I'll do like the old mystery novels and start with the ending: If you buy a more expensive DAC than the Monarchy, do so at your own peril. It's my belief that the Monarchy Model 22 thoroughly trounces the PS Audio Ultralink and the Audio Research DAC1 which cost double and triple the amount of the Monarchy. Fear of overstatement dose not trouble me. In fact, I would not hesitate to compare the Monarchy to the Levinson No.30 which at $l3,950 represents the digital state of the art to many well heeled audio reviewers (most of whom I'll wager have not heard the Monarchy).

Still with me? Good. The model 22 excels at creating a sense of musical balance through timbral accuracy and very fast transient response. These two attributes allow music to sound more real and more natural. Voices sound more human, clarinets more like ebony, trumpets more like brass, well, you get the idea. Most DACs that I've evaluated achieve great levels of detail and resolution but do so by elevating the Hi-Fi Factor; in other words, these DACs make your audio system sound more like a good audio system than like real music. Worse, they open an umbrella of various electronic artifacts which are nearly impossible to describe, and equally difficult to ignore. By contrast, the Monarchy maintains the realism while reducing the Hi-Fi factor to a negligible level.

I really like well made audio gear. A mist comes to my eyes at the sight of the daunting mass of a Krell, or the graceful form and glowing tubes of a Music Reference RM-9. For $980, you'll not find a more solidly built or better looking DAC than the Monarchy Model 22. It has a nice, thick sculpted faceplate with ARC like toggle switches for selecting optical or coaxial sources and for absolute phase reversal. The rear panel holds rugged chassis mounted RCA jacks. The unit is very well constructed and functioned flawlessly.

Van Morrison & The Chieftain's Irish Heartbeat CD (Mercury 834 496-2) can be a little demanding through most DACs. Raglan Road, one of my favorite tracks, pushes Morrison's rough hewn voice to the front of the stage. Through the Monarchy, his voice shifts to a more natural position in the sound stage (just behind the speakers) and sounds much less processed. On Patty Smith's Jackson Song from her Dream of Life CD (Arista ARCD-8453) Smith's nearly hushed voice is well retrieved. Each word is sung slowly, and on lesser DACs there's a haze in the silences between each syllable. With the Monarchy, the silences are much quieter, giving the softly voiced lyrics even greater impact. Near the end of the song a series of broken triplets is played on a bass guitar. Through the Monarchy, the subtle crescendo of the notes reveal the increased purr of the bass, as well as its increase in volume.   Superb!

Through most CD players and DACs, solo piano of ten presents a mixed bag. Usually, the pitch stability and dynamic contrasts are well preserved, but often at the coat of the essential musicality of the instrument. Again, the Monarchy excels. In the opening Marche of Joao Carlos Martins version of The Anna Magdalena Bach Notebook (Tomato TOM-CD-1501) Martins thunders some chords with his left hand. On lesser DACs, the piano can sound artificial and metallic when played forte, and muted and diffuse at pianissimo. Through the Monarchy one gets the feeling of joy and facility that Martins must have felt while recording these deceptively straightforward but marvelous pieces. By the by, this is a must have CD for getting the handle on the capacity of a DAC or CD player to accurately reproduce the true weight and range of the piano. The Monarchy handles this CD exceptionally well indeed.

I'm a big fan of Sibelius, particularly his symphonies, and have found no recordings that can match Neeme Jarvi's cycle with The Gothenberg Symphony Orchestra. As a filler track on the GSO/Jarvi Sibelius Symphony No.7 (BIS-CD-311) they play a piece called Night-ride and Sunrise and if ever there was a more evocative and haunting piece of orchestral impressionism, I'd sure like to hear it. Here the Monarchy catches the perfect combination of sweetness sad bite to the strings, which allows the proper pace and drive of the composition to come through. The occasional tympany rolls, sometimes distant, sometimes closer have a swelling sense of air about them. The soundstage on this recording is truly expansive, both in width and depth. The Monarchy preserves these illusions of dimension but does not exaggerate the effect as do many highly touted DACs.

There is one track that any digital device must be able to recreate accurately if it's going to remain in my system. On Richard Thompson's Rumor And Sigh CD (Capitol COP 7 95713 2) there's a track called 1952 Vincent Black Lightning. This is Thompson at his best: telling a story and playing guitar. No one does it better. The Monarchy brings a sense of acoustic ease to this track that is enthralling. The oddly metered guitar work has all of its color and pace preserved, with not a hint if digititis. I haven't heard the British LP of this record, but I doubt very much that it sounds any better than the CD via the Monarchy.

Come now, you say, there must be something wrong with this thing!?!  Well OK, here goes: If I had my way, I'd lower the output to no more than 1.5 volts. At its present 3 volts, the volume pot on my preamp rarely sees the high side of 9 o'clock. Who needs all that extra gain? And, the Monarchy has the capacity to double its output to 6 volts by the simple removal of a shorting plug located on the PC board. This would certainly drive any amp to clipping, even through a passive preamp. Oh well, just a nit I thought I'd mention.

Not much more to say, to tell the truth. The Monarchy Model 22 not only represents a fine value at $980, but will compete nicely with any, and I mean any, DAC on the market. Listen carefully to the Model 22 before you even think about spending more money on another DAC. Recommended with enthusiasm.
 
 

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