CHORD ELECTRONICS DAVE
Oct 25, 2016 at 3:48 PM Post #5,356 of 25,720
Speaking of subtle differences, which of the 4 Display options do you guys prefer for best SQ?
This is not entirely a joke question
:wink:
Lol, blacker background with option 4 when the screen turns off, of course!
smily_headphones1.gif

Yes, that is exactly the right answer!
beerchug.gif

 
Don't get me wrong, I really like the display, and the colour options, and the way the colours change with status. And I usually have Display 1 or 3 on constantly when audiophiling around.
But when I'm simply enjoying music, the OCD in me always goes for Display 4. It's so subtle it may well be my imagination, but it's just what I do. 
 
Oct 25, 2016 at 3:51 PM Post #5,357 of 25,720
 
Speaking of subtle differences, which of the 4 Display options do you guys prefer for best SQ?
This is not entirely a joke question
:wink:
Lol, blacker background with option 4 when the screen turns off, of course!
smily_headphones1.gif

Yes, that is exactly the right answer!
beerchug.gif

 
Don't get me wrong, I really like the display, and the colour options, and the way the colours change with status. And I usually have Display 1 or 3 on constantly when audiophiling around.
But when I'm simply enjoying music, the OCD in me always goes for Display 4. It's so subtle it may well be my imagination, but it's just what I do. 

 
 
Even the most resolving DAC on planet earth does not claim to be able to cure customers' OCD 
wink_face.gif
      Sorry if your dealer led you to believe it cures all that ails you! LOL
 
Oct 25, 2016 at 4:08 PM Post #5,358 of 25,720
Yes, that is exactly the right answer!
beerchug.gif


Don't get me wrong, I really like the display, and the colour options, and the way the colours change with status. And I usually have Display 1 or 3 on constantly when audiophiling around.
But when I'm simply enjoying music, the OCD in me always goes for Display 4. It's so subtle it may well be my imagination, but it's just what I do.


The display can generate some noise for a short while on the Hugo TT - do you experience any similar noise.


http://www.head-fi.org/t/756029/chord-hugo-tt-high-end-dac-amp-impressions-thread/510#post_12717470
 
Last edited:
Oct 25, 2016 at 11:38 PM Post #5,359 of 25,720
Is there a place where the designer talk about it? As far as I understand only the Ethernet input side is Galv isolated.
 
Quote:
The Regen inside of the microRendu galvanically isolates, which is very fortuitous when used with the DAVE.

 
Oct 26, 2016 at 10:39 AM Post #5,360 of 25,720


From my understanding the USB output is, explained somewhere on CA. But the Ethernet port can't be guaranteed, though, can it, because so much depends on the type of cable you use, yes?

Well, anyway, I'm not an expert on the subject since I've just now began dabbling into this sort of thing.
 
Oct 26, 2016 at 7:34 PM Post #5,361 of 25,720
  Has anyone done a direct comparison between the DAVE & older QBD76 HDSD?  I've owned the QBD76 for quite some time now & really like it but thinking about an upgrade.  Have already tried the Hugo TT but it really didn't do it for me -- I also found it somewhat "thin"...


Hi Pete, I started off with the DAC64 back in 2002 and moved to a BLU and DAC64 MkII a few years later. I could hear shortcomings in the DAC64 but they were outweighed by the positives. As soon as the QBD76 came out I went for a listen and was impressed by how much better than the DAC64 it was, everything being a step up, especially the bottom end.
 
A couple of years ago I bought an Indigo with the HDSD upgrade. One big advantage of the Indigo was the integrated analogue volume control of the Chord CPA5000, I'd never considered my CPA4000 to flavour the sound before and no other pre-amp I'd heard was as transparent. The Indigo changed that. I sold the QBD and CPA4000 for a fair bit more than the unloved Indigo cost and ended up with a better source connected directly to my SPM1400’s. By the way, the DAC implementation in the Indigo sounded better than the QBD76's - not by much though.
 
The Indigo also has a single analogue input so when I loaned a Dave back at the beginning of February for a month (thanks to Fanthorpes), I was able to compare the 2 DACs like for like. For me the difference was initially a bit more subtle, I had to listen back and forth to hear what was actually going on whereas with the DAC64/QBD76 comparison it was clear. There were a few things that jumped out, the most disconcerting of which was the speed of the music, it just seemed quicker, more pace.
 
The QBD76 doesn't get blown away by the Dave, it just gets slightly humbled by it. The Dave does everything a bit better, one can still hear the same information but it's fleshed out, textured, located a bit better.
 
One caveat to this though, I messed around with a few cables before Dave and never noticed much of a change. A few weeks ago I hooked up some different speaker cables and could hear the difference immediately and then less obviously with a change of interconnect between Dave and the amps. A bit of sensible tweaking to Dave’s connected environment may lead to further audible gains.
 
