[ray-dude]

I didn't think the DAVE sounded that much better than my Yggy, nor could I hear a big difference between just DAVE and DAVE with Blu2 on speakers. However, when I listened to just DAVE versus DAVE with Blu2 on headphones, the difference was massive.

Even with just the DAVE, I am finding a massive impact on 2 channel based on the amp that you're using. I've been testing DAVE -> Omega Super Alnico's, and going from a low end tube amp to a Classe amp to a Benchmark amp to a tiny Bantam amp to going direct makes a huge difference. Given the difference between Hugo2 and DAVE, I imagine the impact of an amp limiting things would be even bigger with the Blu2.

 

[Limniscate]

I never ran the DAVE directly to my power amp (Sanders Magtech), but had it running through my Audio Research Ref5SE.

When I heard DAVE with Blu2 on speakers, it was at RMAF this year, so it wasn't under ideal conditions.

 

[Malcyg]

That’s a double-edged sword, and as they say: “ignorance is bliss”. Has your pleasure in listening to music increased, and if so, has that been commensurate with the cost?

In all honesty, yes we are absolutely delighted with our system now and are playing it far more. But you are right - ignorance can be financial bliss.

 

[marcmccalmont]

Just one mans opinion. I preferred the MSB CD IV over Blu2 into HUGO2 put got even better sound using the MSB into BLU2 as an upscaler then into HUGO2 (Dual Data Mode)
Lets see when I get back to my primary system I'll try it again with DAVE The Phillips CD pro2 is a good drive but not the best I think Blu2, Dave and HUGO2 respond well to ultra low jitter/phase noise sources.

 

[Malcyg]

Just one mans opinion. I preferred the MSB CD IV over Blu2 into HUGO2 put got even better sound using the MSB into BLU2 as an upscaler then into HUGO2 (Dual Data Mode)
Lets see when I get back to my primary system I'll try it again with DAVE The Phillips CD pro2 is a good drive but not the best I think Blu2, Dave and HUGO2 respond well to ultra low jitter/phase noise sources.

That surprises me Marc - are you saying that you found a transport into Blu II via SPDIF to sound better than a CD played via Blu? I don’t doubt the quality of your CD transport, but it’s the SPDIF connection that I’ve always found to be a bit lacking. I had an MBL CD transport which cost more than Blu II and was a superbly built item that sounded excellent through Dave via AES/EBU. I would have loved to have kept it, but it just did not sound as good as the Blu CD when played into BluDave via SPDIF. For me, the SPDIF loses several degrees of transparency and subtlety. I found the same recently with the dCS Network Bridge.

 

[marcmccalmont]

Your MBL is superbly made but has much more jitter/phase noise than the MSB and yes I was surprised too one would think a spdif encoding/decoding would be less SQ but let’s see how things turn out with Blu/Dave

 

[TheAttorney]

I was looking for a huge jump in sound going from Hugo 1 to Hugo 2, wasn't there for me, was going to purchase another Hugo 2 for son, but we both agreed not a big enough jump to spend that kind of money.
My dealer has told me that my Blu 2 will arrive to them tomorrow, and to me later, I hope my experience is different from yours TheAttorney.

The last few posts confirm that people continue to react very differently to the same component. But with so many variables involved in each circumstance, this should not be surprising. All you need to do is to approach your listening with an open mind. If it works out then that's great. If it doesn't work out then that's fine too. I think I'd go mad if I tried to rationalise every time I came across a conflicting result.

In case there was any doubt, I did like the Blu2 and the improvements it gave to DAVE, I just didn't like it enough to spend £8K on

 

[analogmusic]

interesting review. I can't somehow reconcile the reports that Blu2 makes Dave sound broken and your review?

 

[DaveRedRef-III]

So since trying out ferrites on analogue Cables which in my experience turned out to be a no no, I have found time to test digital connections with cheap cables.

I got used to the free cables from Chord first. These are 1m. The sound to my ears is thin but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing if a person is trying to balance bigger speakers than would be recommended for a given room size. These cables are passable for a free pair. What I did notice is a clear level of EMI/RFI had infiltrated the sound. This shows up in two ways 1) A high frequency frosting around 13khz and upwards. 2) if I can explain this visually, its like I am looking in a mirror at my face and the mirror is elastic so I put my finger in the middle of the mirror and my face distorts slightly. That’s how it sounds to me. It does not sound natural.

So I put a couple of ferrites on each end near Dave and one on the Blu II end. This darkened things fairly significantly and significantly reduced the high frequency frosting. The distortion seemed improved too. I removed the ferrite at the Blu II end and preferred it. I also went down to one ferrite at the Dave end and ‘just’ preferred that too, though it was merely a personal preference in my room. I could live with this for a while but in the end I would have to change to a better cable.

Enter a couple of £9 Cables via Amazon UK. These are 2m length.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002RM1FLW/ref=pe_1909131_77697001_tnp_email_TE_AMZLdp_1
Instantly without burn-in and with just one ferrite on the Dave end, they were warmer and even sounded louder for some reason, they delivered a far more natural (balanced) eq presentation. No noticeable emi/RFI that I could discern. Fairly big and natural dynamics and here was something I had not expected: They were far more relaxed and liquid. It was more music and less Hi-Fi. Great value imo and I think I could live with this sound much longer though eventually I know I would have to move back to my Chord Sarum not just because it sounds smoother and classier but because the CS has better control of bass frequencies. It’s not so loose or woolly but hey, some people who listen exclusively to Classical may prefer this warmer presentation. I have very eclectic tastes in music and I want the leaner and tighter bass control and cleaner overall presentation in order to make the most of some musical genres. All in all though, this cable is very good value imo and musical/emotional too.

