User Comments on DAC M24 & NM24


Date: Sat, 30 Jan 2010 12:01:39 -0800 (PST)
From: THANH NGO
Subject: NM24

Hi, Mr. Poon
     I want to THANK YOU, THANK YOU, AND THANK YOU for recommending the NM24 preamp/dac. I have only burned it in for about 10 hours now and I have to say it is the BEST PREAMP/DAC I have ever used. Vocals comes out so clean, smooth, and airy. Instruments sounded so "real". The bottom end is fast and tight. The sound stage has so much width and expansive depth. I could not ask for anything more. Over the years I have used Audio Research Ref 3, Ref 2, Ref 1, LS 25 Mk II, LS 22, Bat VK 30, VK 51SE, Conrad Johnson LS 17S2, and Conrad Johnson PV14L. These are good preamps in certain ways but never fullfil the whole audio spectrum of an audiophile. For example, Audio Research is clean but not musical. Conrad Johnson vocals are smooth and airy but bottom is sluggish. BAT is dark sounding. The NM24 fulfills what other preamp lacks. I am certain with the passage of time, the NM24 will only sounds better. My Magnepan 3.6R speakers are now at their full potential of musical bliss. I am VERY happy with the purchase. Once again thank you for recommending the NM24. Keep up the good works.                                

Thanh Ngo

From: G Maroulis
Subject: NM24 DAC
2009-12-03)


Dear Mr. Poon, I finally got the NM24 about three hours ago and eagerly isntalled it in my system! My anticipation for it has been great together with a big sense of curiosity and "buyer's remorse" about not having chosen competitive equipment from Benchmark and PS Audio.
 
From these usits I have only had the Benchmark USB in my system but three things made me not to buy it at the time:
 
The first reason was the fact that in using it as a headphone amp it limits the user into only listening to CDs. I am an avid LP collector and a big part of my listening is from LPs.
The second and more serious reason of not going with the Benchmark was its sound! Despite all the hoopla going around (it seems that people run after "hoopla" like sheep in a herd) I found the sound dissapointing for my taste. Yes, it did extend the music extremes over my CD player but the sound sounded too analytical with my present stereo setup. By the way I lived with the unit for about a month so I did have all the time to play with it. One last issue thing I had with the benchmark is the size and built quality of the thing...Too light and diminutive for its price! This for me is a purely psychological issue and it has nothing to do with a unit's sound quality but...still it affects my way of perceiving the gear...
 
Now back to the NM24! When UPS left it at my door and I picked it up I got a BIG surprise from the weight of the box! It is heavier than a lot of small receivers! When I opened the box the SECOND surprise was its looks! Understatedly gorgeous! Nothing pretentious but still elegant. I give it A+ for its looks alone (again this is MY taste, it may not be everyone's cup of tea).
 
The final and biggest surprise came as soon as I started it up! Last night I went through and found my "nastiest" sounding CDs form the early 80s just to see what would happen! In a nutshell this thing SINGS! My "Madness" CD is one of my favorites but it sounds thin and shrill at times. With the NM24, even with the unit still cold out of the box, this CD took on a life of its own! As the NM24 warmed up the sound became warmer, melodical and enticing! About 30 minutes ago I started playing a little with better sounding CDs and the sound over my CD player is just so much better I can hardly believe my ears. Diana Krall never sounded better in any of the systems I have had over the past 15 years. Sawn Colvin sounds as if she is in the room with me right now. The bass is extended and natural sounding. The highs sound so airy it is like I am dreaming!
 
And all this in a few of hours of listening. I am really looking forward for my evening listening session with the unit well warmed up.
 
All my 'buyer's remorse" is gone just by the sound alone. Still, with the built in amp I can use my headphones with my precious LPs and (yes!) tapes. Still, I have not listened to the headphones critically because I am too busy listing to the speakers. I doubt I will sleep too much tonight!
 
Thansk for a great prodcut at an unbeleivable price. Please feel free to use this mail anyway you can Mr Poon! It has been a real pleasure doing business with you.
 
