[Harmon]

Recently I bought the Zhoalu DAC(D2A  AD1852 version) from ifiaudio.com motivated by the remarks Occam(Paul) made about it.  Also purchased from Paul the OpAmps he recommended for the mod. When the DAC arrived I let it play for a day just so there would be a comparison between the pre and post modded version. I used an old  NEC Multispin 6x for a transport. Compared to my modded Philipps SACD-1000 player the sound was closed in and the realism dropped a bit.  After replacing the OpAmps the sound was right off the bat equal if not slightly better than my Philipps.  The Philipps which was in my system for a couple of years was modded by Stan Warren with Blackgate and Jensen capacitors in the output stage. It also had a voltage mod done to it by Gregg Straley.  In other words this is no slouch CD player.  My wife also commented that the DAC did not sound so good pre-mod and sounded much better and more realistic post-mod.  After playing the DAC a few hours the bass frequencies were a lot more extended, palpability increased ,  imaging was better, soundstaging improved,  midrange frequencies were sweeter and clearer, more detail and just overall the sound was better. I am very satisfied with this DAC and it is nowhere near burnt-in yet.  You know your stuff Paul.  Thank you.   

[GHM]

Hi Harmon,
My guess is you still may have not heard the true potential of the Dac. If you're using a basic CD player as a transport..it is a given that you're hearing maybe half of what that Dac can do. I say this after spending time with the jitter/signal conditioning DIPs from Monarchy.

Yeah..I know it's another component in the path and it should degrade the signal..not quite. I'm here to tell you the difference is amazing for the better.

The chances are after you hear the difference..you'll never play music without it. If that Dac has equaled your modded unit already..think of its true potential when fed a better signal. I've over looked these simple units for years. Never really giving them a second thought. Now I could kick my own ass for not trying one sooner. Trust me on this one..see if you can pick up a used one on Agon for under a $100. Even an older one will smoke the digital outputs of most CD or DVD players in the mid price range up to several thousand. My modded player has the Superclock 3 and all that jazz installed. A five to eight year old DIP put it in the ground! Its duty is relegated to just spinning disc now..no other functions are needed. When I decide to move to an HD player..the Monarchy is coming with me.

Glad to read you're having great success!

Good listening!

[Harmon]

Hey GHM.    I am using an old NEC Multispin 6X that was in my office closet for almost 2 years as my transport. It is supposed to be rated as a good transport but probably far from the high-end transports.  For some reason the digital out from my Philipps is not working. I may be wrong but when it was modded it may have been disconnected for some reason. But fortunately the optical out is working since I looked and saw the little red light glowing inside the output connection. So I bought a highly recommended glass optical toslink from PartsExpress(recommended by Occam) for about $25.00. When it arrives I will give another short review but right now this baby is glowing in high-end sound. I will definetly look into those DIP's. Thanks for the recommendation.

[HumanMedia]

http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=178327&page=1
http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showthread.php?t=181056

Make sure to remove the blocking caps, use the OPA 2604 opamps (and/or DY2000, OPA 2107)  and give this baby 400 hours burn in.  It really opens up AFTER 200 hours.