[srkbear]

The DAVE is a separate component...

The DAVE is an integrated DAC/preamp/amplifier, and I bought a pure DAC coupled with a separate amplifier. I really want to let this go—I never should have posted this here.

 

[srkbear]

Lets not turn this into the Utopia thread.

Yesterday was not my best in terms of choices. I’m taking a break to reboot, examine my part in things and consider a different approach for the future.

 

[adrianm]

Well that’s pretty condescending I’d say. I know I asked for it, but I am actually capable of making my own independent ideas, and I’ve owned many DACs, including the DAVE. My purpose is to combat pervasive pressures to spend excesses of money in lieu of less costly but equally fine alternatives, but since this is the Chord DAVE forum, I’ll take it elsewhere. Peace…

I share the same opinion on the M-scaler FWIW, which is why I recently sold it. I also have no problem selling Dave and getting some money back, but I don't have the time or the energy to keep chasing every new flavor of the month component.
If the Gustard, or whatever else will blow Dave away (even at a higher price) , I'm sure it will become a staple, just like like Dave has, or the Mojo at its price point. Until then, it's just noise. I lost so much time on this forums already, that I could've easily gotten a Rossini and called it a day if I used that time to work.
I also have no problem with off the shelf chips if they do actually get to be as good, but I'm extremely skeptical about this.
The Weiss Dac 501 looks to be well received, so who knows, that time might be coming, but there is still a significant delta in price between it and the Gustards.

 

[griff500]

Where did I mention ASR? Your statement seems more aligned with faith-based positions and absolute certainty, in lieu of being open to other ideas. But I accept that my choice of forums was in retrospect misguided, and out of respect for current DAVE owners I apologize. Hopefully we can consider more mutually-respectful conversations elsewhere.

I do not think you need to apologise for expressing an opinion. It's probably not an opinion that will be met with much interest in a DAVE thread though and whenever I see someone with a Topping I immediately seem to assume that they have spent a bit of time on ASR...

I think it's hard to beat the DAVE for what it is and I wouldn't want a collection of boxes to try and achieve the same thing.

 

[SteveHulk]

The DAVE is an integrated DAC/preamp/amplifier, and I bought a pure DAC coupled with a separate amplifier. I really want to let this go—I never should have posted this here.

My apologies. I only ever use the DAVE in its "DAC mode" so I think of it as a pure DAC. In my defence, your original posting that started this small flame war did seem aimed specifically at the DAVE's performance as a DAC rather than as an integrated component.

 

[srkbear]

My apologies. I only ever use the DAVE in its "DAC mode" so I think of it as a pure DAC. In my defence, your original posting that started this small flame war did seem aimed specifically at the DAVE's performance as a DAC rather than as an integrated component.

I do not think you need to apologise for expressing an opinion. It's probably not an opinion that will be met with much interest in a DAVE thread though and whenever I see someone with a Topping I immediately seem to assume that they have spent a bit of time on ASR...

I think it's hard to beat the DAVE for what it is and I wouldn't want a collection of boxes to try and achieve the same thing.

I’m learning a lot from my original posting :/

 

[Clive101]

Hello All...
I need some help please.
I wish to connect my DAVE via the RCA output into the balanced input on a GSX Mk2 (to use the full power of the GSX 6 watts)....
Question can I use any RCA to XLR adaptor or cable will it be terminated correctly or cause any damage ?
Will this cable work ? https://www.scvdistribution.co.uk/product/benchmark-xlrm-to-rca-pin-3-floating-cable-each
Thank you in advance.

PS I am all ready using the XLR output on the DAVE

 

[Slim1970]

Hello All...
I need some help please.
I wish to connect my DAVE via the RCA output into the balanced input on a GSX Mk2 (to use the full power of the GSX 6 watts)....
Question can I use any RCA to XLR adaptor or cable will it be terminated correctly or cause any damage ?
Will this cable work ? https://www.scvdistribution.co.uk/product/benchmark-xlrm-to-rca-pin-3-floating-cable-each
Thank you in advance.

