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Jochen Lanz
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ARRIVAL: 04.11.2007 - 04:13 PM - Germany
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system: Saba Cello -fullrange resonant cabinet, EL34, PL82 Amp, Passiv Pre, Schröder arm.
LoveLetterTo: Monica
It's been a while! -since i started with monica... But bevor i start with my past: i worked as a sound engineer in germay, in my cousines company (since i was 11). The day I first wrote a typical audiophile magazine a kind virus come into me...
From there on a wide search for feelings of "staging" "detail" "transpercy" "natural sound" and and and began. I bought lots of devices and could only suffer from the first weeks, when you're happy about new stuff, gifts..but I was never satisfied--  Maybe you know that feeling well, too.
In the End of the 90's I started with "DIY" -had enough of these "product-marketing circles".
In my journey, I past a lot of devices, like the famous playstation one -mod. A nice sounding altenative due most of common cd-players and commercial High End CDPs like maranz. But I was never satisfied...I already had a very very high sensible LS that offered every little detail.
 And here she comes, one year ago I bought her from yeos shop. Well soldered it and felt in love with it ohh a sorry "her". I drive her with battery, huge caps behind it -to have extremly low noisefloor and very little impedances. The Cd-drive is well made from parasound (with a very important Tact Clock-mod). Some small mods on monica like Ecap-mode with the wonderful BG caps finallized her momentary built-status. How does it sounds? I compared monica to a lot of good made CDPs. A Accuphase for 12000 USDs, to one of the worlds most famous Playstaion mods. And?? she was always better. Monica sings like musician from the heart , she shows details that hasn't been heard before...Fast and smooth both is possible with her. A lot of people sad, if they had listened to her earlier, they won't had bought such a big analog system...
Monica is very close to analog, i have a big analog system too, and the only thing where i favoure this is when it comes to a totally free airy sound--because of no limits in high frequencies above 20K.
So what shell i say: It's a wonderful wonderful part in my Diy-Time!!!
Yeo is a kind of genuis and a prophet  , why? because he offers you things that open a door which isn't achiveable for most people in the wolrd. Monica, Charlize, Maggie &&& -they all have a certain quaility that would be heavily payed  with commercial market products!!!
Can you listen to music without hearing the thrilling desire of musicians-no i can't!anymore... and every men that i've shown that yet agreeed with me. monica brings U the MUSIC, that can only be heard when sitting in a live show -or better sitting backstage and listen to the pure sound of instruments. U won't believe what is missed with conventional DAC's hard artifical sound, and no natural, the "mathematical" laws of overtones can be heard in this purityness with fastinating magic.
So here last are my advices: Use battery! use lots of caps! use a tact clock for the CDp drive part, don't built monica outside a CDP no no! let her join the fewest connection lengths as possible, no digital cabels -plugs !!only diect soldering!!. Use I/V or not, i haven't missed it yet.
If you follow up this, u never ask your self like: where is staging? detail, transperency or natural sound
With glowing greets to all DIYERS in the world! and thanks to Yeo!
Jochen
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9
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Ole Schuesseler
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ARRIVAL: 21.06.2007 - 07:59 AM - Thailand
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system: NorhTec Microclient jr., USB Monica, Charlize
LoveLetterTo: USB Monica
I received USB Monica today, and I already put her in yet another cigar box.
For now I'm using a wall wart power supply that outputs about 13-14V under
load, I will make something better later.
I listened to it for an hour or so. Compared to my Monica2 with ss i/v, it
sounds somewhat different. Sound stage resolution got considerably better,
especially depth, which is probably due to lack of digital jitter. Distant
instruments can be really located, before it was more like guessing. Voices
are about the same as before, perhaps a little warmer, which is not a bad
thing.
