Monarchy Audio M22C Custom DAC

I'm going to put this on E-bay in a few days but I thought I'd post here briefly in case anyone is particularly interested. This is a really really good DAC!

It's 'custom' in that it doesn't have the volume control that M22C's came with as standard, and it has the full 'piggyback' implementation (2 chips per channel) with matched PCM63 P-K chips with bypass caps etc. and is in an M22B style case. I bought it direct from CC Poon about 6 years ago, and it has performed flawlessly since. I think he made up a few of these to use his precious stock of PCM63PK's around the time of introducing the M24. At one point I even had two of them, but this one sounded slightly better than the other. It has an on-board line amp which is also really good (drives headphones nicely) and has 2 selectable gain levels. Output options are therefore dac direct (phono) and line out (phono and/or XLR). There are optical and co-ax spdif inputs and AES/EBU.

Somewhat reluctant sale as it remains the best sounding dac I've heard, and for red book CD it would be hard to better without spending a vast amount of money I think. (It replaced a Chord DAC64 in my system and it was really no contest.) Only copes with sample rates up to 48k though.

Not really sure what a realistic price is here - they seem to be going for about $450-500 across the pond. PM me if interested. Oh it's black, and FWIW it also has a decent mains cable - VHAudio StarQuad I think (need to check).

 

hi interested in your DAC - plse let me know asking price if poss & location . thanks,. david

 

Hi David. Thanks for the interest. One went for $475 recently on Canuck Audio Mart which I don't think had the piggyback chips. That's a shade under £300 so how about £300 inc. P&P or £285 if collected. I'm in Chadwell Heath (E. London/Essex).

 

Now on E-bay