Chord DAC64 and upsampling

Latest toy I've got to play with is a Monarchy upsampler which I recently bought from Tone. I wasn't planning on getting one but Tone assured me the results would be worth it and it actually solved a dilemma I had with my Teac T1 transport modifications (also chez Tone ): The Trichord digital output board (DOB) - as fitted to my old Marantz - only comes in a "Clock 3" variant and it needs a dual rail power supply. This means it would need two Never Connect PSUs (which are single rail) and there just isn't enough room in the T1 for that.

So, much cheaper option is to have the new Clock 4 and Never Connect PSU (much better than the bog standard DOB PSU) but this doesn't have a separate output circuit so I'm left with the RCA digi out on my T1.

The Monarchy has RCA (and TOSLink) inputs and an AES/EBU output so, not only is it doing its upsampling de-jittering thing, it's also giving me the balanced digi out

Been playing around with it today and haven't had a chance to properly evaluate what it's doing to the sound but first impressions are good (and that's with a stock power cord and a crappy QED Qunex P75 cable between the tranny and Monarchy). Will say more on the differences when I've done a proper listen and when I've got a half decent cable between the tranny and upsampler.

Anyway, one very curious observation when using the Monarchy with the DAC64 is that, on the "4 second" buffer setting (which I always use) if the data from the Monarchy is 24bit/96khz (as opposed to standard 16/44.1 from the tranny) the 4 second delay is a lot shorter - about 2 seconds, even less initially (it takes the DAC64 a little while to "get into its stride"). At first I was worried and thought that the buffering wasn't working but then of course I realised that the buffering must be done with a finite amount of RAM memory and 24/96 is a hell of a lot more data than 16/44.1! So, the amount of 1s and 0s being buffered is the same but the time that represents is much less.

Michael.

 

Mike, wait til you get a decent cable in their always use the best cable from the soucre to the Upsampler. WM (and get a decent dac while your at it )

 

Michael,

Was going to ask you in the other thread, but to save cluttering up what was originally Sideshow's CDP thread, I'll ask it here instead as you now have your own thread...

Did you get a chance to listen to the TEAC transport in your system at home before the clock mods?

 

Oi - less of your cheek Tone

May get an Apogee Wyde-Eye tomorrow, but I'm lending my DAC64 to a friend for a couple of days tomorrow so he can try it out in his system. He's the guy who sold me my Contour 1.3MkIIs - he's got Meridian 507, MF NuVista M3 and Dynaudio Craffts at the moment and is thinking of upgrading to SACD :cry: I'm hoping the DAC64 will change his mind :MILD:

Will have it back on the weekend and get some serious listening done with a decent cable in between the tranny and upsampler. Will nick the Eupen off my AV receiver to use on the upsampler for the time being aswell.

Michael.

 

Unfortunately not so I don't know what the "difference" will be but I'm sure it will have been worth it. Since I got the Teac in the UK it seemed pointless to cart it home to Portugal and then all the way back again for Tony to wield his soldering iron on it

I'll be picking it up in a couple of weeks and should have it home with me start of Oct. Looking forward to it. At that point my system will be done and dusted for the forseeable future :MILD: If nothing else, an 8000 Euro tax bill here has put paid to any immediate changes :cry:

Michael.