Best regards
 
Gerry Maroulis
 
PS: I will be placing an order for the DIP combo and the speaker cables in a while. I am a new believer in Monarchy Audio.


Date: Sat, 23 May 2009 11:03:55 -0700 (PDT)
From: Michael Miguest

Mr. Poon,
Having purchased your NM24 and the Dip Upsampler and replacing my Parasound Transport with a Proceed CDD transport, I thought I was in Musical Heaven. Acting on your Recomendation to add the AC-Regenerator to this incredible duo has enhanced an already stunningly transparent presentation of detail,and an already stunningly delineated Soundstage. Both the NM24 and Dip Upsampler are connected to the AC-regenerator which is set at 120 Hz and it takes the efficacy of the NM24 and the Dip Upsampler to another "Level". In my humble opinion, the NM24, the Dip Upsampler ,and the AC-Regenerator represent a Front-End "Tour De Force". The sheer effortlessness of the musical message gives one a heightened sense of more "There There" and more "Real Real".
Anyone who has the NM24 and Dip Upsampler, the additional purchase of the AC-Regenerator is not an option but is "Sine Qua Non' if one wants to experience High-End Musical Reproduction at its "FINEST". Thank you Mr. Poon.
Michael

Date: Tuesday, April 21, 2009, 1:23 AM
Hello Mr. Poon,
I wanted to thank you for designing the NM24. This is an incredible piece of electronics. It has increased my dynamics, my sound stage, my liquidity,my musicality, my imaging and has given my music more weight, more of an organic/natural flavor and a heightened sense of Realness. It has afforded me the sound I have been trying to achieve. Thank you again.
Regards.
Michael Miguest


From: "Alexander Engel"
Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2009 17:42:41 +0100

Hi Ching,
thanks for the very fast shipping, great connectors much appreciated.
Have connected the NM24 to the AC regenerator and I must say this has already made a change.
For example Piano more believable timbre, great transients and lots of air. Wonderful product.
kind regards

alexander engel


Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2009 14:28:13 +0100
From: "John Norton"
Hi
Just a quick note to say how pleased i am with the dac.
 
I am powering my senn hd650's off the line stage and it blows my naim headline into the weeds.
 
Thanks for making worldclass products at affordable prices, keep up the good work.
 
Kind regards
 
John



From: Robert Parker
Sent: Dec 13, 2008 7:46 AM


I read a review for a "Super DIP". Is it available? If so, should I replace the old model?
Use both together?
Thanks.
 
I LOVE my new Monarchy NM24 DAC !!


From: g.divito
Subject: Monarchy NM24 Upgrade
Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2008 13:01:09 -0700

Hello Mr. Poon

I purchased a NM24 Dac about 6 months ago....on you reccomendation. Your DAC has been a very wise choice for me.
I want to thank you....you are right the circuit is very clean. I have made one upgrade....I replaced your Wima 2.7 coupling caps
with Mundorf 2.7 M-supreme caps. I also replaced the stock tubes with Amperex 6922 D-getter 1950's.
The tubes really opened the soundstage...but the cap replacement was simply magnitudes better.
More of everything....clarity richness, smooth as silk, a highly resolving quality that has to be heard to be beleived.
The use of the Mundorfs is not practicle on a manufacturing basis....but I think all the positives
I hear are due to your designing ability....my hat is off to you....Thank you.

Gary DiVito
Reno, Nevada

Derek Murray  (Canada)
Date: 11/18/2008
Hi,
I'm a proud new owner of a NM24 and was wondering if the addition of a DIP would be a benefit?
BTW, this DAC is beautiful... so thank you for taking the time to create such an incredible piece of equipment.
Warm regards,
Derek

From: michael.fanning
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2008 08:57:26 -0400

Mr. Poon or Ms. Tai,
I found this review from Stereo Times on the M24.  It's a great review and you may wish to add it to your web site.
http://www.stereotimes.com/acc071806.shtml
I am enjoying my NM24 very much.  I will be trying some Amperex orange globe 6DJ8 tubes in the DAC and line stage soon.
While I like the stock tubes, I wish to experiment a bit.
all best,

