[sm60]

there are certainly better options as a stand alone amp but few if any as a dac/amp combo..other than a handful of hard to drive HP's the dave will drive most HP's quite well

Sure, a Swiss Army knife can serve many purposes, and save you from carrying a bag of tools, but no serious handyman would earn his keep primarily with a Swiss Army knife. If you’re strapped for space or cash or want to use Dave on the road, I can see some logic for using it as a headphone amp or preamp. But if you’ve heard what a great headphone preamp or regular solid state or tube preamp can do, and in my experience, they blow the Dave out of the water, then it gets harder to live with the compromises built into Swiss Army knife solution.

 

[VladYR]

Sure, a Swiss Army knife can serve many purposes, and save you from carrying a bag of tools, but no serious handyman would earn his keep primarily with a Swiss Army knife. If you’re strapped for space or cash or want to use Dave on the road, I can see some logic for using it as a headphone amp or preamp. But if you’ve heard what a great headphone preamp or regular solid state or tube preamp can do, and in my experience, they blow the Dave out of the water, then it gets harder to live with the compromises built into Swiss Army knife solution.

I’m always willing to consider alternatives. Can you name a few just to get an idea of the direction you’re going with this?

 

[Slim1970]

there are certainly better options as a stand alone amp but few if any as a dac/amp combo..other than a handful of hard to drive HP's the dave will drive most HP's quite well

Agreed, the Dave's headphone output is one of the best singled ended output I've heard for easy to drive headphones.

 

[adrianm]

It works quite well with Meze Empyrean and that’s all that really matters to me at the moment. I’m not really looking to drive super power hungry headphones with it.

Same with my Z1R

 

[VladYR]

Same with my Z1R

I noticed you added that streamer into your signature. Did you decide to keep it? I did some testing with the devices I mentioned earlier. It was difficult to tell whether the Ansuz power switch did anything significant with the streaming side of things. I might try the Innuos variant at some point. It’s a bit smaller and pricier. There wasn’t much luck with testing out the Innuos server. I got one with the previous OS and when I tried updating it, the device basically got bricked. Hopefully tech support has a way to solve the problem some time this week so I can actually get a sense if this is a good fit for my system before I drop it off on Saturday. Naim Uniti Core was easy to integrate with the Selekt as a source but it worked terribly as a NAS like device. Maybe it’s due to the fact that it had an old fashioned HDD instead of an SSD but the Linn app kept refreshing like mad. There was no way to scroll through nearly 1000 albums. It might work better with a BNC connection but I’m not too sure that the streamer can accept and output this way at the same time. I might just use my router and an SSD as a source. It certainly works without a flaw and doesn’t cost me any additional money.

 

[OrenT]

Many years ago "we" had a dealer (not audio products) whose website was scraped and recreated, including an ecomm workflow.

You had to look carefully to see the URLs and redirects. They too offered products at crazy prices.

If they offered pricing at closer-to-reality pricing, you would think the scam would be more successful, but that is not the customer they are targeting.

They don't even need to send you a packet of seeds, they just want your info to sell. That is likely their actual product.

What i find crazy is the amount of effort someone put in to create such a comprehensive website. So many categories. So many products. So professional looking.
Even the email responces are professionaly written.
What if it isn't a scam? Ha! That would be something. But i'm not gonna spend 6k just to find out.

 

[adrianm]

I noticed you added that streamer into your signature. Did you decide to keep it? I did some testing with the devices I mentioned earlier. It was difficult to tell whether the Ansuz power switch did anything significant with the streaming side of things. I might try the Innuos variant at some point. It’s a bit smaller and pricier. There wasn’t much luck with testing out the Innuos server. I got one with the previous OS and when I tried updating it, the device basically got bricked. Hopefully tech support has a way to solve the problem some time this week so I can actually get a sense if this is a good fit for my system before I drop it off on Saturday. Naim Uniti Core was easy to integrate with the Selekt as a source but it worked terribly as a NAS like device. Maybe it’s due to the fact that it had an old fashioned HDD instead of an SSD but the Linn app kept refreshing like mad. There was no way to scroll through nearly 1000 albums. It might work better with a BNC connection but I’m not too sure that the streamer can accept and output this way at the same time. I might just use my router and an SSD as a source. It certainly works without a flaw and doesn’t cost me any additional money.

Yes, i've kept it, it adds a lot of extra clarity to the image and a wider soundstage, Coax continues to sound better than Optical by some margin. Added the Isotek Aquarius as well this past week, an even more dramatic upgrade (from Sirius).
I've also auditioned a Stellia over the weekend, still find it's not even close to the Z1R.

 

[VladYR]

Yes, i've kept it, it adds a lot of extra clarity to the image and a wider soundstage, Coax continues to sound better than Optical by some margin. Added the Isotek Aquarius as well this past week, an even more dramatic upgrade (from Sirius).
I've also auditioned a Stellia over the weekend, still find it's not even close to the Z1R.

How would you describe the Stellia with your current chain? Is it worth buying? I’m thinking of getting a better closed back headphones since the only ones I kept are Sony Mdr-z7. They work fine but I want something better than that.

 

[adrianm]

How would you describe the Stellia with your current chain? Is it worth buying? I’m thinking of getting a better closed back headphones since the only ones I kept are Sony Mdr-z7. They work fine but I want something better than that.

