I have been into this hobby for many years and I have had the class A rated items online and through the magazines.
With Monarchy audio you get solid value and I am allways looking to get the most out of my bucks. The dac alone trumps the Well received Benchmark dac in many areas most notably in it's naturalness to the original sourse but you will never know if you didn't research or know about it .One big reason is the dacs used are the Great pcm63K dacs or the 1704K dac with 1704 receivers these are true classics and now discontinued .Why is this because these multibit dacs were all hand trimmed by laser it is just to expensive to make.just do your homework and confirm this, and the Vacuum tube preamp is a bonus .
By accident I ran into someone that had their unit not just modded but transformed this Modding outfit in Massachusetts the designer
has Worked for Theta digital in the Past and has a 30+ year history in many degree fields. I am anxiously waiting to get mine completed
and I listened to the modded unit against a Ayre cd player and Modwright pre and the Monarchy setup was not only more natural but also had better weight and dynamics which I feel is pretty good considereing the other setup was over $7k and for 4 out of 5 listening to agree is amazing ,I had mods done by a few in the past this guy does things from a engineering stand point not just a parts stuffer
which most of them are .Learn by my mistakes of the past ,also remember this rule of thumb less than 25% of any of your electronics actually goes to the parts, overhead and dealer promotions eat up 75% of your units cost !
