Greater musicality: the sounds just flows like water ... and with that comes greater emotional involvement.

... I started at around that level, but having been through some of the 'refinement' hoops discussed in these pages, seem to have settled at -41 to -43!

Just to second your final comment - the Nirvana straight out of DAVE, to a suitably transparent headphone, is fantastic ... and not just at the bass end.

HMS radiates RFI through both each and every cable: BNC and mains. A power conditioner will do nothing to help RFI travelling via BNC. I have not tried ferries, but Nick (Wave) offers them trial (at least in the UK - you could ask him re the US) ... so you could see if you feel they...

Everything matters ... and the differences are, surprisingly, large (percentages are tricky and potentially misleading, but I would put the potential upside at massively over 5%). You are wise to be cautious, though, about falling into a rabbit hole! The cheapest upgrade, which is very...

I am sure others will put it more knowledgeably, but HMS generates RF both into the mains and through the air. Using a battery addresses the first route for RF to travel but not the second. In other words, taking mains RF solution away is what a battery achieves (and a LPS will not totally...

Likewise, but I was taken by a DAC64. It just 'clicked' (and I cannot quite remember how I managed to afford it or justify it back then starting out on my first job ...) ... and jumping after many many years to a DAVE the family resemblance is unmistakable! The DAC 64 had an optional buffer.

I am sure Rob has posted that, if EQ is required, he prefers to approach it in the physical rather than the digital domain. At a very simple level, given the difficulties (to which the length of this thread attests!) of optimising reproduction of a digital signal in an analogue domain (be it...

I had a Blu Mk1 for about 14 years. After about 12 years the little plastic puck fractured. I gather this is not unusual - the plastic breaks down over time. Chord sent me a replacement, free, by return. Way out of guarantee. Couldn't really ask for more than that.

The software model, where as you say things do not work initially, is truly best avoided where possible (granted, in some situations it cannot be). Heaven forfend that Chord would go that route! A product (at least a product with a particular close-ended purpose - e.g. a washing...

I have not tried an external amp - and I suspect this is very personal. However, I have experimented with headphone cables on Utopia (because the clean source approach appealed to me). The differences are readily detectable. So if a single wire can make a difference, I can imagine that an...

Yes. And if you read around a bit (eg in relation to Taiko’s rationalisation of their Daiza) it seem rather doubtful whether, even if money were no object, the approach taken by the Tungsten Groove would be likely to yield the best results.

Indeed!

Not in Canadian terms, as I recall. But then there was UK VAT and import handling charges which, in percentage (if not absolute) terms, were annoying!

That wouldn't surprise me. I was just following hints helpfully dropped by Ray - and I understand that the effect is sufficiently nuanced that you can hear the difference between balls of different diameters and materials. The physics is complicated. I get the impression that on the one...