[starmartyr]

The reason I'm using it as a preamp is because it alone is not poewrful enough to drive abyss 1266 TC. But I'm so used to the EQ and Dirac sound of Monolith. It feels strange to listen to a song without it. Hopefull Dirac's soundstage will be able to translate to Topping A90

Oh I see, makes sense. Though I'll have to look up the power difference between the two; I didnt think it was that drastic.

Fwiw, Dirac and eq work perfect through to my Lyr. I cant live without those options either!

 

[spacelion2077]

Topping A90 outputs 7.6 watts a channel at balanced. Monolith only outputs 3 watts. The difference is pretty drastic. It's a great Dac/Amp otherwise. I don't even want to upgrade to other dac because very dac these days came with EQ and Dirac function intergrated.

 

[starmartyr]

Topping A90 outputs 7.6 watts a channel at balanced. Monolith only outputs 3 watts. The difference is pretty drastic. It's a great Dac/Amp otherwise. I don't even want to upgrade to other dac because very dac these days came with EQ and Dirac function intergrated.

Yeah you're not kidding! That's pretty insane specs. How does it sound with the Abyss? That's a dream headphone for sure.

Yeah definitely the DAC is solid, balanced, and with all the hardware features it's a keeper. Just wish it was balanced out. That was a weird decision. Andrew from THX himself gave the (warranty voiding) instructions himself on how to resolder the pins to make that an output instead of input. No idea why they didn't just do that in the first place. Oh well always compromises at this price point. Otherwise very good all around, and unless I need that kind of insane power from solid state I'm done chasing others

 

[spacelion2077]

I don't know yet. I ordered Topping A90 today right after I found out you can use Monolith just as a DAC. Abyss 1266 TC sounds very thin on Monolith, I have to turn it all the way up to -5db just to make it sound decent. There is no slam in the bass and I don't hear the details its raved about. I hope it's the amp's fault not the headphone

 

[stimuz]

Yep it will. I do this too and I like to be able to eq and Dirac through to the second amp.

As a side note, as it's merits have been hotly debated: I use Dirac more often than not actually as I don't like the weird/unnatural placement headphones typically give you. Guess I'm too much of a speaker guy. Works good for music for me. But it really shines for movies and games, much more accurate soundfield I find. I've compared to a couple other crossfeeds like Meier and I like Dirac much better. Plus it's hardware so not source dependant.

Anyway, hope that works out for you!

Totally depends on the type of music you listen to in my opinion. I like dirac but I find it most useful for 70s rock, when stereo was still a new gimmick and the recordings liked to alternate channels all the goddamn time. Super irritating on a headphone without crossfeed.

 

[starmartyr]

I don't know yet. I ordered Topping A90 today right after I found out you can use Monolith just as a DAC. Abyss 1266 TC sounds very thin on Monolith, I have to turn it all the way up to -5db just to make it sound decent. There is no slam in the bass and I don't hear the details its raved about. I hope it's the amp's fault not the headphone

No kidding, that's unfortunate! I know planars like lots of current actually so I hope you get the juice you need with the Topping. Did you get any rec's from the Abyss threads?

 

[spacelion2077]

No kidding, that's unfortunate! I know planars like lots of current actually so I hope you get the juice you need with the Topping. Did you get any rec's from the Abyss threads?

I did, some of their recommendations like Woo headphone amp. are almost or more expensive than the headphone. I know it will probably sound great on Woo audio but I'm not ready to dish out another 6k on an amplifier yet lol

 

[spacelion2077]

If I want to use monolith as a dac alone, do I need to turn the volume all the day down when it's connected to another amplifier?

 

[Gun21]

If I want to use monolith as a dac alone, do I need to turn the volume all the day down when it's connected to another amplifier?

I believe the universal convention is to always set the Dac to 0dB, with some leeway.

 

[spacelion2077]

I believe the universal convention is to always set the Dac to 0dB, with some leeway.

