[Reactcore]

Yup, and that makes Chord seem like an “old” company, one that doesn’t evolve with the times. Most of Chord’s competitors have streamers and user upgradeable firmware, if not actual modular design where upgrades are easy to install. Chord unfortunately is resting on it’s laurels. The company needs to modernize. I love the sound quality. They are good at that. But they are stuck in the past when it comes to features. It’s unfortunate.

I actually like how it is.. Dave ..and my self designed scaler.. for me is a (almost) timeless piece of kit.

All fancy features i search in a player like high resolution screen roon or fast gui i want separately ..controlled with my phone/tablet.

Im using a oldschool thinclient pc running win7 embedded with also oldschool looking foobar2k. Stable as a rock and serves me well for many years.

 

[griff500]

Yup, and that makes Chord seem like an “old” company, one that doesn’t evolve with the times. Most of Chord’s competitors have streamers and user upgradeable firmware, if not actual modular design where upgrades are easy to install. Chord unfortunately is resting on it’s laurels. The company needs to modernize. I love the sound quality. They are good at that. But they are stuck in the past when it comes to features. It’s unfortunate.

To produce streamers they would need to turn into a software Company and dedicate resources to creating, updating and maintaining firmware and software. I think they are unlikely to do this after their previous attempt. There are plenty of streamers on the market that are very good (I’m quite happy with my Auralic Altair G2) and there are benefits to not having a one-box solution.

I don’t see this as them not evolving - they do what they do and it’s a testament to the design of the Dave that it still excels where it counts - sound quality. I’m not sure why it would need a firmware upgrade.

 

[alxw0w]

Or you could say they are staying true to their product and not jumping on the “me too” product roadma

Exactly that.
Not everything needs to be the same.

 

[LucyWu]

I can see there are some technical advantages to a combined streamer and dac if well engineered, but I have zero interest in such products because I have zero interest in streaming. I don't/won't do Roon, which seems increasingly the default software option. My needs are simple and my homebrew server and a great dac are all I need. Given the trials early adopters seem to have experienced with Chord's Poly/ToYu streaming kit I don't think that is really a good approach for Chord.

 

[griff500]

I can see there are some technical advantages to a combined streamer and dac if well engineered, but I have zero interest in such products because I have zero interest in streaming. I don't/won't do Roon, which seems increasingly the default software option. My needs are simple and my homebrew server and a great dac are all I need. Given the trials early adopters seem to have experienced with Chord's Poly/ToYu streaming kit I don't think that is really a good approach for Chord.

If you aren’t already a software company then it’s a big commitment to try and become one and it’s not something you can do in a half-arsed way, as I think they discovered with the example you mentioned.

 

[Jawed]

My current reference speakers in my large 6000+ sq ft room are the massive 105 dB efficient Klipsch La Scalas, a 200 pound refrigerator sized fully horn loaded system that can be comfortably driven by a two watt single-ended triode amplifier.

You tempted by OMA?:

https://oswaldsmillaudio.com/imperia

OMA makes amplifiers to match, too:

https://oswaldsmillaudio.com/special-k

 

[Arniesb]

We need somebody to measure the stock DAVE, the Farad3 Dave, and the Sean Jacobs DAVE, and then compare. We can then finally put to rest the SMPS vs LPS debate. One side claims the LPS are much better with lower distortion and then the other side (and Rob) claim SMPS has lower distortion. Who is right?

In past couple of years switched ps improved a lot. Mola mola, chinese dacs and many other dacs beat Dave in terms of power supply noise by a big margins these days.
This area definetely can use some improvements.
Maybe transient resonse of linear power supply is what makes a difference when comparing after market power supplies?

 

[Reactcore]

In past couple of years switched ps improved a lot. Mola mola, chinese dacs and many other dacs beat Dave in terms of power supply noise by a big margins these days.
This area definetely can use some improvements.
Maybe transient resonse of linear power supply is what makes a difference when comparing after market power supplies?

That maybe true for the smps module in Dave.. but the actual supply noise filtering is implemented after it on the main PCB which is well engineered.

 

[Arniesb]

That maybe true for the smps module in Dave.. but the actual supply noise filtering is implemented after it on the main PCB which is well engineered.

Still, you can see on measurements that Mola mola tambaqui dac is noticably better snr and while we cant probably hear all these super low thd+noise levels we can sure as hell can hear the noise.
Dont know if difference is noticable in real life, but improvement can be made in that regard.

 

[801evan]

Even Tambaqui isn't immuned despite measurements so really, measurements doesn't mean anything. Tambaqui still needs a lot of ipurifiers, like everything else.

 

[Ragnar-BY]

what about Holo May vs Dave?

Just try both. It's hard to predict which one you will like better. There are many people who thinks that DAVE is still superior and there are people who sold their DAVEs after listening to May.

 

[GuiltyRocker]

To produce streamers they would need to turn into a software Company and dedicate resources to creating, updating and maintaining firmware and software. I think they are unlikely to do this after their previous attempt. There are plenty of streamers on the market that are very good (I’m quite happy with my Auralic Altair G2) and there are benefits to not having a one-box solution.

I don’t see this as them not evolving - they do what they do and it’s a testament to the design of the Dave that it still excels where it counts - sound quality. I’m not sure why it would need a firmware upgrade.

Exactly, not really needed when so many other streamers are out there. Chord is cutting edge in other ways, like the Pulse Array tech and the WTA filters. The Mytek looks nice, but it's limited to the off the shelf Chips, not interested. To me it's not worth it at all.

 

[alxw0w]

Just a small note on the Dave vs May topic.
With all the impressions there should be word about if May was used as NOS or with external upsampling (like HQPlayer).

NOS sound is very very different to upsampled sound hence impressions could differ vastly from one person to other.

ps. not saying that one is better than the other, just keep in mind that there is a big difference when upsampling is used and choose your poison

 

[801evan]

Just a small note on the Dave vs May topic.
With all the impressions there should be word about if May was used as NOS or with external upsampling (like HQPlayer).

NOS sound is very very different to upsampled sound hence impressions could differ vastly from one person to other.

ps. not saying that one is better than the other, just keep in mind that there is a big difference when upsampling is used and choose your poison

So funny how Holo couldn't get the oversampling right so they just say NOS is better...but, you haven't really heard the May if you don't do HQPLAYER oversampling. ...and maybe over i2s on a HDMI cable that acts like an antenna and has no error correction. And how obsessed they are about bit perfect but will oversample it anyways.

 

[DJW50]

I must admit like the idea of each device doing what it's best at. I have my Auralic Aries G1 as my streamer, then my new DAVE (which I chose above the Mola Mola over a recent 3 day home test) then this goes into my Pathos Inpol Ear to my Utopia's.
I liike the fact I have in mind the upgrade for my Auralic later in time but the rest will be long term owners.