Michael Fanning
Simpsonville, SC  


From: "Robert Parker"
Subject: My Evaluation of the NM-24 DAC
Date: Sun, 17 Aug 2008 20:08:09 -0400
 
I have used the NM-24 DAC in my audio system for almost 3 weeks now, replacing a very capable MSB Link 3 I had for 6 years. As I listen to old and new CD's, DVD's and Blu-Ray discs, I continue to be amazed at how much enjoyment it wrings out of them. It is more transparent than the old DAC. I hear things I didn't before. The soundstage is better. It's highly musical. I find myself forgetting about the equipment much more and getting into the performance. And isn't that what it's all about? I prefer the solid state setting best; more transparent and less distortion.  It's a bonus to be able to press the button and hear a tube DAC. Maybe I'll prefer it later on certain recordings. Thank you Mr. Poon and company for a wonderful product an average Joe like me can afford.
 
Robert Parker
Hickory, NC  
 
From: "Michael Vinegrad"
To: "CCPOON" <monarchy@earthlink.net>
Subject: RE: AC Regenerator
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2008 17:03:09 -0700

A note for your web site.


After a long association with Monarchy Audio I have finally upgraded my DAC22 to
 the new DAC24. Last year i acquired a pair of Dignity Audio mono blocks and am delighted with them.
Western Electric Tubes have been reduced so perhaps we will try them soon?
I have a pair of Spendor BC1's and not allot of folks know about these speakers.
They were originally designed as monitoring speakers for the BBC and were the standard by which
all others were judged. I acquired a pair and had the wiring and crossovers refurbished, WOW,
but the biggest accolade goes to CC for this wonderful tube DAC,
he is an absolute genius and so modest with it; congratulations on such an outstanding piece of kit Full marks.
With regards,
Michael.
vinegrad


 
Date: Thu, 24 May 2007 09:15:22 -0500
From: RCA
Subject: M24 Review Comments

Mr. Poon,
I realize this is all "old news" to you and other owners of the Monarchy M24, but… I must confess… I was a skeptic regarding the Monarchy M24, and it's ability to transform the sound of "Red Book" CD's into great sound that rivals that of the best vinyl and digital playback systems.   Having the Musical Fidelity Small X Series components (i.e. XDAC v3), as well as the legendary Cal Audio Alpha and Sigma II DAC's, and the Music Hall MMF CD25 1+ - I found it hard to believe any digital system could really and significantly exceed the wonderful sound quality produced by these great pieces of equipment… especially the Cal Audio equipment, which even though dated a few years, still produces sound quality rivaled by very few other, far more expensive DAC's.
 
But… after reading all the reviews and comments, both hear and on other forums, of how the sound produced by the M24 exceeded that produced by most other digital players, and was equivalent to the best analog and digital systems costing as much as $17,000 – I was seduced into giving the M24 an audition.
   
Skeptical though I was… it took the M24 about 3 weeks to convince me that all those claims by other reviewers and commentators were… absolutely, 100% correct!  Although… it was clearly obvious "right out of the box" that the M24 produced exceptional sound – with great extension, soundstage, bass, mids and highs… but, with simply incredible presence and a textured, organic, weighty sound that is hard to imagine could be produced by such a modestly priced DAC.    
   
I guess what struck me as most amazing… is how it literally transformed my Sennheiser HD650 headphones into "World Class" headphones.   The HD650's, are known to be a bit too dark and warm, without the fast, bright, detailed, clear highs of several other headphones (e.g. Grados, ATH's, etc.) – being overly dominated by their bass and lower mids – and… very hard to drive to their full potential.   But… the M24 quite literally "wakes them up" – bringing out their upper mids and highs and making them seem much brighter, clearer and more detailed than other DAC's do.    I had often read that the HD650's "scaled up" well with much more expensive equipment – well… it's true, even with some modestly priced equipment like the M24.  I have no idea, what the M24 provides, that others don't, that makes them perform, but it clearly does.   In fact some have suggested… it brings the HD650's to the level of the one, or two best headphones available ( e.g.  Senn Orpheus HE90 / HE60, AKG K1000, Sony R10, ATH L3000, etc.).    And… of course it excels with my other headphones as well – Sennheiser HD600's, Grado RS-1's, and ATH AD-2000's.
   