0db is already very loud on monolith. The volume won't get transfered to the main amplifier?

 

[Gun21]

0db is already very loud on monolith. The volume won't get transfered to the main amplifier?

The volume is controlled by the amp you've connected to. If in doubt, set everything to low volume and dial it up gradually. 0dB on your Dac, again, is the way to go. I do understand your concern, so go slow.

Check out a previous post https://www.head-fi.org/threads/mon...24459-impressions-thread.860046/post-15880792

 

[starmartyr]

The volume is controlled by the amp you've connected to. If in doubt, set everything to low volume and dial it up gradually. 0dB on your Dac, again, is the way to go. I do understand your concern, so go slow.

Check out a previous post https://www.head-fi.org/threads/mon...24459-impressions-thread.860046/post-15880792

Exactly - with a DAC without a fixed output (in this case it is variable - digital volume control is still in the chain) you want max signal to noise before clipping, so in this case 0db.

If you turn the volume down on the Monolith DAC before it arrives at say, a relatively noisy tube amp, you'll get more noise than is ideal and you will likely hear it. You may not hear it if your chain is all digital and state of the art, but often reality is less than that ideal and there may be some signal degredation regardless. This is no bueno.

If you max out source (digital) and intermediary (DAC, again with no clipping) you'll have the lowest noise possible and the best case SNR. This is always best practice.

 

[spacelion2077]

Thanks for your input guys. I was concerned with how Monolith amp would affect the sound of topping A90 as a preamp. Since A90 is already powerful enough to drive just about most headphones, I wouldn't want Monolith THX 788 get in the way. I'lll try to set the db to 0 to see if it works well as a Dac with Dirac on.

 

[Gun21]

Thanks for your input guys. I was concerned with how Monolith amp would affect the sound of topping A90 as a preamp. Since A90 is already powerful enough to drive just about most headphones, I wouldn't want Monolith THX 788 get in the way. I'lll try to set the db to 0 to see if it works well as a Dac with Dirac on.

Great input from @starmartyr. Btw - always set Windows volume to 100% and your media player to 100% - this means it's all bit matched.

Quick question - if you've got the A90 amp, which is excellent, then why not sell the Monolith and get a separate DAC? The dual AKM DAC on the Monolith is (and this is just a huge guess) maybe worth around $150-200 out of the total $500 of the unit? When I bought this Monolith my only thought was getting a tube amp in the future, as the THX amp in this combo is golden.

DIRAC is fun and OK and all, but I rarely use it. Good for old stereo music. Was listening to some Beatles today, great fun. But the same effect could be got by buying Dolby Atmos for Headphones, Razer Surround or DTS:X for similar cross-feed effects, all for $15ish each. Also, you get EQ adjustments in all of them, plus more. DIRAC is very very clean though, I'll give it that.

 

[spacelion2077]

Great input from @starmartyr. Btw - always set Windows volume to 100% and your media player to 100% - this means it's all bit matched.

Quick question - if you've got the A90 amp, which is excellent, then why not sell the Monolith and get a separate DAC? The dual AKM DAC on the Monolith is (and this is just a huge guess) maybe worth around $150-200 out of the total $500 of the unit? When I bought this Monolith my only thought was getting a tube amp in the future, as the THX amp in this combo is golden.

DIRAC is fun and OK and all, but I rarely use it. Good for old stereo music. Was listening to some Beatles today, great fun. But the same effect could be got by buying Dolby Atmos for Headphones, Razer Surround or DTS:X for similar cross-feed effects, all for $15ish each. Also, you get EQ adjustments in all of them, plus more. DIRAC is very very clean though, I'll give it that.

I was going to. The other unit I had in mind Rme adi-2 dac. I was going to buy it until I found it uses the same chip with Monolith which is AKM 4493. I would love to get a D90 but it doesn't come with any of the EQ options. If Rme makes a dac with AKM 4499 chip with all the other functions intact, I would buy it in a heart beat.