[Packdemon]

Im looking for impressions about the Dirac, which is the big feature distinguishing this unit.

I'll try testing out the Dirac once I'm done modifying the display with amber and red taillight tapes. I generally don't like having white (or worse, blue) lights in a dark room.

 

[Packdemon]

It's a bit blurrier now, but that's a color I can tolerate!

 

[AresHarvest]

If you want your end game transparent (balanced) amp/DAC, then I'd look no further than this (or any other similarly priced solutions).

Dangit. I passed on the Monolith desktop because (at the time) the ship date was mid-December and I am impatient. So I got a Topping D50 and THX 789 instead.

D50->789 is a great setup, and I won't be changing it, but if I was more patient then I would have ended up with the more compact form factor that I wanted. First-world problems.

Killer unit on paper, so it's great that you're also experiencing great performance in real-world use.

 

[Packdemon]

Dangit. I passed on the Monolith desktop because (at the time) the ship date was mid-December and I am impatient. So I got a Topping D50 and THX 789 instead.

D50->789 is a great setup, and I won't be changing it, but if I was more patient then I would have ended up with the more compact form factor that I wanted. First-world problems.

Killer unit on paper, so it's great that you're also experiencing great performance in real-world use.

I agree. The selling point for me between the Mp THX and Md THX was that with the Mp I'd have a single chassis on my desk with a digital display and volume control all for a pretty killer price.

 

[AresHarvest]

That amber mod is really nice, by the way. I own a Topping D10, which has a similar color display. I've always appreciated the slightly hygge aesthetic of it.

(Pic isn't mine, I just found one that looked the same color as mine does in natural light)

 

[gto88]

Listening to it. beware the default -20db volume is too loud for balanced onto LCD-3.
The build is solid as other dac/amp made in China, such as LKS, Audio-GD.
Stack with Ifi is just right, they almost have same width.

 

[gto88]

The issue I have so far is, cannot play with Foobar2000, no driver for ASIO, and the DS mode error out.
Any one knows about the driver for this DAC?

 

[Packdemon]

Im looking for impressions about the Dirac, which is the big feature distinguishing this unit.

This is still just my early impressions of Dirac, but it seems like it shifts the headspace a bit vertically. It's pretty noticeable I would say, almost the same way as inverting the signal's phase would be. With Dirac off it might be overall a bit louder, but Dirac might have more clarity.

 

[Packdemon]

EQ is pretty simple. You get a Low Frequency control that you can set by increments of 10 Hz (120 Hz default) with ±6 dB of control, and a High Frequency control that you can set by increments of 1 kHz (8 kHz default) with ±6 dB of control.

 

[gto88]

@Packdemon can you play lossless through it, or just youtube web on PC with USB?

 

[Allanmarcus]

@Packdemon can you play lossless through it, or just youtube web on PC with USB?

You can play lossless on all DACs

 

[gto88]

You can play lossless on all DACs

I meant to ask for playing from foobar2000, not able to setup for this one.

 

[Packdemon]

Don't know about foobar2000, but in windows I'd go to my audio setting, then edit my playback device settings to the max sampling and bit rates available. I think it was 24-bit with 382 kHz (or 300 something) sampling rate through USB, which is quite a bit higher than what Monoprice advertised.

 

[Packdemon]

I am happy to say the Monolith THX works with my LG v30+ (andriod phone) using an OTG cable. I couldn't be happier!

(edit) It's limited to USB PCM 48 kHz though.

 

[gto88]

Yes, I did that, and it is 24bit/352.8kHz.
But, this can only play from web.
In foobar2000 music player, it fails to play music onto the dac...