This is my second time testing it. Impressions remain the same. I feel like the lower midrange is cleaner than the Z1R, due do less emphasized bass. And that's about all that i found better on the Stellia. Or if you like a more neutral sound.
The image was smaller (Like Z1R out of a Hugo 2) , not as deep or as wide. Separation was also not as good. Everything was more cluttered. I also didn't like the tonality very much, and it's not because one is "dark" and the other one is "neutral", because i loved the Utopias tonality. It just didn't seem as coherent from my pov. It was also less comfortable and creaked horribly, but it was a showroom headphone.
I'd definitely give another listen to the Z1R with your current chain, i feel like it's incredibly transparent, every cable change is obvious. But if you do, don't judge it on the stock or Sony Kimber cable, get a pure silver one.
The only other thing i'd look right now is the Stealth, but it's too early to jump on that train from my pov. Been waiting for metamaterial headphones since Kef announced their speakers.

 

[VladYR]

This is my second time testing it. Impressions remain the same. I feel like the lower midrange is cleaner than the Z1R, due do less emphasized bass. And that's about all that i found better on the Stellia. Or if you like a more neutral sound.
The image was smaller (Like Z1R out of a Hugo 2) , not as deep or as wide. Separation was also not as good. Everything was more cluttered. I also didn't like the tonality very much, and it's not because one is "dark" and the other one is "neutral", because i loved the Utopias tonality. It just didn't seem as coherent from my pov. It was also less comfortable and creaked horribly, but it was a showroom headphone.
I'd definitely give another listen to the Z1R with your current chain, i feel like it's incredibly transparent, every cable change is obvious. But if you do, don't judge it on the stock or Sony Kimber cable, get a pure silver one.
The only other thing i'd look right now is the Stealth, but it's too early to jump on that train from my pov. Been waiting for metamaterial headphones since Kef announced their speakers.

I’ll give it a try some time in September or whenever the dealer gets it from Focal. What I’m looking for is something that’s closed back but doesn’t feel claustrophobic with the Dave. It might take some time to find with all these shipping delays and COVID having quite the comeback here in the states.

Today I had to arrange to ship my Selekt back to Scotland for service. The downside to having exceptional hearing is that I can hear the power supply across the room when the dealer had to be up close. Hopefully that will get sorted out sooner than the projected 4 weeks. In the meantime I have been doing some more testing with the Uniti Core going straight to the M Scaler through BNC. Sound is quite satisfying in contrast to the much more expensive NDX2 that I’ve had before. It would make a nice source for someone without a streamer. I suppose it would likely integrate better into an all Naim ecosystem rather than Linn but that all could change with an SSD being swapped for the old fashioned drive inside.

 

[adrianm]

Sound is quite satisfying in contrast to the much more expensive NDX2 that I’ve had before

Didn't like the NDX2 either. Much prefer the Mind 2.

What I’m looking for is something that’s closed back but doesn’t feel claustrophobic with the Dave.

Same, tried lcd-4z as well, found it had a narrower soundstage than Z1R as well, plus i just love the dynamic driver slam. I haven't found more "air" in a closed back (well semi-open) so far. Why not try the new DCA Stealth? surely you've heard about it already. Or wait for the Abyss closed backs.

 

[VladYR]

Didn't like the NDX2 either. Much prefer the Mind 2.

Same, tried lcd-4z as well, found it had a narrower soundstage than Z1R as well, plus i just love the dynamic driver slam. I haven't found more "air" in a closed back (well semi-open) so far. Why not try the new DCA Stealth? surely you've heard about it already. Or wait for the Abyss closed backs.

NDX2 is great if that’s all you’re listening to. There are just a bunch of feature trade offs between it and Selekt or similarly loaded streamers. It’s nice that it has a server feature but it lacks usb b or hdmi arc ports. It’s single ended while the Selekt has both balanced and single ended connections, not to mention room for all sorts of expansions. And then there’s the Naim power supply that’s not exactly silent if its not far from where you’re sleeping . It’s fine across the room but when I don’t run the ac at night after the summer is over I tend to hear every little sound and it just drives me nuts.

‘’I’ve seen the posts about the Stealth. Tempting as it may be, I’m not looking to spend another 4000 on headphones. What I am kind of tempted by is Microsoft Surface Studio. It’s slightly dated tech at this point so I might wait and see if they release a new one any time soon.

 

[jlbrach]

Agreed, the Dave's headphone output is one of the best singled ended output I've heard for easy to drive headphones.

exactly, if you are listening to a utopia or lcd-4z or the new solitaire p the chord dave amp is pristine...if on the other hand you intend to use a susvara or a abyss TC it aint....

 

[DJJEZ]

@Currawong DAVE review is finally up!

 

[iDesign]

Currawong seems to have seen the revelation that is the Focal Utopia+Chord DAVE+M Scaler. In my opinion its the best combination of performance at any price. Its just outstanding. I owned a black Schiit Yggdrasil A2 and it wasn't in the same league as the DAVE even when used with top amplifier offerings like the my old Eddie Current Balancing Act, Black Widow 2, or Simaudio MOON 430HAD. Its not worth comparing the two and I think highly of Mike Moffat's work at the $2,449 price point.