I hope my DAVE will arrive before Christmas, but i do not have so high expectations on that one ;(

:santa_tone1::santa_tone1:

May give them a listen beolab but if Rob would just build a 64 bit floating point 5 band mastering eq into the dac - job done. I could then stick with my Sonus Fabers.

Tbh I listen fairly near field like John but I am obsessive and always listen for reflections. A digital parametric mastering eq would be a simple solution imo. That would be my solution at least

Of course that would rule out native DSD ........but I wouldn't be shedding any tears.

Maximus
I agree the cradle is expensive but I rather suspect Dave may have some serious reviewers describing it as an audiophile bargain given the price of the competition.

daveredref-iii said:

May give them a listen beolab but if Rob would just build a 64 bit floating point 5 band mastering eq into the dac - job done. I could then stick with my Sonus Fabers.

Tbh I listen fairly near field like John but I am obsessive and always listen for reflections. A digital parametric mastering eq would be a simple solution imo. That would be my solution at least

Of course that would rule out native DSD ........but I wouldn't be shedding any tears.

Click to expand...

I dont see how a digital EQ can get rid of the reflections but if you feel happy about it, its fine with me

The BeoLab 90 with 18 woofers and 8200 watts of amps have a Beam array where you can control the beam sweet spot through an App and the 360 degree speaker control the refections perfect so the room acoustics doesn't matter as much any more.

Does who have listened to it describe it as the most holographic real world sound they have ever heard.

Whe received them the 10th December and the streamer will be the Arrender connected direct digitally to them.

Will also connect the DAVE to them and see what happens

Take a look at this seminar about the technologies in this new ground breaking £50.000 Beolab 90 speaker .

http://youtu.be/yC0hjRHCYs0

I look forward to reading a review Beolab.

Regarding reflections, all solutions that I have read about seem to map the booms and prominent reflections at their frequency and then subtract the volume in each prominent frequency band. A parametric eq can do a similar job on a subtractive basis. Of course it is still a bit of a fudge and acoustic room treatment is the best solution.

Talking about speakers,I was mightily impressed by the flat response of the Kef Blade Two reviewed by Stereophile. Check out the measurements

http://www.stereophile.com/content/kef-blade-two-loudspeaker-measurements#y4qmKjQqrj9mXSfY.97

I thought the review was a bit lacklustre but if flat response were the holy grail of speaker design then this speaker would be right up there with the absolute best. Only problem is the room you put it in will always have a say in the output.

I am no expert but for accurately portraying the stereo sound image, one need two point sound source. bigger the source size ( multiple drivers pointing in many directions ) may give the impression of more 3d like imaging which may not be accurate. I remember s chesky test track recorded by a single stereo mic. in this test a group playing different instruments travels around the mic. if the speakers are correctly toed in the group actually sound going behind you. this means if correctly toed in, only two point source are enough for accurately portraying the sound image. what u have experienced that at correct toe in the set up is almost free of room interactions and even the listening distance or sweet spot limitations. there is just life like image. but obviously the better the dac and equipments better is the positioning and stability of instruments in the soundstage.

sorry for some typos as I was using a phone.

The good news here is that we can see at least another two generations of Moore's Law coming up, offering us a 4x increase in transistors per given surface area in the coming 4 to 5 years.  That should allow for room correction to be applied at higher sampling rates and with greater precision than is possible today.  I've done some experiments with HQ Player and an impulse response taken via REW, but the plusses of applying correction were outweighed by the overall sonic negatives.  Interesting, but not a solution yet for prime time, at least outside of the dedicated processor domain.
 
Overall though, the relentless progress being made in digital signal processing has only just begun to transform the audio recording and reproduction landscape. Class D is only the beginning, a step along the path towards all kinds of interesting hybrid digital/analogue solutions.  By leveraging the digital signal, amplifier designers now have full, complete and accurate information on what the signal will be doing in the coming milliseconds.  This allows time to adjust voltage supply rails, bias settings, even output filter parameters, all with the goal of optimizing the amplifier for the signal it is about to be called upon to reproduce.  Further, we can now see a way to have the amplifier's output characteristics be tuned to the demands of the load  i.e. loudspeaker - again based on what it's about to send in way of a signal.  Today, amplifiers have to be compromised at the output, designed to drive a whole slew of different loads, resistive and reactive, and hence able to cope with a raft of different loudspeaker designs.  Meanwhile, even today speaker engineers are now co-locating Class D dedicated amps directly with the specific drive units they can be matched to, but this is expensive and complex (e.g. Meridian, B&O, and others using it just for the low-bass element.)  Suppose, though, you could download into your amp a digital speaker profile from the manufacturer that captures the frequency response, resistance and phase angle with frequency, and in real-time adjust the amplifier output to match?  Further, we can think about then providing immediate, real-time feedback via a wireless lapel mic. of the signal being received at the ear.  Who knows what this kind of fast-feedback could do for loudspeaker adjustment, room tuning, etc.  The possibilities are endless.
 
Folks, the digital fun has only just begun!
 
John

I believe Devialet have started down a related path in order to get the best out of individual speaker models and received good reviews John. As you say, we have only just started down that road.

