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Review 1 of 4 Summary: I've had this piece for quite a while. It's been just laying around the house and I had some extra time on my hands, so I figured.........PLUG IT IN! Let's see how it compares to the rigs I've progressed to over the past couple of years. I forgot how heavy the unit is. I removed the hood. WOW!!! CC. Poon knows how to build em! How does he do this so cheaply? There's a toroidal power supply. All leads are as short as possible and well laid out. The circuit board is a fine glass epoxy type. The shielding is intelligent and well thought out. Not clever....just honest in a way that gives you a warm fuzzy that this was money well spent. The sound??????????????? Surprisingly good. I connected this directly to my Electrocompaniet AW250 DMB power amp(250 watts per channel pure class A). Fed it a wonderful digital diet from my trusty and recently upgraded Wadia Model 8 transport via the AES/EBU (Transparent Cable) and used Kimber Hero RCA analog cables to the amp. From there is a pair of Stealth Audio's finer silver cables feeding my Talon Audio Peregrines. I let things warm up and...........VERY NICE!! Very nice indeed. The soundstage was accurate with most cuts. Not as deep or focused as I'm accustomed to with the rig I use now, but hell, this is a fraction of my current investment. Detail in spades, except that last ounce of decay I love so much from piano, guitar and cymbals. Still, one only need remind oneself of the cost here and all is forgiven. Bass extension was excellent. Much better than I suppose it has any right to. I say this because I must give the devil his due and admit that it was neck and neck with my current set-up. Bass pitch was another thing. It didn't cut it against the better rig. I attribute this to detail more than anything else. I feel that bass pitch is actually more of a semi- micro dynamic than anything else. But the extension was great. This baby retains the weight that exists in my recordings. What more can I say? This is a product that many people will pass by because Monarchy, despite it's cult status, doesn't advertise. That and the fact that this unit may be all but out of production by now......... But consider this and consider it an open challenge to CC. Poon himself: CC, I have spent thousands on my digital rig and I love it. You have gone farther with a few hundred bucks than some manufacturers go with a couple grand. PLEASE find a way to give us upsampling to 192 khz and keep it under $1900.00. Retain the build quality you have produced throughout your line. I guarantee you that you will clean the (digital) clocks of your competion and make many a soul happy that he/she didn't forsake redbook for some new and unestablished format in turmoil.
This product gets my highest value rating! Strengths: Excellent build quality. Good looks. Ability to bypass preamp for an uncolored performance. Honesty in engineering! Weaknesses: Can't drive all amps. Gain is not as high as it could be. Similar Products Used: Audio Research. Muse. Pass labs. Dodson. Wadia. MSB. Sonic Frontiers. Perpetual Technologies. Electrocompaniet
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