypassing the windows audio altogether with WASAPI, ASIO, etc.

 

[xiled10]

Has anyone compared this dac with Topping D90se before?

 

[eeagle]

You're seeing the bitrate set in Windows - you will only see the audio files' bit rate if you're bypassing the windows audio altogether with WASAPI, ASIO, etc.

Thanks, I had forgotten about all those components. Its been a while since I set up the foobar 2000 app I use to play music and found I needed to upgrade it to the latest version to install the current components. I found the V2 of foobar 2000 gives now gives a choice of "exclusive mode" for the drivers by default, and that selection alone corrected the display bit rate display problem so it now switches properly. Will have to experiment more to see what I like the most.

The Liquid Platinum DAC is a beautiful piece, and matches the AMP which is what I was after; I even picked up some short XLR interconnects, and the completed system is everything I expected. The real magic is in the AMP which is apparently being discontinued so get one while you can.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Thanks, I had forgotten about all those components. Its been a while since I set up the foobar 2000 app I use to play music and found I needed to upgrade it to the latest version to install the current components. I found the V2 of foobar 2000 gives now gives a choice of "exclusive mode" for the drivers by default, and that selection alone corrected the display bit rate display problem so it now switches properly. Will have to experiment more to see what I like the most.

The Liquid Platinum DAC is a beautiful piece, and matches the AMP which is what I was after; I even picked up some short XLR interconnects, and the completed system is everything I expected. The real magic is in the AMP which is apparently being discontinued so get one while you can.

Monoprice cancelled my order on lp amp but I could buy the dac from amazon (well I live in Turkey and had someone buy it and bring with them for me)

If only this dac had more reviews.

 

[eeagle]

Monoprice cancelled my order on lp amp but I could buy the dac from amazon (well I live in Turkey and had someone buy it and bring with them for me)

If only this dac had more reviews.

Well the remarkable thing I found about this DAC is it matches the Platinum and Gold Amps and makes a pretty stack; as I mentioned I find DACs extremely hard to tell apart.

The best review I found was the ASR site which gives it high marks in all their tests.