I will never allow myself to spend $17,000 on any DAC, or any piece of audio equipment, or a lot less quite frankly… so… it's a pleasant surprise to find that I really don't have to.   "Suffice it to say," I won't be looking any further for a great, value-priced DAC – I finally have a truly "World-class" DAC right here in my rack!
   
R C Albin

Dallas, TX      


From: Eli Hollander
Subject: My impressions of the M24 DAC (2007 version)
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2007 12:06:38 -0700

Dear Mr. Poon,

It was a pleasure to see you again. As you know, I have been a fan of your M24 DAC, but your "new" version is absolutely what I needed: a separate sub-woofer output. I noticed that in the previous version (without the solid-state DAC output), if I used the tube DAC output while also using the pre-amp out for the main speakers, the pre-amp output suffered some degradation (I am guessing that having both outputs of the DAC and the pre-amp used at the same time caused some impedance problems?). With the solid-state output connected to my amp/sub-woofer and the pre-amp output connected to my main amp/speakers, the sound is incredibly detailed, clear, warm, and "present." The sound-stage is deep and wide, and the bass is clean and powerful, while the high frequencies are smooth and open.In short, my system has never sounded better.

I truly appreciate the high quality and affordability of your M24 DAC. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Eli Hollander

Eli Hollander, Professor                 
University of California                                       
Santa Cruz, CA  


From: "Ezra"
Date: Tue, 6 Feb 2007 17:28:40 -0600

The monarchy model 24 is one of the Finest dac's that I have ever heard.
It competes with cost no object dac's. The preamp section is also way up there.
What CC has proven, is that there is a lot of chutzpa in the world of digital.
A feather in your cap CC.
Regards,
Ezra


10:52 PM 11/29/2006

Mr. Poon,
Thank you for taking the time to talk to me two days ago, when I picked up the DAC 24.
I am absolutely thrilled with the DAC! My system (and my Acoustat speakers) has never sounded better.

I mentioned to you the Sonos system I am using to distribute music around my house
(I am not using a CD player; I am streaming music in Apple Lossless Compression format).
The Sonos link is: http://www.sonos.com/index.htm

All the best,

Eli Hollander
_____________________________________________________________
Eli Hollander, Professor                 
Film and Digital Media Department   
University of California, Santa Cruz                                             
Santa Cruz, CA  95064


Date: Sat, 21 Oct 2006 12:10:43 -0700 (PDT)
From: Constantine Soo
Subject: Monarchy Audio M24
To: CC Poon <monarchy@earthlink.net>

Dear Mr. Poon,
just a a note to tell you how much I enjoy the m24 dac.
I enjoy it more than any dac that I have owned.
you did a wonderful job, far in >excess of the price.
my system is very expensive and your dac fits right in.
thank you Ezra

Respectfully,

Constantine Soo
DAGOGO

Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 14:27:20 -0400 (EDT)
From: IronChefTexMex
TO: Monarchyaudio

Hello again,
      I recently purchased your EXCELLENT M24 DAC/preamp, and I'm
 completely thrilled with the sound I'm getting, using a Droplet as a
 transport and feeding it into Nuforce 8 amps to  Gallo Ref 3's.

      My question is: will you expect your AC regenerator to provide a
 major upgrade to my sound (which is more than I can presently imagine),
 or is the M24 relatively indifferent to power treatments?

      Know that I'll take your word on this, because the M24 was such a
 Major upgrade to what I already thought was sound near the top of what I
 could hear.

Thank you very much,
Skip Osborne



From: Lynn Olson
Subject: The M24 - Yes, It's a Keeper!
Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 15:38:57 -0600

Thank you, Mr. Poon, for encouraging me to try out the M24 instead of
the M33. It is clearly superior to the M33, which I very much enjoyed
in the late Nineties.

