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Monarchy Audio DIP

Roy Gandy of Rega cautions about using the Planet as a transport though he's not saying don't do it—he does provide a digital coaxial output.
"But be very careful about using outboard DACs," Roy warns. "There seems to be this popular conception that you can just pop DACs onto the ends of players. It will work, but not necessarily correctly, because the clock speeds from the DAC and the transport may be out of synch.
"In general the DAC has to be designed to work with the transport and the transport interface chip, and you can't put just anybody's DAC with anybody's player or transport. They will work, but you'll get lots of jitter. Lots of jitter can make the system sound worse or better."

I told Wayne Schuurrnan of Audio Advisor about Roy's comment, and he said he had just the interface solution. (Wayne always has solutions. That's why he's the Audio Advisor.) He sent me a Monarchy Audio DIP to try. "Take a DIP," Advisor advised.1

This will eliminate most or all of the differences between the two players as transports," suggested Wayne. What the DIP does is address exactly the problem Roy Gandy identified: The Monarchy DIP demodulates the incoming S/PDIF signal into respective clockS and data lines, which are separately re-encoded and clocked out by an oscillator. Decoupling transformers isolate the DAC from the transport or player, blocking hum and interference. The unit can also convert from one digital transmission format to another. For instance, the standard version can input either a coaxial or TosLink input and output the signal to either a coaxial or AES/EBU balanced output. The only switch is an input selector.

The standard version just described retails for $199. That's quite a bargain. In the UK, where it has been very well received, it retails for £245—nearly $400. A $249 "superdrive” version adds a BNC output. Monarchy tells me the superdrive version can drive digital cables up to 100' long. It was originally designed with the broadcast market in mind, but individual audiophiles have also been snapping it up.

I put the Monarchy Audio DIP between the Rega Planet and the X-DAC, expecting to hear little or no difference. After all, Antony Michaelson had told me that he doesn't believe to jitter. But Roy Gandy had told me he does. Who would be right—Antony or Roy?

Roy!

Everything improved—clarity, midrange and treble smoothness, spatial resolution, focus, bass extension and tightness. Transients were cleaner, quicker. There was a more natural decay of instruments to time and space—and not by a small margin. All of these improvements were so obvious I didn't have to strain to heat them. Not like auditioning one designer digital cable vs another!
 Now, with the DIP to place, I tried switching the Marantz CD-63SE and the Rega Planet, both as transports. The DIP should make the digital output signal from the Marantz and the Rega sound more or less alike. This is what Antony had suggested when he recommended using the X-DAC with more or less any old player.

Not necessarily a good idea

The Rega Planet, once again, sounded superior to the Marantz CD-63SE as transport. If anything, inserting the Monarchy Audio DIP into the chain magnified the differences between the two players as transports.

When I substituted the Marantz for the Rega the music lost clarity, focus, some treble smoothness, and, especially, spatial resolution.

So…what to conclude?

Life is complicated, that's What! Especially when it comes to digital sound.

By the way, the DIP may be especially useful if your CD or laserdisc player has only a TosLink optical out. You can take your TosLink digital feed —yes, take it please—clean up the signal, and output it properly via coaxial or AES/EBU.

Try one of these before you start messing around with expensive designer digital cables—just one of which could cost you more than the DIP If you want to save money, buy a pair of 75 ohm video cables from RadioShack (you'll need two). I tried a pair and they worked fine. Any improvements I got from designer cables paled beside the improvement wrought by the DIP.

The beauty is, the DIP is so easy to try—just dip it into your system I'm almost positive you'll hear an immediate improvement More space, more air, more there there.

However, I hear from the grapevine that the DIP doesn't always effect an improvement. "With a truly state-of-the-art transport, the DIP doesn't do it," said one high-end dealer friend who nonetheless is keen on the DIP with most transports and players.

Try before you buy.

©Stereophile—Vol.20 No.6