Looking at it from that perspective I'm so happy Dave has been always too bright and to fatiguing for me, especially for longer headphone listening sessions. I simply prefer HTT2 signature more. For better performance I went outside of Chord environment. You know, there is still world out there besides and after DaveYes its better in all aspects. Hard to imagine went from qutest to tt2 then added mscaler and thought this is it! Wrong some ass demo’d me a dave…. Try it and let me now. Never fall for that trick. It never left my room after that.
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CHORD ELECTRONICS DAVE
- Thread starter magiccabbage
- Start date
If it's too "Bright" it's most likely the M-scaler and no power conditioning. I can't stand the M-scaler off battery and optical and it's the main reason I'd consider replacing Dave. I really hope the next M-scaler fixes the RF problem and maybe even adds a streamer.Looking at it from that perspective I'm so happy Dave has been always too bright and to fatiguing for me, especially for longer headphone listening sessions. I simply prefer HTT2 signature more. For better performance I went outside of Chord environment. You know, there is still world out there besides and after Dave![]()
The general consensus is that "better", not just different , would be the Rossini. And that's like 5 times the price i paid for Dave currently. So I can't knock on Dave too much, as much as i hate the wires and boxes. I'm also pretty sure that would be overkill for a headphone setup, but who knows.
Where did you find "better performance" ?
Is it worth it to upgrade Hugo TT2 to Dave right now, considering Dave is already 7 year old ?
Sounds just as good as 7 years agoIs it worth it to upgrade Hugo TT2 to Dave right now, considering Dave is already 7 year old ?

MvRBE10
Member of the Trade: Farad Power Supplies
I think yes because the upgrade part will be in the scaler not the dave at this time. Because its possible to upgrade power supply and scaler part that is what makes the dave so good. If it was a one box solution there would be dave 3.0 by now due to internal upgrades. Or just because to deliver something new. Cash cow model. This is now sort of devided in three parts. Dac/lps/scaler. I love itIs it worth it to upgrade Hugo TT2 to Dave right now, considering Dave is already 7 year old ?
MvRBE10
Member of the Trade: Farad Power Supplies
Want to explore all if it in time… thats the fun
Reactcore
Headphoneus Supremus
I just knew it.. and skipped TT2. Straight to Dave it was.. but after i checked with Rob if he wasnt working on its successorMany people went that way![]()
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sm60
100+ Head-Fier
Couldn’t agree more wholeheartedly. As I’m typing this, I’m listening to the Dave through a pair of Sennheiser 800S headphones to a marvelous DSD recording of chamber music (see below pic). Heard through my Lampi DAC on my Quad 2905 electrostatics with Audio Research Reference tube electronics, this recording is simply sublime, it is enthralling, it sounds magisterial with life sized images of Jon Manasse’s clarinet and Jon Nakamatsu’s piano. The recording goes from soft to loud really quickly, climaxes are thunderous. On the Dave/Sennheiser 800S, everything is miniaturized. The tone becomes significantly more brittle. Dynamics are compressed. It’s a pale shadow of the sound I hear on the Lampi DAC through my large 5” tall Quads. Some of this is because headphones intrinsically miniaturize the soundstage and compress dynamics, but not all of it. Essentially why people on this forum go to great lengths buying Sean Williams very expensive LPS for the Dave is precisely because the Dave on its own sounds quite wimpy. Someone previously said the power supply on the Dave is a $25 part, I’m not sure how accurate that is. But clearly Dave is built to a price point and parts quality has been economized, not least in the all important power supply. So, I agree, there’s a huge world out there beyond Dave, but only you can decide if it’s worth pursuing that. I’m keeping my Dave to serve as a quasi portable desktop DAC, where it fits the bill nicely. But in my high end system, it’s completely outclassed by other admittedly more expensive DACs.Looking at it from that perspective I'm so happy Dave has been always too bright and to fatiguing for me, especially for longer headphone listening sessions. I simply prefer HTT2 signature more. For better performance I went outside of Chord environment. You know, there is still world out there besides and after Dave![]()

MvRBE10
Member of the Trade: Farad Power Supplies
Same , went from Mojo straight to Dave after listening to everything in between in one sitting.I just knew it.. and skipped TT2. Straight to Dave it was.. but after i checked with Rob if he wasnt working on its successor
A more apt comparison would be using Dave with the Quads, not the 800s, which are..mid tier at best.Couldn’t agree more wholeheartedly. As I’m typing this, I’m listening to the Dave through a pair of Sennheiser 800S headphones to a marvelous DSD recording of chamber music (see below pic). Heard through my Lampi DAC on my Quad 2905 electrostatics with Audio Research Reference tube electronics, this recording is simply sublime, it is enthralling, it sounds magisterial with life sized images of Jon Manasse’s clarinet and Jon Nakamatsu’s piano. The recording goes from soft to loud really quickly, climaxes are thunderous. On the Dave/Sennheiser 800S, everything is miniaturized. The tone becomes significantly more brittle. Dynamics are compressed. It’s a pale shadow of the sound I hear on the Lampi DAC through my large 5” tall Quads. Some of this is because headphones intrinsically miniaturize the soundstage and compress dynamics, but not all of it. Essentially why people on this forum go to great lengths buying Sean Williams very expensive LPS for the Dave is precisely because the Dave on its own sounds quite wimpy. Someone previously said the power supply on the Dave is a $25 part, I’m not sure how accurate that is. But clearly Dave is built to a price point and parts quality has been economized, not least in the all important power supply. So, I agree, there’s a huge world out there beyond Dave, but only you can decide if it’s worth pursuing that. I’m keeping my Dave to serve as a quasi portable desktop DAC, where it fits the bill nicely. But in my high end system, it’s completely outclassed by other admittedly more expensive DACs.
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chesebert
18 Years An Extra-Hardcore Head-Fi'er
- Joined
- May 17, 2004
- Posts
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Are you saying Chord just stuck an off the shelf power supply unit in their $10k+ dac?its exactly 32,- dollars you van find it exact number on ali express![]()
MarkusBarkus
Head-Fier
...I recall it was about 14 bucks...retail.
MvRBE10
Member of the Trade: Farad Power Supplies
Yes they did it is a stock medical switched power supply that does sort of its job and they found it sufficiant for there application i guess after some testing…. Amazing considering the difference after adding some good linear power setups on the dave. I imagine you stick to the direction taken once decided and preach it until death. But in the real world everybody that actualy did the upgrade if its jc or farad or whatever are each and every one flabbergasted about the improvement. What makes you wonder what the designer would think after all these years… aaahh well who cares it can be improved so we do and enjoy…Are you saying Chord just stuck an off the shelf power supply unit in their $10k+ dac?
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MvRBE10
Member of the Trade: Farad Power Supplies
Figure out when you call them in india and want to order 2000 pieces. I did some production in china but that number of 14,- will be more in the 5,- sphere...I recall it was about 14 bucks...retail.

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