What sounds really different is piano. So far I was never really happy with
the way piano was reproduced. None of my CD/SACD players, my old DAC, or
Monica2 could do it. Usually overly bright, lacking body and detail. I had
many piano lessons on a very nice grand piano (Boesendorfer Imperial), I got
an upright piano at home in Germany, and a reasonable electronic one here in
Thailand; I know how it really sounds. With USB Monica, I hear something that
comes at least close. The difference to Monica2 is not subtle. On some
recordings it sounds like they changed the instrument. I wonder where that's
from...?
Bass lines in jazz recordings sound more realistic, too. A plucked fretless
bass often sounds undefined in the sense that one hears that it's being
plucked, meaning one can hear a kick from the bass speakers, but the tone
itself is not very clear and therefore listening is not easy. With USB
Monica, these bass lines are precise and fun to listen to.
The ss i/v stage has a very good power supply rejection by itself, so I'm not
sure if it really benefits a lot from a better supply. Anyway, I will try and
also power the ss i/v with higher voltage, which seemed to be an advantage
with Monica2.
Congratulations to this product! This has left the DIY realm, it is suitable
for any end user. Easy to use, very high quality, cheap.
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7
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Graham Woods
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ARRIVAL: 20.04.2007 - 12:12 PM - Australia
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system: See text
LoveLetterTo: Monica 2
MONICA 2 AND THE BUMBLE BEE
I want to tell you a story.
Once upon a time (though not so long ago) a blind man was sitting on a park bench. Beside him was his four-year-old nephew: we’ll call him Defan. ‘Uncle Josh!’ he shouted, ‘A bumble bee’s just landed on my hand!’
‘Uh? Bumble bee?
‘Yes, yes! Aw, it’s flown away.’
‘Don’t be silly Defan.’
‘What?’
‘Don’t be silly; don’t tell stories: bumble bees can’t fly.’
‘But it did, it did!’
‘Rubbish Defan. I have many learned friends: engineers, scientists. They’ve measured bumble bees very carefully: their weight, their shape, the size of their wings. The measurements show they can’t fly.’
‘But it did Uncle Josh, it did!’
‘It didn’t Defan; the measurements prove it.’
* * *
I made that story up. It’s fiction, pure fiction (including the claim that bumble bees can’t fly). But what about this?
‘I then tested the ESR and capacitance of a 220uF and 10uF electrolytic, and a 1uF polyester capacitor.
(In the original a table of results follows.)
‘I thought that this was quite interesting, personally. If we use 10uF electros where we might have otherwise used a 1uF polyester, the ESR is better. Will it make any difference whatsoever to the sound? Of course not. None of these devices introduced any measurable distortion or anything else that I could see. One thing I know for sure is that if I can't see any change on my distortion meter residual, then there is no change.’
* * *
This text isn’t something I made up; it’s a classical piece of illogicality that I took word-for-word from the web site of a ‘measurement freak’: in this instance an engineer (as far as I can work out) who seems to think that if he can’t MEASURE a difference then other people can’t HEAR a difference. I often wonder: do these charlies ever check, to discover whether they themselves can hear a difference? Or are they so enslaved by their measuring instruments that they don’t even bother? Let’s assume that they do listen, but that they can’t hear a difference. Does that – or their measurements – prove that other people can’t either? Well ... no. Rather obvious really, isn’t it?
So let’s move to the experience of just a couple of those ‘other’ people – people who believe that if you’re trying to assess music you should trust your ears rather than your oscilloscope. What my partner Denise and I heard a few months ago was sensational.
After a lot of reading about NOS dacs generally, and a lot of questions for the very patient Yeo, Denise and I ordered a Monica 2. After the Paypal transaction we were nervous: until then we’d never bought a piece of hi-fi gear without auditioning it first.
A few days after her arrival in Melbourne our Monica 2 was mounted on a block of hard-wood, with digital and analogue cables hard-wired and a 2200uF capacitor installed to provide a more constant power supply.
We decided to give Monica the best chance we could offer to strut her stuff. For serious listening (to both CDs and LPs) we use a VTL Super Deluxe preamplifier feeding a VTL 90/90 amplifier fitted with KT88s. The CD front end is a Rega Planet 2000. Speakers are Whatmough 502i (3-way floor-standers), tri-wired. The sound through this system is among the best we’ve heard; could Monica 2 improve it?