Devialet have mapped 558 different speakers so far for their amps via their SAM technology.
http://en.devialet.com/expert/#discover

Guess who's hands is this in the pics? Lolz. These hands are freezing cold as I type now as the room at parkroyal Singapore are like winter in London.

Just have a lengthy good chat with Rob the guy. Friendly guy with great wisdom and knowledge.

I not posting review yet just impression later. But I am now much poorer man than I was 2hours ago.

mavwong said:

Guess who's hands is this in the pics? Lolz. These hands are freezing cold as I type now as the room at parkroyal Singapore are like winter in London.

Just have a lengthy good chat with Rob the guy. Friendly guy with great wisdom and knowledge.

I not posting review yet just impression later. But I am now much poorer man than I was 2hours ago.

Click to expand...

 

But richer in the soul   

tokengesture said:

But richer in the soul   

Click to expand...

Lol exactly!
Looking forward to your thoughts and experience of Dave

mavwong said:

Guess who's hands is this in the pics? Lolz. These hands are freezing cold as I type now as the room at parkroyal Singapore are like winter in London.

Just have a lengthy good chat with Rob the guy. Friendly guy with great wisdom and knowledge.

I not posting review yet just impression later. But I am now much poorer man than I was 2hours ago.

Click to expand...

 
 
Happy man !   I am indeed myself waiting to test the DAVE ( with my HE1000 Directly connected to DAVE's headphone out) before I decide to plunge for a TotalDAC ! 

If I had known  earlier that this show was going to be at Park Royal this weekend , I definitely  would have booked my flights a bit differently from what I am now  stuck with .
Regarding your being poorer than a few hours ago, are you  referring to the room-rates at Park Royal or did you just buy  the DAVE?
As I remember it last time I stayed there, room-rates were  quite ok for Singapore and the location near Clark Quay.
Is that your pair of HE 1000 next to the  DAVE too?
If so do let me know how they sounded via DAVE.
I have only listened to HE1000 via Hugo and  no other dac amp combo and I was  quite impressed by some of what I heard. But there were also things I think my trusted old HD 800 do better especially air ,depth  and soundstage compared to the new HE 1000 I auditioned in Singapore a few weeks ago.
HE 1000 also seemed to have more  problems with keeping  very dense passages , heavily scored parts, clear and transparent on some symphonic works I played compared to HD 800 which sort of takes a step back and allows things to unfold in an acoustic space where the recording has captured it.
I don't know if that was a problem related to the headphones or possibly  HUGO not  quite up to the job of driving them ?
But string sound  both  solo violin and tutti was" Oh So Sweet".
Well at least one of the shops at the Adelphi said they had DAVE on order so hopefully next time I am in town I will be able to audition it too.
Or at Singapore Can Jam in Februari.
Apart from via headphones I'd love to hear how DAVE  sounds via the Gryphon Pendragon speakers they have at Reference Audio  at the Adelphi.
PS. Air Con is adjustable in your room.

ok, I started with using my own Hugo source by my iphone5splus in airplane mode. Using well burn in HE1000.
 
Impression with the HE1000 was very positive, well in line with what others had review, so I won't cover HE1000 anymore.
 
As with how iphone as source sound, if anyone use iphone as source you would know its not the best source (256Kbps AAC from itune). With hugo, the base line is little muddy, separation even though is good with Hugo, it's miles ahead with Dave! The rest of the sound signature is not much different from Hugo. Dave is everything better than Hugo. To me it's separation and depth is most obvious. Even I listen at 0dB everything still in place (not that I can listen at 0dB for long, it's the max I could go for short term listening and to test at loud vol could the Dave handle HE1000).
 
You can't hear the depth on every recording. Most are record at near field. Just pick any live concert recording and you will know what I mean. You are basically standing in front of the stage with the singer facing the crowd and audience cheering for you, this is that good in reproduce live recording.
 
That said, how come iphone as source sounded so bad while Dave is completely different? Rob explain its the better Galvanic iso USB is the reason, But! I heard the Hugo TT before with the same Galvanic iso USB port and it didn't sounded as good. And that's why I bought the Hugo not the TT when I audit them together in shop fed by same iphone. I will let Rob to explain more if there's something that we don't know.
 
when I audit a DAC, I do care how well a DAC USB sounded as I do not want to spin CD. I use a optimize passive cool PC as my music server. So a good USB port is a must for me. That said, Dave USB input is much better than Hugo. Bass line is now much control with texture, vocal is clear (as many review HE1000 vocal don't sound meaty, with LCD4 yes it is), high is extended yet not cold and piercing.
 
Many people ask whether Dave is musical, this part I can't say for sure, cos I have not setup the Dave with proper source. But if you find Hugo musical, you are feeding it right and I am very confident Dave will be as musical if not beat the Hugo hands down. Well, I can make the Auralic Vega sound musical and involving even with exact clock setting and filter 1, I have confident Dave will be much better
 
Oh, 1 more thing. Those who prefer XLR, good news is the positive rail is the same as single ended, just the negative rail is additional circuit and comes from positive. Not using transformer as some designer preferred. So I would say the XLR is as good as single ended. Sorry Rob, I know you prefer single ended lolz
 
I will be also building my own cable for HE1000, using mundrof silver gold solid core and silver plated CU wires that plug direct at the back of Dave. Till then I will report back my finding again.