[Jawed]

In the WTA 2 section is the HF filter implemented as a distinct set of coefficients for the WTA 2 filter, such that there are two sets of WTA coefficients, one without HF filtering and one with? Or is that block showing WTA 2 followed by a user-activated HF filter?

Presumably implementing the HF filter in WTA 2 would sound better?

How does DAVE do an instantaneous switch between HF off and HF on? It seems this would be more difficult if the HF filter was integrated into WTA 2.

 

[Rob Watts]

It's done with two banks of noise shaped coefficients - and there isn't a problem in switching the HF filter on or off, as it merely synchronously switches the banks in and out.

 

[maxh22]

As a Labor Day gift to myself, I bought an inexpensive linear tracking Technics turntable for $500 on Audiogon just to see if I wanted to get back into vinyl. Huge mistake! The sheer musicality of this little elegant device shocked me. Well, one thing led to another and now I have got back into vinyl in a serious way. Got a far better turntable and phono stage and a high end cartridge. Almost all my listening these days is vinyl. My Dave and Blu Mk2 give me guilty looks from their now relegated positions on my equipment stands. I’m reminded of the scene from Toy Story.

Bottom line: for listening to music recorded in the 1950s-1970s, from jazz to folk to rock to classical, I find vinyl far more pleasurable sonically than Qobuz streamed bits decoded by M-Scaler/Dave. I’ll continue to use Dave for listening to new high Rez recordings, but that forms a small part of what I like to listen to.

Coltrane, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Ben Webster, Milt Jackson, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Sarah Vaughan, and countless other jazz and popular music recorded in the 1950s-1960s sounds beautiful on vinyl, but excruciatingly bad on digital to my ears. I don’t know why, but I don’t care to. If this is the music you like to listen to, vinyl is it as far as I’m concerned.

Newly recorded classical music is of course only possible to listen to via streaming and Dave, so that’s what I’ll continue to use here.

I find I’m much happier with vinyl back in my house. I have discovered the joys of listening to mono recordings. The Beatles and Bob Dylan hated the horribly made stereo versions of their great albums. Hearing these on mono vinyl makes you understand why. These sound fabulous in original mono, not reprocessed stereo (Dylan’s voice and guitar and harmonica stay together in mono, not arbitrarily separated in fake stereo).

Obviously this is a personal choice. YMMV, as they say!

Interesting post, for what it's worth I noticed little old Mojo sounds great with older recordings, its sound signature is sometimes even preferable to Dave. I recently added a couple Furutech NCF Clear Line's and noticed even poorer recordings are much more listenable and engaging, the quality of the power in a system definitely has an effect. Vinyl has many pleasant distortions that can make up for these deficiencies but at the end of the day as long as you're enjoying the music that's what it's all about. Hopefully, many older recordings get re-digitized as technology improves.

 

[alxw0w]

So lets back to talk about music, shall we ?
To all lovers of beautiful voice and contrabass type of music I strongly strongly recommend this album:
Musica Nuda - Live a FIP

Stunning music, particularly track: Io sono meta
But the whole album is just marvelous.

 

[endless402]

what volume setting would allow for a 5V output at the XLR? and what volume would be 5V at the RCA?
my amp has a max input value of 5V

 

[adrianm]

Having just spent a week with solo Dave i have to say i forgot how amazing it is on its own. Could blissfully live with this.

 

[Crazeenick]

Sorry if this has been asked before.

I have a Chord DAVE without MScaler (I tried an MScaler but sold it as I personally didn't feel it added much). My source is an Innuos Zen Mk3 - with stored music library of CD-quality FLAC files and I also use TIDAL Hi-Fi streaming service via the Innuos Zen. The Zen feeds the DAVE via a high quality Chord Sarum-T USB cable. I am unclear as to whether the DAVE DAC is able to handle the MQA files which TIDAL HiFi streams.

TIDAL have recently changed their service such that they now have two different levels of HiFi service - a basic HiFi service (FLACs at CD quality) and a HiFi PLUS service providing hi-res and MQA files. Having a Chord DAVE, I am unclear as to whether I will benefit from the TIDAL HiFi PLUS service with hi-res and MQA files? Or should I stick with the basic HiFi service with CD-level quality?