PS I am all ready using the XLR output on the DAVE

Something like this is a lot safer:

https://www.moon-audio.com/moon-audio-rca-xlr-adapters.html

You need the RCA to male XLR adapters to connect to back of the GS-X MK2. Great amp by the way!

 

[adrianm]

I’m learning a lot from my original posting :/

I've been burned at the stake more than once for saying the M-scaler is ..problematic (had it and sold it), streamers are not worth it (have one, selling it, getting another one), cables don't matter, later that some cables do matter, power quality matters, you just can't win on the internet
I know it comes from good intentions and trying to save people money so I apologize if I came across as aggressive, but it's a lost cause, trust me. People like what they like.
I still find Dave...special. Add in HQplayer or PGGB (I imagine, I haven't gotten around to it) and solo Dave, or even mDave sounds bad in comparison. I doubt even the Weiss 501 can beat that combo, and there's no such option there.
Upscaling makes a huge difference in my experience, but I just can't wait to see what the new Choral M-scaler will do to warrant it's huge price tag.
In a way, inadvertently, Rob has democratized TOTL sound quality with his long tap filter approach, because it can be achieved via software, not just specialized hardware like DCS and others with their external clocks. And his old arguments that you can't do it on 4 cores are no longer valid. My Cpu has 20 cores, and my gpu 10k+ cuda cores. The hardware is there, the software needs to catch up.
Call this me eating humble pie over HQplayer but after setting it up correctly, I much prefer it to the M-scaler. Granted, the filters I like might be WTA rip-offs, but c'est la vie.
So great sound is getting cheaper and cheaper, which is great, but there are still improvements to be had and someone has to keep paying to push the boundaries. And some have to keep feeding the snakes
Either way, can't wait for the next best thing, be it from Chord, or someone else.

 

[Progisus]

You know... I pushed the HQPlayer a couple years ago and sold my first mscaler. I enjoyed HQPlayer (still do to play PGGB files) but I got another mscaler as it is just so darn practical. Turn it on and forget it, period. No loss of handshake, computer freezes and the WTA filter which to this date is the benchmark. If DSD is your thing then HQPlayer will be as well but DSD is a bad word in the Chord world. Up to and including the TT2 it gets decimated and treated like pcm. Not sure about the Dave. One caveat, bnc cables such as Wave from @Triode User are a must or some other form of rfi mitigation.

 

[ubs28]

I thought the Mscaler sounded bad. I prefer the Chord Dave standalone. There was some brightness with the Mscaler that annoyed me. Or perhaps my unit was defective?

Maybe the Mscaler + Dave is better on spec sheets, but I didn’t like it to be honest.

I played with some software upscalers, but it is just too much tweaking rather than listening. I still don’t know which settings are “reference” so to say.

 

[adrianm]

You know... I pushed the HQPlayer a couple years ago and sold my first mscaler. I enjoyed HQPlayer (still do to play PGGB files) but I got another mscaler as it is just so darn practical. Turn it on and forget it, period. No loss of handshake, computer freezes and the WTA filter which to this date is the benchmark. If DSD is your thing then HQPlayer will be as well but DSD is a bad word in the Chord world. Up to and including the TT2 it gets decimated and treated like pcm. Not sure about the Dave. One caveat, bnc cables such as Wave from @Triode User are a must or some other form of rfi mitigation.

I've never tried DSD, but not a fan of overly smooth sound signatures. For me HQP makes sense since I use headphones while using my gaming pc. No issues with it besides Chord's USB drivers, hopefully the SRC-DX will bypass those.
I'm also not ruling out getting the Choral M-scaler provided it actually does turn out to be considerably better, but I'm skeptical of the value proposition. For the price I'm expecting, I'd rather get a Weiss and play around with both. I'd also not tolerate the same RF bomb issue in need of fixing.

