I’d give it a few days of continuous use and for your system (and possibly brain) to adjust. My experience with the almost all components, including digital and analogue cables (and the iSilencer) is that it can take time for burn-in and/or the system to settle down, possibly something to do...

I’ve been trying the new angled pads with the Elite, out of a Chord DAVE, with mixed impressions. The soundstage is set slightly further back, there’s a bit more detail and probably a more even frequency response, but everything seems a little grey. With the hybrid pads colours are more vibrant...

Meze Elite - a winning combination.

The use of compression doesn’t surprise me, nor the issues that can arise when it’s not applied. Many highly regarded recordings use compression of some kind, though it might depend on the overall sound levels and dynamic range. For example: I understand the ECM label almost always uses mild...

I’d say 150 to 200 hours.

You may be right, as reflected in the fact that there doesn’t seem to be much overlap between the figures Rob emphasises and other figures cited. Although there’s an element of subjectivity and taste involved, what I find more difficult to understand is the claim that one can’t hear a...

Most if not all of the things you mention may be true but I still think that, with the possible exception of point 4), it misses something. It’s an argument ad hominem, using motive to judge the accuracy of the conclusion. For me, the substantive question is what measurements matter and why they...

Perhaps adding fuel to the fire, but there is Einstein’s famous dictum that not everything that can be measured is important and not everything that’s important can be measured. One of the frustrating things about these debates is that there is no consensus on what measurements matter, how they...

Rather than have the truth out there it would be nice to have it in here!

I can’t remember seeing that in the manual but as a headphone user, if correct, that’s an important - indeed critical - piece of nformation.

Smooth, Dynamic, etc in the Filter mode is a little different from upsampling on an Auralic device. The Filters are relatively benign and Smooth is a popular option. I think the point that’s been made is that it might be best to have the quite separate upsampling option off and leave that to the...

My own experience with upsampling prior to the DAVE, albeit brief, is that although certain tonal characteristics can be affected, you tend to lose something in transparency.

Boulder by name and boulder by nature?

Yes, that would be my recommendation: keep the digital signal in its native format and let the DAVE handle upsampling.

My understanding is that Dave upsamples through all its inputs, other than possibly the dual BNC inputs from an mscaler, which does the upsampling.