Hope this is of interest to some.

EDIT: please note that these cables are not run-in yet and may still change. If they do I will report but they sounded very good straight out the box to be fair.

 

[marcmccalmont]

Well I just put Blu2 in my primary system and had a “Holy s..t Batman” experience. I had previously sorted out Dave with my Spectral Amps, I needed ferrites on the analog cables to make the amps happy. I also capped all unused digital inputs on Dave. I put engineered vibration isolation feet on both Blu2 and Dave. Pangea AC14 se II power cables and tried several bnc coax cables between Blu2 and Dave the best by a large margin (I did try the stock cables with 9 ferrites and several others) were the Clearer Audio silver line Optimus I then tried both usb and coax from my Aurender N10 and the Clearer Audio Optimus coax was a fair bit better than even the wireworld platinum starlight usb cable.
I have the following advice:
If your on a budget buy a Hugo2 by far the best DAC for the money on planet earth. If it is in your budget buy a Blu2/Dave and if you spend that much on Blu2/Dave spend the money on the Clearer Audio coax cables and the Pangea power cords.
Later I’ll try my MSB transport into Blu2 and sell my Spectral preamp!

 

[DaveRedRef-III]

To follow on, I forgot to say those 2m cables image very well and cast a pretty deep stage. I didn’t mean to imply they are not smooth btw. They are smooth.

 

[TheAttorney]

Well I just put Blu2 in my primary system and had a “Holy s..t Batman” experience. I had previously sorted out Dave with my Spectral Amps, I needed ferrites on the analog cables to make the amps happy. I also capped all unused digital inputs on Dave. I put engineered vibration isolation feet on both Blu2 and Dave. Pangea AC14 se II power cables and tried several bnc coax cables between Blu2 and Dave the best by a large margin (I did try the stock cables with 9 ferrites and several others) were the Clearer Audio silver line Optimus
.

Did you get your "Batman" moment with just the stock Blu2? Or after the cable and footer changes?

How long was the Silver Line Optimus? Clearer Audio start out failrly low for their 0.5M default length, but then charge proportinally more than most cable makers for additional lengths - especially for their TOTL silver cables.

On the Clearer Audio website, the only models with a BNC option are the much cheaper Copper Alpha, or the much more expensive Silver Reference. The Silver Optimus doesn't appear to have a BNC option

 

[TheAttorney]

So since trying out ferrites on analogue Cables which in my experience turned out to be a no no, I have found time to test digital connections with cheap cables.

I got used to the free cables from Chord first. These are 1m. The sound to my ears is thin but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing if a person is trying to balance bigger speakers than would be recommended for a given room size. These cables are passable for a free pair. What I did notice is a clear level of EMI/RFI had infiltrated the sound. This shows up in two ways 1) A high frequency frosting around 13khz and upwards. 2) if I can explain this visually, its like I am looking in a mirror at my face and the mirror is elastic so I put my finger in the middle of the mirror and my face distorts slightly. That’s how it sounds to me. It does not sound natural.

So I put a couple of ferrites on each end near Dave and one on the Blu II end. This darkened things fairly significantly and significantly reduced the high frequency frosting. The distortion seemed improved too. I removed the ferrite at the Blu II end and preferred it. I also went down to one ferrite at the Dave end and ‘just’ preferred that too, though it was merely a personal preference in my room. I could live with this for a while but in the end I would have to change to a better cable.

Enter a couple of £9 Cables via Amazon UK. These are 2m length.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B002RM1FLW/ref=pe_1909131_77697001_tnp_email_TE_AMZLdp_1
Instantly without burn-in and with just one ferrite on the Dave end, they were warmer and even sounded louder for some reason, they delivered a far more natural (balanced) eq presentation. No noticeable emi/RFI that I could discern. Fairly big and natural dynamics and here was something I had not expected: They were far more relaxed and liquid. It was more music and less Hi-Fi. Great value imo and I think I could live with this sound much longer though eventually I know I would have to move back to my Chord Sarum not just because it sounds smoother and classier but because the CS has better control of bass frequencies. It’s not so loose or woolly but hey, some people who listen exclusively to Classical may prefer this warmer presentation. I have very eclectic tastes in music and I want the leaner and tighter bass control and cleaner overall presentation in order to make the most of some musical genres. All in all though, this cable is very good value imo and musical/emotional too.

Hope this is of interest to some.

EDIT: please note that these cables are not run-in yet and may still change. If they do I will report but they sounded very good straight out the box to be fair.

Strange that you needed just 1 ferrite to get to your prefered sound, where others have gone up as high as 20!

 

[marcmccalmont]

Did you get your "Batman" moment with just the stock Blu2? Or after the cable and footer changes?

How long was the Silver Line Optimus? Clearer Audio start out failrly low for their 0.5M default length, but then charge proportinally more than most cable makers for additional lengths - especially for their TOTL silver cables.

On the Clearer Audio website, the only models with a BNC option are the much cheaper Copper Alpha, or the much more expensive Silver Reference. The Silver Optimus doesn't appear to have a BNC option

The holly S moment was first but I used the clearer audio coax first! .7 m length and they do have the option for bnc’s

 

[Whazzzup]

interesting i was told by the nordost rep for canada that preferred length is 3 ft not 1.5ft for usb, if this means anything. looked into valhalla but its hard to find and at over 3 g i say I'm good.