 

[srkbear]

I've been burned at the stake more than once for saying the M-scaler is ..problematic (had it and sold it), streamers are not worth it (have one, selling it, getting another one), cables don't matter, later that some cables do matter, power quality matters, you just can't win on the internet
I know it comes from good intentions and trying to save people money so I apologize if I came across as aggressive, but it's a lost cause, trust me. People like what they like.
I still find Dave...special. Add in HQplayer or PGGB (I imagine, I haven't gotten around to it) and solo Dave, or even mDave sounds bad in comparison. I doubt even the Weiss 501 can beat that combo, and there's no such option there.
Upscaling makes a huge difference in my experience, but I just can't wait to see what the new Choral M-scaler will do to warrant it's huge price tag.
In a way, inadvertently, Rob has democratized TOTL sound quality with his long tap filter approach, because it can be achieved via software, not just specialized hardware like DCS and others with their external clocks. And his old arguments that you can't do it on 4 cores are no longer valid. My Cpu has 20 cores, and my gpu 10k+ cuda cores. The hardware is there, the software needs to catch up.
Call this me eating humble pie over HQplayer but after setting it up correctly, I much prefer it to the M-scaler. Granted, the filters I like might be WTA rip-offs, but c'est la vie.
So great sound is getting cheaper and cheaper, which is great, but there are still improvements to be had and someone has to keep paying to push the boundaries. And some have to keep feeding the snakes
Either way, can't wait for the next best thing, be it from Chord, or someone else.

Thank you for saying this. I do have good intentions and I am truly here to have fun sharing and learning my hobby with others—but I have to be more mindful of my audience when posting. Lots of folks are understandably proud of their investment in the DAVE, and I wouldn’t like being told that I had an obsolete setup after spending $15,000+ on my own gear either.

In my case with my DAVE, I got frustrated with not being able to take advantage of balanced outputs after buying Focal Utopias, and I also wanted an amp with an analogue bass boost. So I decided to sell my Dave and start over, and my first investment was in the iFi Pro iCAN Signature. With its tube stage, xBass and 3D Hologram functions, along with the DSPs I had available through Roon, I felt that I has covered all the soundstage, warmth, and tonality enhancements I needed, so I went in search of a DAC that would offer the most faithful reproduction of the original master possible—and that’s where measurements became a concern for me. So I went with the Topping D90se, and I’ve been very happy.

I don’t think measurements tell the whole story, and they’re of no use with preamps, amps or headphones. I only turn to them for the degree to which the DAC element of the signal chain performs its job—to convert a bunch of ones and zeros into a faithful reproduction of the original master, with the least quantization error, noise and distortion. The DAVE is far from being a “pure” DAC; it’s a preamp, amplifier, upscaler, DSP—it does it all, and exceptionally. There’s really nothing else like it, and I used it proudly for years. I was really just ready for something different, not better—and if I had chosen to post here at all, I should have made that clear.

Live and learn. Thanks for offering me a chance to correct my mistakes. I’ll get out of the way of this forum now and seek other venues on topic

 

[adrianm]

I thought the Mscaler sounded bad. I prefer the Chord Dave standalone. There was some brightness with the Mscaler that annoyed me. Or perhaps my unit was defective?

Maybe the Mscaler + Dave is better on spec sheets, but I didn’t like it to be honest.

I played with some software upscalers, but it is just too much tweaking rather than listening. I still don’t know which settings are “reference” so to say.

I've struggled with the "reference" part myself and was a bit overwhelmed at first. I think there are pros and cons for different filter types. I'm sticking with this for now :

The brightness is why I've always hated the M-scaler. Plus the various fixes needed.

 

[jlbrach]

If your signature is up to date then you apparently used to own a DAVE but you now use a Topping D90. Seriously?

unless he needed to raise cash which I understand, kind of silly..it seems recently we have had several people like this who monopolize the discussion making all sorts of attacks and repeating them over and over...I really hope this isnt a new trend