[KT]

I finally got around to boxing up the Monica II and I'm listening to it right now.

I like! Just 8 minutes on it so far, but I'm hearing my music like I've never heard it before - vocals very natural with exellent flow to the music. Also, I'm hearing relationships between instruments and musical lines that I'd never noticed before - very insightful, more so than my other DACs. Percussion is taut but juicy and bouncy.

The sound's still slightly muffled with only a handful of minutes on it, so it's got a ways to go for burn in.  I expect that it will sound even better after that. I'm very happy with it. The vocals are so listenable! Soundscape is dense and rich! Musical flow is captivating!

My other DAC is a Scott Nixon DacKit, which is excellent as well. It's got the full Blackgate cap kit (bought when Scott offered it as an upgrade package) with BG Nx caps at the output.

I think I'm liking the Monica II better, though. Great stuff!

I'm running if off a a single SLA right now. In the future I'll try powering the analog and digital sections separately with 2 switch mode supplies.

Best,
KT

[gary]

Thanks for the update. I've got a Nixon DacKit w/ BG caps too, that Vinnie from Red Wine Audio put into one of his enclosures for me and I've been pretty tempted to send it back to have him install a Monica Dac. Sounds like maybe I should get around to doing it, be sure to keep us posted as you get a few more hours on it.

Gary

[BobM]

I found the sound changed dramatically at about 200 hours. Yes, that's right, it took that long for the BlackGates to open up. So be patient, you have a way to go yet.

I also found that it was very adventageous to put a sizeable cap with abypass right at the point that you connected the battery to the baord. I used a 6800uF with a .01 bypass, but anything above 2000uF would probably be Ok. Nice increase in dynamic response.

Enjoy,
Bob