 

[DJJEZ]

Sorry if this has been asked before.

I have a Chord DAVE without MScaler (I tried an MScaler but sold it as I personally didn't feel it added much). My source is an Innuos Zen Mk3 - with stored music library of CD-quality FLAC files and I also use TIDAL Hi-Fi streaming service via the Innuos Zen. I am unclear as to whether the DAVE DAC is able to handle the MQA files which TIDAL HiFi streams.

TIDAL have recently changed their service such that they now have two different levels of HiFi service - a basic HiFi service (FLACs at CD quality) and a HiFi PLUS service providing hi-res and MQA files. Having a Chord DAVE, I am unclear as to whether I will benefit from the TIDAL HiFi PLUS service with hi-res and MQA files? Or should I stick with the basic HiFi service with CD-level quality?

Stick with TIDAL HIFI. Chord dacs don't do MQA

 

[Drewligarchy]

TIDAL have recently changed their service such that they now have two different levels of HiFi service - a basic HiFi service (FLACs at CD quality) and a HiFi PLUS service providing hi-res and MQA files. Having a Chord DAVE, I am unclear as to whether I will benefit from the TIDAL HiFi PLUS service with hi-res and MQA files? Or should I stick with the basic HiFi service with CD-level quality?

Or consider Qobuz which is high-res, but non-MQA. I think all thing being equal, high-res files are better sounding than MQA.

 

[VladYR]

Sorry if this has been asked before.

I have a Chord DAVE without MScaler (I tried an MScaler but sold it as I personally didn't feel it added much). My source is an Innuos Zen Mk3 - with stored music library of CD-quality FLAC files and I also use TIDAL Hi-Fi streaming service via the Innuos Zen. The Zen feeds the DAVE via a high quality Chord Sarum-T USB cable. I am unclear as to whether the DAVE DAC is able to handle the MQA files which TIDAL HiFi streams.

TIDAL have recently changed their service such that they now have two different levels of HiFi service - a basic HiFi service (FLACs at CD quality) and a HiFi PLUS service providing hi-res and MQA files. Having a Chord DAVE, I am unclear as to whether I will benefit from the TIDAL HiFi PLUS service with hi-res and MQA files? Or should I stick with the basic HiFi service with CD-level quality?

MQA is a demonstrably lossy format. You’re better off using Qobuz or any other streaming service that offers at least cd quality content. Tidal has been running a scam for a while now.

 

[Ciggavelli]

MQA is a demonstrably lossy format. You’re better off using Qobuz or any other streaming service that offers at least cd quality content. Tidal has been running a scam for a while now.

The problem is Tidal has a better library. I prefer Qobuz, for the above mentioned reasons, but they don’t have all artists I listen to. So, I gotta have both.

 

[iDesign]

The problem is Tidal has a better library. I prefer Qobuz, for the above mentioned reasons, but they don’t have all artists I listen to. So, I gotta have both.

I eventually dropped TIDAL once they began retroactively replacing albums with MQA formatted versions. Despite having a slightly smaller selection, Qobuz is far superior.

 

[Ciggavelli]

I eventually dropped TIDAL once they began retroactively replacing albums with MQA formatted versions. Despite having a slightly smaller selection, Qobuz is far superior.

 

[MatW]

The problem is Tidal has a better library. I prefer Qobuz, for the above mentioned reasons, but they don’t have all artists I listen to. So, I gotta have both.

Same here. I prefer to use Qobuz and the library has been growing. Tidal is my backup. I don't care for MQA, because albums with MQA are usually available on Qobuz as well. When my Tidal subscription runs out I will downgrade to hifi only.

 

[Drewligarchy]

The problem is Tidal has a better library. I prefer Qobuz, for the above mentioned reasons, but they don’t have all artists I listen to. So, I gotta have both.

Cig - I know we don't listen to the same type of music, but Qobuz's catalog has gotten much better in the past year. I had both for a while, but then everything I listened to was on Qobuz. That said, obviously it's going to be largely dependent on genre.

What I really like about Qobuz is the sublime membership, which allows you to buy high-res albums at deep discounts. I like owning my favorite albums locally, so this makes it best for me - as I can buy what I want through Qobuz if an album peaks my interest.