To provide a point of comparison (and after warming the system for 40 minutes) we played several tracks of one of our favourite discs through our Rega Planet 2000. Then we linked Monica up to our Planet as transport, connected her to a 12 volt battery and switched her on. As you’d expect, the first disc we played was the one we’d just been playing.
Ye gods! (My words were actually more vulgar.) She’s called ‘Monica 2’. ‘Monica almost 2 good to get your head around’ is more accurate. During the past few years Denise and I have auditioned at least twenty dacs (either in players or stand-alone), including two Naim players, almost all the Musical Fidelity dacs and the stratospherically priced dCS Purcell-Delius combination. In most cases we’ve been able to put them head to head against either our own Planet 2000 or one provided by the store. In the case of the latest Cyrus dac and the allegedly awesome Chord DAC 64 our auditioning was across 48 hours in our own system. Most of the dacs we’ve auditioned have been a lot better than okay; a couple were really impressive; but none of them shook our timbers enough for us to want to retire our Rega Planet. But this! We shook our heads in disbelief, tried to smooth the goose bumps and the neck hair, and continued to listen – for the next seven hours. We stopped at 2AM the following morning. We didn’t want to but sanity dictated that we get some sleep.
Later that day (a Sunday) we listened to Monica again. Again the same experience: goose bumps, disbelief, occasional throat constriction and a hint of tears. We played discs drawn from every genre in our collection: pop, folk, jazz, classical, choir, live performances, studio productions. It didn’t matter what it was: it was riveting. And for the first time, when auditioning a digital component, we felt no urge to analyse. Now we weren’t interested in ‘sound-stage depth’ (or width), ‘dynamic range’, ‘bass extension’, or any other technical parameter: we were willing captives of a musical experience. We could have compared what we were now hearing with the same discs played directly through the Planet – but we didn’t want to; there was no point; both of us knew, without going through the exercise, that Monica 2 was in a different league.
This, I believe, is at the heart of what I’ll call ‘the Monica 2 experience’. One’s orientation shifts, dramatically. Despite possible analytical intentions, you find yourself casting them aside. You discover that you’re no longer assessing a piece of equipment – and that you don’t want to and don’t need to. You’re taken to the original performance: not via mental boxes that you tick on the way (‘sound-stage’, ‘treble extension’ etc.), but directly, via your heart and soul. This is what we expect to happen when we attend a quality live performance. At a live concert – even if we’re not particularly enjoying it – we seldom go into ‘audition mode’, awarding points for ‘bass extension’, ‘PRAT’ or ‘transparency’. Most of us, though, do whip out our mental calculator when we listen to most digital equipment – and we do it, I think, because the music it delivers doesn’t captivate us. Speaking for myself at least, I now realize that all the dacs I’ve heard until Monica 2 have offered me a mixture of boredom and irritation. In varying degrees disconnected from the music, I’ve had the time and the inclination to dissect it. Monica 2 arrests my attention, captures my mind AND heart, and makes analysis unnecessary.
Like all NOS dacs (apparently), Monica 2 will probably measure abysmally – but, even straight off the starting line, she SOUNDS sublime. Since opening night our Monica 2 has racked up about 150 hours. I can’t say I’ve heard any difference across that time, though Yeo says that a Monica 2 takes 150 – 200 hours to run in. With a dac this good, however, we move from sublime to: what? ‘Sublime plus’? To me it just doesn’t matter. Almost from the opening bars of the first CD we played, it was obvious to me and Denise that this is the best sounding dac we’ve ever heard, so good that we’re not likely to bother to listen to any others. Unless Yeo comes up with a Monica 3 ... .
Graham Woods
[Graham Woods is a Melbourne (Australia) clinical psychologist. Denise Oh is a business systems and knowledge management consultant, as well as a trained musician. Both are audiophiles and occasional DIYers.]
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