For Chord DACs the RCA outputs provide the most transparent sound as they have fewer parts in the signal path.

@Rob Watts Happy New Year! As I'm contemplating going from passive to active speaker crossovers with the heart of my system being my lovely Chord gear, I'm in desperate need of advice. I have a setup consisting of an HMS/DAVE combo and a Benchmark AHB2 amp feeding a pair of open baffle...

Actually I purchased my DAVE just over two years ago, but I ordered directly from a UK dealer as there was no Chord distributor here in Denmark at the time. I'm waiting for a black M Scaler. It will be interesting to see if we get ours from the same shipment.

Just be aware that the M Scaler should receive an unmodified signal. If you do any signal processing up front, especially upsampling, then the M Scaler won't be able to deliver that "almost identical to original" signal to your DAC.

I've had no issues with 192 KHz sample rate content using this very inexpensive cable from KabelDirekt from my motherboard optical output to either my Chord Mojo or Chord DAVE (I bought the 12.5 meter version)...

I seem to recall that the M-scaler has a bypass feature for the upsampling that allows you to do exactly that.

No, for competitive gaming even the shorter 104 ms delay in video mode will be too large. For movies, assuming you are either insensitive to lip sync issues, have a video device with large processing delays or a way to delay the video side of things, the M Scaler will be an excellent choice.

I'd be hard pressed to tell a difference between feeding my DAVE from optical vs feeding it from USB using an ISO REGEN powered by an LPS-1.2. Using the robust stock DC cable for the LPS-1.2 rather than a small CCTV male/male DC adapter pretty much eliminated the differences between the optical...

Whelp, there goes my future savings :joy:

Sure, this was merely what I considered the minimal viable product.

@Rob Watts Adding a Hugo M Scaler (HMS) to a speaker system might look like this: PC (USB) -> HMS -> DAVE -> power amp -> 3-way speakers (passive crossover) Assuming the gains would be worth the added expenses, how do you propose we employ active crossovers within the future Chord ecosystem...

Alright, since we're talking about comparing USB on the DAVE, I have experiences of my own to share: Today, I connected my 10 year old "once-considered-gaming-enthusiast" PC with a 12,5m optical cable to my Chord DAVE, as I wanted to compare it to my existing USB chain with a 12m Supra USB...

I think the price will be closer to half the TT2, around £2000 or maybe a bit higher. Here's why: Unlike the Blu2 and other Chord products, the M-scaler will likely not provide you with any additional features such as CD playback, streaming, amplification or D/A conversion. The M-scaler is...

@Rob Watts Would an inline BNC lowpass filter (linked below) be a viable alternative to adding ferrites to the coax cables connecting the Blu2 and DAVE? Datasheet for BLP-7-75+

I've been driving my Tannoy Canterbury GR speakers directly from the DAVE RCA outs for some time now. They are 8 Ohm nominal 5 Ohm minimal impedance. As long as you don't listen very loudly and/or do a lot of digital EQ (thus eating up the headroom), you'll be fine. I'm expecting a Benchmark...

So, after Blu 2 has been released, what's next in the pipeline? The Davina or the digital amp? (and does it have a name?) :)

In short: Yes, no, no, yes.

I didn't find the GS-X mkII bright out of my TotalDAC.

Hmm... Maybe you haven't fully turned up the volume on your player? In that case you would need a higher volume setting on your DAVE.

Another way would be to disconnect one of the signal cables between DAC and amp.

  Alternatively, if you prefer something purer than a "Blue Velvet" ALPS pot, take a look at this passive preamp employing LDRs (light dependent resistors): http://www.tortugaaudio.com/product/ldr3-v2-passive-preamp/   Besides reviews linked from the website above, you can glean some...

  In that case you might want to consider the miniDSP nanoAVR HD that retails for $249. It provides 10 bands of parametric EQ per channel plus a host of other features. Note that I haven't tried the unit, so I can't vouch for it being fully transparent. I've been tempted to purchase it myself...

  I owned the DEQ2496 for years, but in the end it had to go. As you said, even on bypass it robbed the music of dynamics and soul. Now I use EqualizerAPO on my PC. It works great, and unlike the DEQ2496 it's completely transparent to my ears.

As the output impedance for the tube version is 460 Ohm, a headphone output with such a high impedance would make little sense.

  I had one major comfort issue with my LCD-X. The phone ended up resting on just the back part of the headband, which caused a painful hotspot on my head within less than 30 minutes of listening. I searched and found the leather suspension strap mentioned above, and it completely resolved my...