I already have a small mini-review at:
http://www.audioasylum.com
/forums/tubediy/messages/101268.html
which you are free to reprint or put on your website. I'll be writing
a more lengthy review for Positive Feedback, with much more technical
analysis, if they aren't interested, put it on the ClariSonus blog at:
http://www.clarisonus.com/blog /

Lynn Olson

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

March 6th, 2006

CC-
I wanted to take a moment and thank you for your response to my email with respect to the questions I had about the se250's and also the M24 DAC.  I wanted to share a couple of things that I have done:

I put the 6922's which you gave me, into the 250's and really liked the sound as compared to the 6DJ8's.  I thought the sound was a bit smoother, with more pronounced lows with a greater sound-stage.  I was very happy with the tube switch.  I then purchased a matched set of Amperex 6922 PQ's, white label, to try in the amps.  Admittedly while these are expensive tubes, I had read some great things about these particular tubes and I was anxious to hear how they would sound in the SE250's.  Well, I must say the sound was just amazing!  Your amps REALLY do respond to the sonic characteristics of the tube and I thought the Amperex tubes did sound better than the Phillips JAN 6922's.

When I got your email I thought that I would try putting in the Phillips 6922's into the M24's output stage as suggested. Interestingly enough, I did not like the result.  For whatever reason, I felt the highs were very harsh - excessively so.  I then replaced the 6922's with the stock tubes of the M24 and I think that I've got the best sound coming from my discs that I can get; save spending thousands of dollars more, which I won't be doing.  I just want to say the results of using your electronics is nothing short of amazing and given the price point, almost too good to be true.

I have the M24 DAC connected in between my transport, which is nothing special; a Pioneer Elite unit, and my pre-amp which is another Pioneer Elite product, model C90, which is, I think,  a great solid-state preamp.  I  use the Monarchy upsampler, and set the sampling rate at 96 kHz.  As interconnects, I use Monarchy digital cables (1/2" model) between the transport, upsampler and DAC.

The interconnects that I use for the SE250's are Kimber Kable. Because I live in a small apartment in Boston, space is an issue, so rather than floor standing speakers, I use very average Cambridge Soundworks satellite speakers with a powered subwoofer.  I know you'll chuckle at using such a small speaker set up with the SE-250's, but the results are quite stunning.  The quality of the sound, the sound-stage that I can achieve with satellite speakers is really unbelievable.  The speakers will handle 150w, and while I know i could drive the speakers well past their power capabilities, it is really never an issue as the quality and clarity of the sound is so good, moderate level of gain is all that is needed.  I also use the SE250's as part of my video/home theater set up and the sound experience, albeit only 2 channel is terrific.

In closing, great products.  I always talk about Monarchy to my friends here on the east coast, although, admittedly, it is not a name that well recognized around these parts.  I hope your new DAC continues to get great reviews and that your Company receives continued recognition as a leader in the audiophile industry.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey Mead
je.mead


 Jun 7, 2006

Hi Ming-
I thought you had forgotten about me!  I hope your trip to Hong Kong
was enjoyable.  Thanks for the review on the M24.  I am really enjoying
the SE250's and have been doing some tube rolling.  Presently I am
using a pair of Siemens 7308's in the amps - wonderful sound.  And I
put the Amperex white label PQ 6922's into the digital section of the
M24, which is just a great DAC!!   Truly some GREAT sounds coming from
my discs that I honestly never heard before!!  And I love amps, but
they do run HOT!!

Another thing the amps have done is caused me to rediscover my vinyl
record collection.  I purchased a tube phono stage from a company based
in Hong Kong, called Audio Experience.  The sound that I am getting
from vinyl, I never heard from my solid state amp set up.  I'm thinking
it is the combination of both the SE 250's and my phono stage.

Anyhow, I am enjoying the "tube" sound so much, hence my question to
you on the tube pre-amp models that Monarchy used to make.  (My present
pre-amp is solid state.)  Let know what CC finds.

Thanks again for the review!

-Jeff

je.mead