Farad super3 setup for the Chord Dave
After reading a lot on the forums about upgrading the LPS (linear power supply) of the Chord Dave and the results people are getting by adding a Paul Hynes or Sean Jacobs DC4 power supply, I was eager to get one on my own set. I already had a Farad Super3 on the Mscaler and because farad is also Dutch I contacted Mattijs the owner of Farad if he was interested in doing a project of making an affordable lps for the Dave. In the past he had this question often but I explained my own background as electronics engineer and willing to use my new Dave as test object and make some parts for the project. About around the same time he was asked to do a kind of similar lps for another DAC brand with a positive and negative power supply. So now two parties were asking him and having some ideas already in his head he agreed, notice!!! this was only approx 2 month ago.
After a brainstorming session he told me passionately about his ideas and what he thought should be on such a system for a high end DAC. Mattijs has some experience on audio design as being a founder of Pink Faun. The first key feature that was an absolute must was designing a true negative powersupply. So not pairing two positive supplies where the positive of one is attached to the negative of the other and so creating a minus when using a floating ground or rail as it is called. A true negative power supply is completely opposite build so eg. npn transistors, capacitors are the other way around - same with the diode bridge and the negative based regulators etc.. will not go into the details but the end result is a lps were all the common grounds can be attached to each other one does not have to be floating. So all rf noise can be killed at the source and not at the end of the chain. Also floating ground can be submitted to different loads from the upper and lower side voltages and this could cause a shifting or jittering ground level.
Secondly Mattijs and i are convinced that every DC voltage the Dave gets should have a separate casing and transformer so no cross contamination can occur and every lps is filtered on its own internally and externally eg. Powercord, casing, wiring etc.. Using farads stock components would also save a lot of development and testing time. These power supplies have proven themself in and out of the audio world. He designed his true negative supply in no time having the idea for a long time already, he only had to design a new pcb and had this made in his production facility in no time.
The third key feature we figured that it should have was a safety device for enabling the power to the Dave. Each voltage +-15V and +5V, three in total will come to the Dave in different timing. A -15 will start up in approx 7sec and the 5V in 1 sec. We don't know if the Dave can handle this and what happens if you are on holiday and one power supply fails and it will only get 2 out of three voltages.
The fourth but not the most un-important one, it should be affordable. I cannot give prices because they are not mine to give but you can do a little bit of the math yourself as we are using three stock farad power supplies if you add the one for the Mscaler 4 in total so thats approx 2400,- in VAT on 4 stock lps’s add the wiring and monitoring print and the aluminum inlet with plugs and maybe powercords you can guess were the basic version will start. On a later stage I will test upgrades such as fuses, rhodium inlets, but only after setting a baseline with the stock components. (While i am typing this i am listening to my ultimate playlist and are flabbergasted every few moments)
Using 4 Farad Super3 power supplies you will not have a big footprint, the supplies can be stacked or laid out flat next to each other. A lot of configurations are possible and as I have learned in this audio world everyone has a different approach on how they setup their gear and this way everybody can be happy. I have seen people building racks for just there farads.
So mattijs designed a monitoring print for inside of the Dave. The space was used were the original power supply was. This print will only pass through the three DC voltages simultaneously if all are present, a so called AND function in digital terms and a fail save if people would switch the lines. This way the dave is always safe, not a bad thing for a DAC that costs 11.400,- euro in the EU. He uses a microprocessor on this board that later on can be tweaked or reprogrammed if necessary. While mattijs was designing the lps i was doing some cnc work for the power inlet of the dave.
It still amazes me from two viewpoints how the stock $32 costing medical switched power supply of the dave still sounds so good and also that chord does not upgrade this by making a choral stand with an external power supply, how hard can it be? And people, the difference is not subtle it's huge - how much better the Dave gets by doing this i will almost call it Dave 2.
The advantage of above system is that customers pretty much can install this system themselves with a degree of safety that nothing can be blown up by doing something wrong or if/when components fail in the future. Everything can fail as we all know, the Chord as can be read on forums are also failing now and then and repaired by Chord, that's life when using electronics, crap happens. But this way it feels much better and to be honest the start up sequence is also pretty cool to watch. All separate lps’s LED start to blink red and when ready go over into a nice blue and after a fraction of a sec the dave comes alive (sorry thats my ocd kicking in).
Last week Mattijs called me that the monitor print was ready and tested. So he gave me a DIY kit of all separate components for me to install into the dave and test if it works. The first trail I do will be with stock farad super3 power supplies the only upgrade that is made are the dc lines - these are silver. The past has proven that these cables work the best between the super3 and Dave. For the power cords I had to go on Mattijs' experience and the feedback from his customers so i used TCS021 furutech cable this is slightly thinner version than the advised TCS031 version. I wanted to use one AC power connecter to 3 AC euro inlets this saves alot of space in the power block. The connectors used are also furutech and the gold versions around $30 a piece.
I soldered currently Daves own internally dc cord of its own power supply as the gold plated pins of the new connector are in back-order. I think in the future for my own setup will solder everything and will not use any connector but that's custom and not for now.
After testing everything without connected the dc to the Dave, it all worked in one go. Next I made everything fit and flipped the switch and after the startup sequence the Dave came nicely alive. I installed everything in my setup and the magic started.
I will repeat my first impressions I applied to Mattijs at 2 in the middle of the night “every instrument and voice has got its own space now, bass has much more texture and attack and depth and with vocals it is as if they are separate entities in front of you…” and than some words i will not repeat online, next notes I sent were “the fatigue that was always a bit there are just GONE the snares and trumpets tjeessss mattijs i am back to listening again bye”
This morning after listing for a few hours and thinking what to say about the change it makes out of the box and how to describe it best for now i think it's as if the sound and coloration of my gear/setup is vanished and just the music is left. Btw excuse me for my English i am not native English but Dutch and just typing as i am thinking. Our opinions above are also just mine and in my own setup. I owned almost all modern Chord dacs including all lps tweaks. In my setup i use an Aurender N10 as streamer a new Chord Dave and Mscaler connected with the high fidelity storm bnc cables. Amplifier is a Nelson Pass class A connected to the new Usher TD-10 speakers who are internally upgraded. I also have dedicated power on one phase from the powerbox just for my audio gear. As headset i use the Focal Utopia. In the upcoming week i will do some serious listening and will come back on my finding on this magical upgrade.
. We will compare them definitly would be awsome to do.