H.
 
Oct 26, 2016 at 7:41 PM Post #5,362 of 25,720
 
Hi Pete, I started off with the DAC64 back in 2002 and moved to a BLU and DAC64 MkII a few years later. I could hear shortcomings in the DAC64 but they were outweighed by the positives. As soon as the QBD76 came out I went for a listen and was impressed by how much better than the DAC64 it was, everything being a step up, especially the bottom end.
 
A couple of years ago I bought an Indigo with the HDSD upgrade. One big advantage of the Indigo was the integrated analogue volume control of the Chord CPA5000, I'd never considered my CPA4000 to flavour the sound before and no other pre-amp I'd heard was as transparent. The Indigo changed that. I sold the QBD and CPA4000 for a fair bit more than the unloved Indigo cost and ended up with a better source connected directly to my SPM1400’s. By the way, the DAC implementation in the Indigo sounded better than the QBD76's - not by much though.
 
The Indigo also has a single analogue input so when I loaned a Dave back at the beginning of February for a month (thanks to Fanthorpes), I was able to compare the 2 DACs like for like. For me the difference was initially a bit more subtle, I had to listen back and forth to hear what was actually going on whereas with the DAC64/QBD76 comparison it was clear. There were a few things that jumped out, the most disconcerting of which was the speed of the music, it just seemed quicker, more pace.
 
The QBD76 doesn't get blown away by the Dave, it just gets slightly humbled by it. The Dave does everything a bit better, one can still hear the same information but it's fleshed out, textured, located a bit better.
 
One caveat to this though, I messed around with a few cables before Dave and never noticed much of a change. A few weeks ago I hooked up some different speaker cables and could hear the difference immediately and then less obviously with a change of interconnect between Dave and the amps. A bit of sensible tweaking to Dave’s connected environment may lead to further audible gains.
 
H.

 
Thanks for your reply Hubert, I appreciate it.  Looks like the DAVE could be well worth a demo in that case.  The rest of the system is pretty revealing so it should show up any differences.
 
Pete.
 
Oct 26, 2016 at 11:56 PM Post #5,363 of 25,720
I wonder if the QBD76 has the same 3D depth of sound stage of the Dave?
 
For me when I auditioned Hugo TT vs Dave, the Dave to my ears, during that audition, was much better than the TT.
 
TT sounded like a recording, Dave sounded like a live event right in front of me. Each instrument had it's own space in the 3d sound stage, quite spectacular.
 
Oct 27, 2016 at 1:26 AM Post #5,364 of 25,720
It seems everyone's experience of DAVE vs QBD76 is different. For me, I use DAVE & QBD76HDSD via USB input. Moreover, I had the QBD76HDSD direct to amp so I was digitally attenuating volume in 24-bit to feed the QBD76HDSD. I found the sound between DAVE and QBD76HDSD night and day. This may partly be due to RF noise from the USB into the QBD76HDSD. The realism and timbre of sound, the better timing of transients for every instrument just blows the QBD76HDSD out of the water. Moreover, it's not so much the improved soundstage depth for me going from the QBD76HDSD to DAVE, it's actually the improved 3-dimensionality of the sound where each instrument and each vocal feels like they occupy their own space in my living room, as opposed to the QBD76HDSD where by comparison each instrument sounds flat in space (which I guess is related to depth perception). I think as with everything else, YMMV probably because everyone's setup is different.
 
As a total aside I actually wonder for a time whether the Chord Mojo has better realism and timbre of sound and better timing of transients compared to the QBD76HDSD although the QBD76HDSD has a lower noise floor and better soundstage depth compared to the Mojo. But I didn't really spend much time doing that comparison.
 
Oct 27, 2016 at 1:34 AM Post #5,365 of 25,720
  It seems everyone's experience of DAVE vs QBD76 is different. For me, I use DAVE & QBD76HDSD via USB input. Moreover, I had the QBD76HDSD direct to amp so I was digitally attenuating volume in 24-bit to feed the QBD76HDSD. I found the sound between DAVE and QBD76HDSD night and day. This may partly be due to RF noise from the USB into the QBD76HDSD. The realism and timbre of sound, the better timing of transients for every instrument just blows the QBD76HDSD out of the water. Moreover, it's not so much the improved soundstage depth for me going from the QBD76HDSD to DAVE, it's actually the improved 3-dimensionality of the sound where each instrument and each vocal feels like they occupy their own space in my living room, as opposed to the QBD76HDSD where by comparison each instrument sounds flat in space (which I guess is related to depth perception). I think as with everything else, YMMV probably because everyone's setup is different.

I have a feeling this is the case.  Although I haven't heard the DAVE as yet, I was impressed by the USB input on the Hugo TT -- it seemed pretty much immune to what was plugged into it, at least in my setup.  That's potentially worth the cost of admission alone once the cost of a decent computer audio setup is factored in...
 
Oct 27, 2016 at 3:36 AM Post #5,366 of 25,720
  It seems everyone's experience of DAVE vs QBD76 is different. For me, I use DAVE & QBD76HDSD via USB input. Moreover, I had the QBD76HDSD direct to amp so I was digitally attenuating volume in 24-bit to feed the QBD76HDSD. I found the sound between DAVE and QBD76HDSD night and day. This may partly be due to RF noise from the USB into the QBD76HDSD. The realism and timbre of sound, the better timing of transients for every instrument just blows the QBD76HDSD out of the water. Moreover, it's not so much the improved soundstage depth for me going from the QBD76HDSD to DAVE, it's actually the improved 3-dimensionality of the sound where each instrument and each vocal feels like they occupy their own space in my living room, as opposed to the QBD76HDSD where by comparison each instrument sounds flat in space (which I guess is related to depth perception). I think as with everything else, YMMV probably because everyone's setup is different.
 
As a total aside I actually wonder for a time whether the Chord Mojo has better realism and timbre of sound and better timing of transients compared to the QBD76HDSD although the QBD76HDSD has a lower noise floor and better soundstage depth compared to the Mojo. But I didn't really spend much time doing that comparison.


It could be the way the attenuation was done, it could be because my listening was done with the BLU in dual data mode or it could be that we heard similar changes but reference them differently
smily_headphones1.gif

 
H.
 
Oct 27, 2016 at 9:00 AM Post #5,367 of 25,720
Recently ordered DAVE and hoping to use eventually with new Chord digital power amp when available.
I was wondering could Rob or colleague comment on potential subwoofer use with the new amplifier - I presume a subwoofer connected to DAVE's analogue output would not be suitable?
 
Andrew
 
Oct 27, 2016 at 11:01 AM Post #5,368 of 25,720
 
The QBD76 doesn't get blown away by the Dave, it just gets slightly humbled by it. The Dave does everything a bit better, one can still hear the same information but it's fleshed out, textured, located a bit better.
 

 
Indeed, it's been mentioned in this thread, if not straight up stated to be a fact, that our ears are so used to hearing music played back in a mechanical manner that we have been acclimated to an artificial sound which has become the norm. If we hold this statement to be true, then any upgrade, even if we were at 500,000 taps at the moment, might not register as immediately apparent to the ears as it would to the brain. Well, I mean, I have no idea what 500,000 taps would sound like actually, but I can only theorize. It might be a huge jump between 166k.
 
Actually I just used your post as a catalyst for my thoughts, and not necessarily addressing you specifically. Because...
 
I had this dream. No joke, I actually dreamt this, that I went to the Chord factory, and I was hanging out with John Franks and Rob, along with some smoking hot employee of theirs, and for some reason (although this wouldn't happen in real life), Rob let me listen to a "DAVE" that was already at a little over 1million taps, but he explained that he couldn't put it out yet because they need to make money on the 500k, 750k tap models, first, otherwise they would kill their own market. I knew this made business sense - even if it was screwed up - but man, it left me feeling pretty hollow. Rob said, "I mean, why wouldn't I have already reached 1million taps, when all it is is a matter of programing." I was shocked!
 
Anyway, of course it wasn't real life. I actually woke up not thinking about Chord, but more like, "What if they already have the cure of cancer, but they'd never let us know because there goes all the big money for doctors, pharmaceuticals, hospitals and the like."
 
Why am I writing all of this? Well, I guess I just have the DAVE on my mind. It really is a brilliant piece of gear.   
 
Oct 27, 2016 at 11:35 AM Post #5,369 of 25,720
  Recently ordered DAVE and hoping to use eventually with new Chord digital power amp when available.
I was wondering could Rob or colleague comment on potential subwoofer use with the new amplifier - I presume a subwoofer connected to DAVE's analogue output would not be suitable?
 
Andrew

 
You can run it that way for sure. Or use two power amps (that's why the DX outputs are 4). I guess I will need to have a volume trim function on the amps, when its in DX mode, so one can have differing gains. It won't be difficult to do as master volume is sent digitally, so adding a fixed volume offset is easy.
 
Rob
 
Oct 27, 2016 at 11:57 AM Post #5,370 of 25,720
I know this might sound heretical, but it is possible to be happy with what you've got, enjoy stimulating music, and not worry where the next upgrade's coming from. Before I embarked on decades of upgrading, did I appreciate and enjoy music less? Not really. Do I regret it? A little bit. It's not the most cost effective way to spend money, and I could probably have got to the same point for much less, though of course I didn't know how to get there before I did (if that makes sense).

There's always room for improvement, in everything, but dissatisfaction is a largely negative frame of mind which can never be sated as it's objects are endless, and it provides little reward. (If you're an engineer, the position is rather different.)
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top